AITAH for feeling like i (32m) was unfairly fired? my manager (34f) disagrees
i’m in my mid 30’s and worked at qdoba for two years, which is basically a chipotle…
i know for a fact some of the managers do not like me, and yesterday i was abruptly fired due to ongoing conflict with both the general manager and her assistant… and they unjustly fired me,
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I work on grill and on prep, and the month before I was fired, I was told that I need to be more consistent. I had a bad day where I ran out of multiple things during lunch rush, and I was just going through a lot. I was given a final warning.
In the write-up i was told that my manager “doesn’t expect to see perfection, but i do expect to see effort”, but a few days ago i was told by the assistant manager that i can never run out of anything when on grill, and i asked her if i have to be perfect on grill, and she said “yes”.
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the following day we three had a meeting; myself, the gm and the assistant and i brought up this point in the write-up where it said perfection isn’t expected, but effort is… and the gm said she was referring to things like keeping the station clean, and labels, things like that can be overlooked, but that i cannot run out of everything…
this feels like changing the meaning of the original write-up quote, becuase my writeup two months ago was all about me running out of things, so it would logically follow when it says “i don’t expect perfection, but i do expect to see effort”, that it would clearly imply that it’s okay if i’m not always 100% never running out of everything…
my manager then went on to say “we know your capabilities… for a few weeks you were doing well… i never run out of anything when i’m on grill, and (assistant gm) doesn’t either… so this will be the expectation going forward”
and she went onto say how most stores grill starts at 8am, but that she allows us to come in an hour early at 7am to begin grill, and how “you don’t know how much of an advantage that is”, and “if i wanted to fire you, i wouldn’t have given you advice on how to be better on grill with cooking all the rices in the morning”
… and then a couple hours later, here’s the situation: i had a half portion of pork on the line, which isn’t enough if anyone were to order it.. .but i have two full portions on the online order line, and maybe 10 minutes later i made a new batch of carnitas for the line…
my manager noticed this, and fired me… she even said that i wouldn’t have been fired if i brought the carnitas from the online order line over to the front line… which makes no sense… i never ran out of anything.
she seemed very unfair to me, and i texted the gm after i was fired and she said that i don’t take accountability, and how i’m twisting the situation to fit my narrative.
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if you see the examples i gave where they had issues…
— just having someone mix some rice for me, which takes 30 seconds…
— on a day where i had 3 caterings to prepare for in the morning, and my manager having to mix two rices while i prepared everything else like the chicken, steak, fajitas, beans… on top of my normal prep for the store
— my second-to-last day, i just ran out of steak for a couple minutes on the online order side, but i had enough on the line and a couple minutes later i had steak ready for the online side
— my last day i ran out of carnitas for about 10 minutes before it was ready, and the online order side had two full portions… and my asst manager said i would NOT have been fired if i just brought that carnitas over to the line, which is ridiculous… i never ran out of anything since there was some on the Online side
this feels like an unjust termination to me, but i truly don’t know… i feel like i’m being gaslit and unfairly targeted… managers said that’s not the case, and how they don’t like firing people… how they’re being lenient with me… i feel like they fired me for not being perfect.
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and again, in my write up a couple months ago i was told by my manager, “i don’t expect to see perfection, but i do expect to see effort”, and this clearly was pertaining to me not running out of food, since the entire writeup was about that…. meaning it’s okay that if i run out of food here and there, reasonable expectations ya know..
but then it suddenly changed the week i was fired, and that they DO demand perfection as far as never running out of food, and that the write-up was talking about they don’t expect me to always keep my station clean at all times, which was total bs and changing the initial meaning of my write-up to back up my stupid assistant manager who told me i have to be perfect.
yet one day before i was fired, the assistant manager told me i can’t run out of anything, and so i asked her “do i have to be perfect?”, and she said “yes”… and one day later both managers wanted to have a chat with me privately, and the GM said that what she meant by “not expecting perfection” was relating to other things such as keeping the station clean, printing labels etc… which was totally her backpedaling and covering for the Assistant Manager who wrongfully said that i have to be perfect.
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and the assistant manager telling me on the day i was fired, that if i would’ve brought the carnitas from the online order line to the front line then i wouldn’t have been fired, which makes zero damn sense.
and the 19 year old assistant manger really didn’t help her care case when she told me that is stricter towards me than others and holds me to a higher standard, which conveys unfair treatment… and she also told me that she expects me to be perfect.
other guys who worked on grill with believed i was unfairly treated to, because they would never get reprimanded for running out of things on grill.
and even further, at nights these 16 year old dipshits work on grill and i know for a fact the assistant manager girl isn’t strict AT ALL with these guys, i know she never writes them up when they are behind and run out of things… yet she’s admitted to being strict with me compared to others and expecting perfection.
i feel like i was absolutely unfairly fired and set-up to fail by giving me unrealistic standards of perfection… who’s at fault here?
tl;dr it feels so obvious to me that i was unfairly fired, both my managers disagree.
