yelling at me
The story
I work at a small neighborhood bakery where the counter, espresso bar, and online order station are packed into the same narrow space. What is wearing me down is the owner yelling at me whenever the online order tablet chimes. For the past two weeks, he has acted like every sound means I ignored a paid ticket. At 6:10 a.m. during a wet morning rush, the tablet chirped while I was scoring sourdough and Mara, the employee assigned to online orders, was boxing an $18 brioche preorder. Len, the owner, shouted from the mixer, "Order!! Why are you just standing there??" I was holding a lame over an unbaked loaf, so I was clearly not just standing there 😑.
The chime sounded again near the pastry case while Mara was helping a customer. Len pointed at me and said, "If that order gets missed, it comes out of your tips!" The receipt printer stayed silent, which should have been the obvious clue; No ticket appeared in the order queue, no customer name showed up, and the kitchen display had no new item. I told Len that Mara had tablet duty and that the sound was not matching our usual Toast notification. He replied, "The tablet doesn't make mistakes!!" I understand that the morning bake creates pressure, and I am not refusing to help with a fulfillable ticket. Still, threatening my tips in front of a customer because a device made a noise was rude and factually wrong.
After the rush, I opened the notification history instead of clearing the alerts. The profile icon showed Len's photo, not the bakery logo. The tablet was logged into his personal owner account, using the same email he uses for vendor invoices and payroll notices. Several missed alerts were requests for him to approve a catering quote, confirm an account sign-in, and review a card deposit. They were not customer orders at all. They were owner-level prompts meant for him. The settings also showed that his personal account used the same chime for management notices and incoming orders. I took a photo of the profile page because I didnt want the screen changed later and the whole thing blamed on me again.
I showed Len the photo beside the cooling racks. He stared at it, closed the settings, and said, "You should still check every sound." I replied that I would check actual tickets, but I would not accept responsibility for his payroll, security, or catering approval alerts. Mara confirmed that she had not missed any orders during the rush, and the brioche customer collected the box without a problem. Len has not apologized, and the tablet remains signed into his personal account. He now lowers his voice when it chimes, but he still looks directly at me as if I caused the alert. What would you do about the owner yelling at me when the tablet was carrying his own alerts, should I keep refusing those account prompts or am I overreacting???
