Pizza place tricked teen into working 6 am shifts every weekend. His 'petty revenge' shut the place down

Teenagers are always looking into neighborhood pizza joints and city plazas to drum up some pocket money. Reddit user u/Drafixo was doing the same when they were welcomed into a Canadian pizzeria. The owners promised some "kitchen" work, and the teenager (along with a friend) got started. Little did they know that the "college kids" in management would try to assert dominance — and fail miserably. Sharing the story in a Reddit post from December 16, the author recounted this tale of "petty revenge" from their childhood days.

When u/Drafixo was 15, they were working at a popular pizza joint in Canada. "It was run and managed by a couple of college kids who thought they were big stuff running a pizza joint," they wrote. The author was accustomed to working weeknights, as they thoroughly enjoyed their free time on weekends to pursue teenage hobbies. One day, however, a supervisor stepped up and asked them to fill in for one single weekend — which they begrudgingly obliged to. "I said fine, I'd learn, but I don't want to do it every weekend. I was a kid," they wrote. The dough-making process was a "nonstop 6 hours" activity, and if it didn't turn out perfect and fresh, that day's business was done for. "On occasion you could use day old dough in a pinch but it did not hold up and the pizza typically came out very flat," they shared.

As promised, they showed up at 6 a.m., but one weekend turned into two, then four, and on it went until one day, the author had had enough. When they went up to the boss, "She laughed. Said too bad. They all thought it was hilarious, the group of them. All servers in their 20's, we were the joke of the pizza joint. They knew we needed jobs and wouldn't quit," they wrote, but fate was about to turn their day around. As the author received a call from their parents about a new job opening at another store, they planned their most fun morning yet.

On the upcoming Saturday morning, the author showed up and "drank chocolate milk and hung out in the booths of the restaurant, twirling my thumbs." When their boss arrived, the 15-year-old was standing straight, apron and nametag in hand, announcing, "I quit." The boss only laughed and said, "Whatever, we were going to fire you anyway." She mockingly wondered aloud why they had even bothered to come in, and how it would've been a better power tactic to stay home and leave them without any dough for the day. That's when the realization kicked in. "I laughed and said, 'Nah, I hung out all morning and made no dough, so you still need to pay me for my shift. Later.' The look on her face was gold," they wrote. The author even got their friend, Scott, involved, so the pizzeria faced the same issue the very next day, leaving management in a tight bind. 

According to LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence survey encompassing 6,400 U.S. employees, conducted from June to July 2024, researchers found 69% of workers would leave their job if they had a bad manager. It also found that Millennials and Gen Z are most likely to uphold this "need," polling highest at 77% and 75% respectively. This corresponds with data from almost 10 years ago, when a Gallup survey showed that 50% of employees quit in order to escape a bad boss.

Soon after the Reddit post went viral, many users shared their thoughts. u/delulu4drama wrote, "Here's my apron. Might want to put that on. Kneading LOTS of dough is in your future. BYE." u/Red-Salute- commented, "Hats off, dude. Also, looks like your petty ex-boss already downvoted this, so I'll vote it back up."

More on Scoop Upworthy

Overworked employee took a day off — and his boss found out the hard way that he was irreplaceable

Gas station shuts down function as overworked employee steps out for a two week vacation

Overworked employee quits without providing backup for his shift, teaching employers a lesson