Strap in, this is a longish one.
My dad has been the general manager at his pizzaria for a few years. He has a workplace rivalry with another manager, a man we'll call Jim.
Now, Jim has Problems. He's been battling leukemia for 10 years, he has chronic joint pains, he's an alcoholic, and he's addicted to narcotics. So, and excuse my language, he's slowly become more and more of a Cunt over time.
When my dad was first hired as a delivery driver, he walked in on Jim having an affair with another driver. Nothing Super Scandelous, he was just resting his hand on her thigh as they were talking. My dad had a tendency to not think abt the things he says, and so he offhandedly mentioned it to the owner, their boss.
You can imagine that this PR fiasco triggered a businessman panic. Jim and the driver were fired pretty much immediately, but they were eventually hired back on.
Ever since dad got promoted to general manager, Jim has been on the warpath. The boss's mom in Iran is dying, so he takes frequent trips over to be with her and help in the death care and preparations, and leaves dad Fully in charge as an extension of himself. Whenever the boss is overseas, Jim activates. It started small, with general defiance and attitude, whenever dad asked him to do things. But eventually, it got worse.
Jim, altho a manager, enjoys doing waitstaff activities because he makes bank in tips. So he's often the one running the floor. One day, dad decided to check on and help a table as he was making his rounds, taking a break from the office. And that's when the pattern started.
Whenever he sees dad at one of His tables, Jim will waltz over and yell at dad for "messing with his tables", undermining him in front of the customer. At first, dad was chill. He obliged, and then pulled Jim aside to be like, "If you have something to say to me, never say it in front of the customer. It's embarrassing." Dad reported it to the boss and continued. The boss reprimanded Jim as soon as he got back, and things were mostly back to how they were.
The exact same scenario happened once more sometime later and went about the same way. But the other day, it was a new level. A woman flags down dad, and says how the waiter brought out everybody else's salads and her dressing, so she assumed he forgot her salad and she'd like to eat it alongside her friends. Dad gets her salad and hands it to her when Jim appears.
"Don't mess with my tables! Her salad was coming out with her sandwich!" Jim grabbed hold of the plate in the woman's hands and began trying to pull it away. The customer was in shock and disbelief as she firmly held on to her plate. Eventually, she let go. Dad calmly took the plate back and walked away, getting to hear the woman tell Jim, in a timid and still shocked voice, "Um, actually, I asked him to get that for me."
Dad now refuses to help Jim with anything or clean up after him. He's gonna play the stupid game, he's gonna win the stupid prize of his job being 10x harder.
We're currently waiting for the boss's trip to be over so he and dad can have a Real conversation about Jim's abhorrent behavior and his future at the restaurants.