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This One Time, At Band Camp…
I found work as a teenager at a wing and burger joint as a
dishwasher. The job wasn’t overly difficult, as I just washed the
dishes and helped very little with prep. I didn’t work with the food
or the customers and I only had to make sure that things were ready
for the night before and the next day after my shifts.
I was a member of my high school marching band (yes a band geek) and
time came for our yearly band camp. We had camp for a week, from 8-5
every day. I informed my boss three weeks, then two weeks, then a
week, then the weekend before camp that I would not be at work until
a few minutes after five, if I was scheduled at five. My school and
my job were only about five minutes apart, so they understood and
said that as long as I got there asap, there was no problem.
I was only working three or four nights that week anyway, and they
never said anything about my few minutes of time.
I came in that Friday for my shift and was called into the office,
not by my boss, the manager, but by the head cook who was acting as
the assistant manager. He told me that the manager wasn’t happy that
I’d been showing up late all week and that if I showed up late that
day, that they were firing me. I specifically told him again that I’d
informed everyone that I’d be there as soon as I could but couldn’t
get out of band practice before 5pm, and that they’d known for
several weeks that this was the case, and that no one had said
anything all week about it. He told me that he was only doing what he
was told and that I wasn’t welcome there.
I said fine, but I wanted the pack of cigarettes that my brother had
dropped off for me. He told me that my brother hadn’t dropped any off
and that the brand new pack sitting on the desk wasn’t mine, but his.
Bastard stole my cigarettes too.
That restaurant didn’t last very much longer. When they fired me, I
told them I would happily tell everyone I knew not to eat there. I
like to think I helped keep customers away.
17 Comments to This One Time, At Band Camp…
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As a fellow band geek myself and a music major in university, I’d like to point out it’s very bad to smoke if you’re a musician and need to use your lungs (assuming you’re a brass or a wind player in the band and not a percussionist).
What the hell were you doing smoking in high school? It is illegal in my state.
I hope you were of legal age to smoke!
You shouldn’t smoke. It’s gross.
Oh, whatever on the smoking. I smoked in high school. I don’t know why, but in the 90s, no one ever carded me, Go figure.
At any rate, I normally don’t agree with people posting these types of stories and usually jump on the “it’s not your bosses responsibility to cover your shift” camp, but this time I have to make an exception. You told them SEVERAL times about this well in advance. And we are not talking about a shift, but 5 FREAKIN’ MINUTES. Good on you for standing up for yourself.
Yet another “I’m-so-great-and-valuable-so-the-company-fell-apart-and-imploded-because-of-me” stories.
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It sounds like the head cook, acting as an assistant manager, was having an ego trip that night. You should have gone in the next time the main manager was there to discuss it. Possibly, the main manager didn’t know a thing and it was all the head cook’s doing.
But, please… Do not think for one second that you helped to keep the customers away which lead to their demise. It is highly unlikely. Maybe you helped to keep a few customers away, but not enough to cause the restaurant to close. Besides, how happy can a person be knowing that they contributed to a business to close, causing many people to lose their jobs? Just because you disliked what the head cook did is no reason to try and jeopardize the jobs of MANY others there.
“I like to think I helped keep customers away…” Trust me, a whole 2 people isn’t going to hurt the books.
It occurs to me that they could have scheduled you to come in at 5:30 and avoided this whole mess. Was that ever an option?
The moral of this story is not to take away an underage addict’s cigarettes or they will bad mouth you till they die.
I had almost the same thing happen with a head cook acting like manager and being a total ass. After my job was threatened I told him if I lose my job I will tell the cops he tried to molest me needless to say I kept my job.
Why couldn’t you have left band camp a few minutes earlier to be at work on time? And could you prove that those were your cigarettes?
And I’m assuming that you’re no longer a teen and that you’re at least mid-20′s. Let it go….
Oh yeah, I wanted to ask….
While at work on your shift, how do you get things ready for the night before? Do you guys have a time machine?
@stupid….STFU! Having plenty of advance warning and having said it was ok, OP didn’t need to leave camp early!! I’m sure most other ppl in the band had jobs also and they didn’t leave early!! And who gives a $h!t about the cigs? Not the point of the story. And quit being some damn particular on here…It seems you’re just trying to make yourself feel better about yourself/job by pointing out other ppl’s mistakes on here…ALL THE TIME! GET OVER YOURSELF!!
emilyG.. You sound like such a little sweetheart. Why do you let me get you so worked up? I’m nobody to you or to anyone else on here. Don’t let what I write bother you. You don’t have to read it. So, calm down and try to relax a little. The sun will rise tomorrow, rest assured. I just asked him (not you) a couple of questions. By the way, s/he was the one who first brought up the cigarettes…not me.
I don’t think Band Camp lets people leave early–if a few people start sneaking off for work, eventually, there’d be no band for practice, right?
@MassiveHerp — the OP said nothing about being a particularly valued or fabulous employee, just that he hoped he contributed a little to the demise of the restaurant.
Good thing they stole your cigarettes. They’ll kill you. And they stink.