Worked at a chain restaurant when I was at uni. The kitchen was understaffed so the Assistant Manager decided to "help." This fella is a typical know-it-all who is tops Assistant Manager material. Mid 40's, no family or ambition, overweight (he's always first to molest the returned dishes), and looks like a greased pig greased him.

To the story and the reason for my being "let go": We're understaffed and he's "helping" the cooks. Needless to say, service was slow and the food was rarely done right. I had at least 5 returned TABLES (about 15 dishes) in the span of an hour. He's livid. He goes out to the diners and asks why they don't like the food. Typical (and fair) responses: "It's burnt." "It's raw." "I wanted it medium rare and this is well done." His face is blood-moon red. He verbally chastises me in front of my customers. I'm barely an adult, and this cunt is 3 cheeseburgers from a coronary. Classy. He points in my face and screams, "If you bring back another dish, you're fired." He huffed back to the kitchen.

I told the people their food would be free and went back to the Assistant Manager. I asked him for his discount card for a birthday promo. He begrudgingly gave it to me, but, a birthday is sacred and must be honoured, amirite?! I wiped every tab down to a single order of soda (I didn't have authority to fully clear the cheques), and gave the tables their bill, then explained the situation to them. Most were forgiving, a few were nasty about it. I returned the card to the manager and told him another table wanted to speak with him about his outburst. I was fired, and he refused to leave the kitchen to deal with his mess.

Never worked in a restaurant again.