Roller Rink Boss Constantly Berated The Staff, So On The Busiest Night They All Quit

There’s nothing quite like quitting a horrible job or a disrespectful boss in a fit of righteous rage.

The downside comes afterward, when you realize you no longer have a job – but if you’re a teenager, that’s really not much of a problem in the grand scheme of things.

OP was a rink rat and loved it.

I was a rink rat growing up. The only day I wasn’t in the skating rink were the adult and gay nights (calm down, it was the 90’s and that’s literally what it was called).

Friday night, Saturday morning and night along with Sunday morning and night I was there. I didn’t even leave between the morning and night sessions.

I even went Tuesday nights as well! I was serious too. I dove deep into speed skating and not trying to toot my own horn but I was pretty good and well known.

So when the owner offered him a job, it was a no-brainer.

Anyway, I’d been going to this specific skating rink for years and knew EVERYONE.

One day, It was right before I started 7th grade, the owner came up too me and asked me to go out onto the rink floor and tell some kids to slow down.

I did and came back and he asked me how would I like to make $7.50 and hour to which I responded “do I also get in for free?” He laughed and said of course.

BOOM! First job and I wanted to be there anyway so it was the biggest win-win of all time for me. To say I loved it was an understatement and I did everything besides work the snack bar. DJ, skate counters, floor guard, janitor, hype man… you name it and I did it.

It was some of the greatest times of my life. So much fun and the owner was super awesome. Also, we were paid under the table so getting an envelope full of cash every week just felt like a bonus for having fun.

To me it wasn’t a job, it was pure fun. It also helped that all my friends were regulars as well.

When a new owner took over, though, things went downhill fast.

A few years go by and the owner sold to another guy who we will call Tim. Tim could be an absolute nightmare to work for. He changed the entire dynamic of the place and everyone felt it.

Now, this skating rink was POPULAR and extremely old. Lots or people all over the city knew of it. My mom and aunt skated there when they were kids if that tells you anything.

Of course, the money was always an upside.

Someway or another the new owner set up and juicy deal that had the rink started making a ton of money! On Saturday night from 7-11 it was skating per usual but from 11-2ish/3ish is was a club.

A local hip hop station came in there with local label Swishahouse and turnt the place upside down for those few hours. Every week and the place was POPPIN.

There must have been over 2k people in there on average and at $20 per person it adds up quick plus the snack bar would NEVER stop turning out food and drink. We were making stupid money.

Bonus! We also found some good stuff when cleaning up as well. Money, knives, weed, jewelry… It was awesome.

So Tim has it made but sometimes he would fly off the handle for little things. All of us weren’t sure what his deal was but he would explode out of nowhere and start talking all kinds of nonsense.

I’d started to have enough because we all had worked there for many years WITHOUT ISSUE.

Until one night, when it wasn’t enough to justify putting up with him any longer.

One night he went too far..

I don’t like being called outside of my name. It’s a respect thing. My own mother didn’t do it and he for sure wasn’t. For context I was in 10th grade now.

One night he was in some kinda mood and for whatever reason was taking it out on everyone. I don’t remember the exact situation but he started freaking out on me at about 11:30PM.

Now, Slim Thug and Paul Wall were in the building that night so the place was extra packed. Waaaay more that usual (I’m sure we were braking all kinds of fire marshal rules lol). He went ballistic and called me every name in the book while I just stood there with rage building up in me.

I’d had enough. For years this place ran flawlessly and everyone loved us so he really didn’t have a good reason to treat us in the manner he did.

My plan was formed. I immediately gather everyone else that was working and we all decided that enough was enough. It was time for a lesson.

I assembled the entire crew and well all quit on the spot. ALL OF US. That meant nobody to serve food, clean, help the swishahouse people, or just carry out general things that needed to be done when 2-3k people were in the building.

He was stunned, his tone changed and he became very sweet. We weren’t having it. As an additional middle finger I called the other two people that were off and they showed up to quit as well. Tim had already reached out so he assumed they were showing up to work.

Nope. We left him with zero workers on the absolute busiest of busy nights and boy did it implode.

The place shuttered, which OP hated to see.

He couldn’t find anyone to work so the place went to absolute pot that night.

The on duty officer told him he needed to figure something out or he was going to close it down without workers. Well… he didn’t.

It closed down that night and apparently without staff it got nasty. People started having s–, smoking, trashing the place and all kinds of stuff.

Shortly after the radio station and label took their business elsewhere and not long afterward the place closed down. He lost his entire investment.

This was very bitter sweet for me because I loved the place but he ran it into the ground.

The building is still standing and I would LOVE to bring it back to its former glory but my pockets are deep enough yet.

Maybe one day.

I bet Reddit is hoping he’ll find the money one day, too.

The 90s were a wild place, man.

For better or worse, it was a different time.

Lots of people were stuck on this turn of phrase.

This person wanted more details.

If you remember the roller rink, it has to be fondly.

I personally loved this story.

So I don’t have to tell you how old that makes me.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.