Ok, to start off I usually work mornings. I used to be a closer before covid and I know closing is extremely rough. Especially when we are short handed. I close twice a week so the closing shifts can have a day off.

So last night I was closing with another Shift Lead that was currently on her lunch when this event happened. Leaving me with only three people on the floor including myself. A Shift Lead, who I’ll call Hannah, that usually closes comes in with flowers and a card for our boss, he had to put his dog down and he was a mess because of it, and tells everyone to come sign the card.

Suddenly I am the only person on the floor. No one is making drinks, no one is taking orders, and I’m just standing there trying to do it all alone. Barista 1 sees that he left me alone and comes back to help and I wait a good 10 minutes for Barista 2 to come back until I see him just sitting down chatting with Hannah. I ask him if he’s on lunch, he says no, and when Hannah asks me why I’m getting upset I said I was wondering why he was just sitting there for an eternity when I have a line at the window.

Barista 2 asks if he can go on lunch and since the person who was on lunch was almost back, and he was already going to sit there anyway, I said sure go on lunch. Next think I know, I have my Shift Partner for the night come up to me and this is where I lost my cool and might be the jerk. She tells me that Hannah told her to relieve me so I can sign the card.

For one, if you are not working you don’t get to tell my team what to do. Secondly, you certainly don’t get to tell me what to do either. I had a plan in motion to get us all out on time and everything done, and Hannah waltzed in and took all the partners off the floor to sign a card that she was going to leave there overnight for our boss to find in the morning. It wasn’t important, at least not important enough to stop all tasks. So, I go over there, call her out on her distracting my team and causing everything to stop and she had the audacity to tell me that it was MY poor communication that lead to all this.

Excuse me? I told her that had I done this to her on her shift she would have been mad. She claimed she wouldn’t have, and that I was in the wrong for telling people to get back to work. Hannah insisted that I was in the wrong and that I needed to get over it. Once I saw she wasn’t going to see anything other than her own opinion I just shut up. I’m a angry crier, so I didn’t continue arguing with her because I was going to start crying if I did. She took my silence as me admitting she was right and I told her that was not the case. Her card could have waited. It wasn’t important.

Then she had the audacity to say I could help pay for the flowers. Um. No. Had you asked me before you bought them I would have pitched in a few bucks. Showing up and expecting me to pay? Not happening.

So, was in over reacting to Hannah coming in and doing this? Or was I right to call her out on her behavior?