Bakery owner forces experienced staff to double pastry order overnight, watches decision backfire in real time

A cafe owner asked the store supervisor to double their pastry order overnight without a real reason. The worker (u/lorgskyegon), who knew it could lead to consequences, tried explaining to the owner, but nothing could convince her. In the end, the employee followed her instructions and watched the owner massively regret her decision. They shared the story on Reddit on October 27, 2025.

The author was the supervisor and also in charge of the bakery section of the cafe. After working for years, they had developed a good understanding of the business. Whenever they had a holiday sales day, the next day would make nearly half of their usual business. So the supervisor started ordering less than their typical order after every big event. It was the day after Mother's Day, and the owner, who rarely visited the cafe, surprised them. "She owned five locations, four of which were in the same city. Ours was the outlier, in a smaller location about two hours away. She spent almost all of her time at the four locations and maybe visited us once a month," the worker said.

Almost everybody except the assistant manager hated the owner, they added. The owner noticed the bakery case was somewhat low and questioned the supervisor about it. When the individual explained the valid reason, the owner didn't understand and ordered them to double their normal order instead. The author had been working in the cafe for four years and was good at their job. "Even the manager told me that things were always better when I was there. I always stayed late to cover call-ins, I often came in on my day off if they needed me," the worker wrote. So, they didn't expect to be doubted on their judgement. They knew the stock wouldn't sell out, but the supervisor thought she knew better.

The worker told the owner that doubling the order could lead to a lot of food waste, but she didn't listen. In an exclusive interview with Scoop Upworthy, u/lorgskyegon said, "I was sure that we would be wasting a lot of product and money. I didn’t know where things would go from there." The manager also tried explaining to her, but nothing worked, so they decided to follow her instructions. After two weeks, the owner noticed food wastage and emailed the worker asking the reason. "I really wanted to write something along the lines of an 'I told you so,' but waited until my manager was there so we could go through my response together," they told Scoop. The employee informed her of the reason, but the owner, instead of owning up to her mistakes, blamed them.

"My boss says she wanted to fire me. My boss convinced her that she needed me to help run the store (which she probably did)," they wrote. The owner didn't fire the worker, but they lost their position as a bakery lead. For some time, they enjoyed working less and earning the same amount of money, but then the manager quit and the business crashed. "I didn’t want to stay without her. She did her absolute best to make the place good for all of us," they told Scoop. "I started looking for a new job even though I hated changing jobs. So did a number of others. Everyone was loyal to the manager; nobody to the owner. I took a supervisor job at a nearby restaurant and never looked back," the worker wrote in the post.

The loss could have been prevented if the owner had trusted the worker and their decision. This is a classic example of how things go downhill when owners or the seniors don't trust other people at work. A survey by Slack found that more than 1 in 4 desk workers feel they aren't trusted at work. Now, this is the situation even when the survey has confirmed that trust boost, both experience and performance. In fact, employees who feel trusted at work report 2.1x better focus, 2x higher productivity, and 4.3x greater overall satisfaction with work.

Reflecting on the experience, u/lorgskyegon told Scoop, "The owner didn’t know anything about my location and she really should have listened more to me and the manager." Meanwhile, reacting to the story, u/formlesswendigo commented, "The owner told you to do something. They wanted to fire you for doing that. It sounds like they wanted to get rid of you from the start." u/madkins007 added, "I have had SOOO MANY bosses give bad orders then get mad at staff for doing it. Classic sign of poor managerial skills."

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