Here is a true story from the late fall of 2003. It’s the story about how I walked out on the job, never to return. No, I didn’t just quit and give a two-week notice like a good employee. I actually literally WALKED OUT in the middle of my shift without saying goodbye!

I was working at one of the many Olive Garden chains common in the United States as a host. My main assignment was to bring the customers to their seats, keep the lines from getting too long when there was a wait, and serve refreshments to people in the lobby who were waiting for a table. For those who are in the dark, the Olive Garden specializes in “authentic” Italian dishes like Chicken Primavera, Spaghetti Bolognese and breadsticks. It’s pretends to be a higher level restaurant chain but the true quality of it’s food can be deduced by the high number of customers who complain. You’d be surprised.

My story began one Friday morning. At the time I was finishing my (what turned out to be useless) bachelors’ degree in Psychology. I was scheduled to work a double shift at the Olive Garden, one in the mid afternoon until about 2pm, and another that would begin at 6pm. In between these shifts I had a very important test in one of my classes that was worth about 20% of my grade. Never mind that I had requested twice to have that evening off. They completely ignored me.

My afternoon shift was not going well. I was getting blamed by the management for not seating people quickly enough and for not keeping the lobby clean. Of course, they didn’t take into account that I was one of only two hosts at the time and it would be physically impossible for me to be in five places at the same time. But, this is a common problem of many middle-managers at restaurant chains: they lack any intelligence and common sense. Plus, my managers were downright mean. I’ve found this to be the penultimate nasty combination in humanity: stupidity mixed with power.

Anyway, as it approached 2pm (my class was at 3pm and I had a 30 minute commute, including parking at the university and walking) I reminded my manager that I needed to get to class. She essentially told me to get to the front and wait my turn and I’d be let go. 2pm came. No guests had come into the restaurant in almost an hour. Soon it was almost 2:15, and I was running out of time. Finally she came to the front…. and let the OTHER host go! I just stared incredulously at her. She was actually going to make me stay until at least 2:45 or 3 when the dinner shift started to take over.

As she walked away, I assessed the situation. I knew (as dumb and nasty as she was) that I would never get out of there until 3pm. I was going to miss my test and have to make it up (only receiving like 50% credit at best.) My only chance was to run for it. How important was this job to me anyway? A silly part-time job that would mean nothing once I graduated in six months. I could always pick something else up to make the small amount of cash I needed to live on at the time.

So, I walked into the kitchen, completely deserting my post. I grabbed a few of the prized breadsticks the Olive Garden is so famous for, ate them in front of all the customers in the main dining room, and walked out, never to return.

They never called me, and I never said anything to them. I was just gone.

The story has a very happy ending. I ended up getting a great grade on my test, got a good night’s sleep that evening, and had a wonderful weekend.

The End

The moral of the story is: don’t be afraid to walk out on your job if you are miserable. I’m still alive, 4 years later. I made it work. You can too.