Photo via @dirtdawg420/TikTok
December 23, 2021, 11:09 am*
A worker in a restaurant kitchen apparently reached the very end of his rope on the job one day, judging by a hugely viral video on TikTok showing an utterly trashed area with food and dishes strewn all over the floor as other workers step over the carnage.
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According to a Mr. “Dirtdawg420,” the kitchen expo, who acts as a liaison between the cooks and the wait staff to ensure everything flows efficiently (short for “food expediter), was getting some harassment from said cooks and apparently snapped.
“So my expo lost his mind and threw every plate at us cooks and went out with a bang!!” he wrote.
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The video, which has now been viewed over 11.4 million times, shows workers stepping over or on food, plates, and bakeware on the floor, one man sliding on a sheet pan before recovering as the OP calls the whole thing “crazy” and asks his coworkers if they’re “done.”
According to the TikTok user’s responses to some of the video’s many comments, the expo was a 50-something-year-old man, significantly younger than the rest of the staff, and the cooks had been giving him a hard time all night during a difficult rush. However, the OP also accused the expo of being a “pos” (presumably a “piece of s–t”) even on slow days.
A lot of commenters wondered where management was in all of this, and the TikTok user said in one comment that they were helping, but in another comment said that they need to help more when things get bad. Working in a restaurant kitchen is well known to be one of the higher intensity jobs in the service industry, often causing high levels of stress during rush times.
Either way, OP agreed with pretty much everyone who said that workers need to be paid and appreciated more.
This video can be added to the long and still growing list of social media posts about someone quitting their job in a rather dramatic fashion after being pushed to the breaking point, either by poor working conditions or terrible bosses. This phenomenon, dubbed the “Great Resignation,” is part of a seemingly exploding new labor movement in the U.S. after so many months of working in a pandemic for some while others got a taste of freedom with enhanced unemployment checks.
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A recent report states that one in four people living in the U.S. in 2021 quit at least one of their jobs, and a whole 65 percent of the people surveyed said they were looking for a new job. Success stories from people who quit and found better work with higher pay as well as widespread rejection of the idea that there’s some kind of virtue in staying at an awful job where you’re mistreated seems to be fueling this trend. Over on Reddit, the forum “Antiwork” exploded in popularity this year as young people began to discover their worth and realize they could demand better for themselves.
Comments on this mega-viral TikTok video appear to reflect these sentiments.
“People will never understand unless you have worked in the food Industry,” wrote one user. “Don’t judge if you haven’t been in this situation. I feel his pain.”
“This what happen when management doesn’t care if you need an extra hand when ur extra stressed at work,” said another. “Sometimes it’s not the workers fault.”
The OP said in another comment that the kitchen staff walked out for a long cigarette break after that and the servers cleaned up the kitchen so everybody could get back to work. Truly, none of them are getting paid enough for this.
*First Published: December 23, 2021, 11:08 am
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