r/dishwashers • u/Real_WiFi_Paladin • 4d ago
What are your dish washer horror stories?
It's close to halloween, so I got curious. What kinds of horror stories do you guys got? And not like horror as in a slasher film horror, I mean creepy moments you experienced, tales from being a dishwasher that you still remember till this day, things customers did (nothing too bad, obviously), things like that. Did your boss get drunk and almost fire the whole kitchen crew? Things like that.
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u/Manyarethestrange 4d ago
Last valentines day i was putting back an arm load of about 14 or 15 dinner plates. My hands were still damp and they slipped as I was placing them on the others. I learned a long time ago not to try to catch falling dishes so I just stepped back and let them fall. Its an open kitchen and plates sit on a shelf facing the dining room.
They crashed through a display of lit candles, shattering loads of wax build up that the restuarant apparently keeps around for apperence, shattering all over the floor. Broken ceramic was in almost every inch of FOH. It was brutal. I got a round of applause from the guests though.. possibly the only reason I wasnt chewed out for it.
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u/Loubbe 4d ago
At Zio's my manager scheduled two of us on slow days and always cut my backup, then only had me in the pit from thursday to saturday. This lazy piece of shit would come in to "check on me" every fifteen minutes past close while I was back there fighting for my goddamn life. We had pans in a massive pile in front of the dish counter.
His excuse? Training a new cook. Like that has shit to do with the dish schedule.
Fuck you, Zack. I hope your wife got full custody.
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u/Real_WiFi_Paladin 4d ago
Yeah, that ain't training. If it's a busier place even on slow days, you should be working with a more experienced dishwasher who can teach you and help you. The restaurant I work at isn't quite that busy and we are kind of small compared to other restaurants, so it's usually a cook and waitress/bartender on slower days and a separate waitress and bartender for the busier days, then the dishwasher comes in later in the shift around the busier hours. But we are able to train our employees without an accompanying employee of the same occupation cause we aren't that busy.
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u/Loubbe 4d ago
Oh I wasnt training. I'd already been a dishie for ten years and had my shit down, probably one of the reasons he kept doing that was I really wasnt acting my wage. Dude was just an incompetent manager who would rather let production suffer to save on a couple labor hours.
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u/Acrobatic-Quality-55 4d ago
I had a massive pit and a single 3 layer black trolly. I would play perfect tetris so i coild do one big run to the line to restock. The scariest part was there was a drunk cook who would freak out and hold a chainsaw to my throat with one hand and yank said small black cart with the other and suddenly we lost 1500$ worth of ceramics.
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u/m00mie 4d ago
We were almost out of liquid dish soap for the machine, noticed on a friday evening. Someone was supposed to buy more on Saturday but forgot. We noticed in the evening and knew we had to make do with rest because shops are closed on Sundays in my country. So we knew we had to survive one of the busiest days of the year with the little, watered-down rest we had.
I love the place but I don't understand why they don't buy that stuff in bulk.
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u/Not_Neville 3d ago
I live in the US - Arizona - and I'm not sure why we don't buy that stuff in bulk either.
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u/BraveAsp Gloved Guru 3d ago
The pipes froze on what was the busiest day of the week, which would’ve been painful enough, but it was ALSO on the last open day before Christmas……not creepy, but definitely scary, now every year when it starts getting colder I worry about it happening again ðŸ˜
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u/MyLollipopJam 3d ago
Broken coffee cup in the sink. I got probably an inch long sliver of porcelain under my index finger nail. I had to pull it out with pliers.
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u/Real_WiFi_Paladin 3d ago
Makes me cringe just thinking about it! I had a bit of a fork get stabbed undermeath my fingernails, luckily not much, and it hurt and was very annoying throughout the shift cause water would keep touching it and the nerves there are sensitive, so it's not exactly pleasant. I could only imagine how much worse a inch long piece of porcelain would make the pain, especially to keep washing dishes. 😬
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u/Educational-Double-1 3d ago
The dishwashing machine broke during a rush hour. Had to wash everything by hands.
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u/Old_Fart_on_pogie 1d ago
Had someone step off the smoking balcony on valentines day. Our restaurant was on the 25th floor.
Less disturbing, but more horror, we got a new manager who’s only experience is working office cubical farms. Spent two years trying to run things as if we could just shut down the computer at 16:00 and go home, then pick up where we left off the next morning at 08:00 sharp.
(Also refused to listen to the experience of people working here longer than they’ve been an adult.
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4d ago
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u/Real_WiFi_Paladin 4d ago
Holy crap! I would never even dream of such a thing, let alone working that late!
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u/muchmustard 4d ago
Worked at a college in dish pit while finishing up my undergrad. Tuesday evening dinner rush I'm scraping plates and look around and realize I'm the only one back there. Everyone had clocked out and apparently I was the only scheduled closer. Tried to look for help but there was no one to be found. Had to scrape, load, and unload by myself. Someone comes to check on me hours later when a complaint is made that the carousel is too full for anymore dishes. Finally got home late that night and when I took my socks off one of them was just soaked in blood. Guess I had gotten a blister from walking back and forth. Somehow I managed to work there for 2 years. That came to a screeching hault when one of my supervisors started calling me drunk late at night and management refused to give me health insurance even though I was working full time hours. Only job I ever left with no notice.
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u/Master_Quit5435 16h ago
broken dishwasher on bank holiday weekend luckily i had help from front of house on drying and putting away utensils and plates
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u/sp00ky_d00ky 4d ago
sani machine broken over friday, saturday and sunday and only having one sink (screams of terror). Unfortunately I haven't had any genuinely creepy moments so this is all I've got.