Internet Slams District Manager for Taking Multiple Pizzas From Employees

Members of a popular internet forum were outraged after one employee explained how a kind gesture by their employer turned out to be nothing but fool’s gold.

In a viral Reddit post published on r/antiwork, Redditor u/NovelTAcct (otherwise referred to as the original poster, or OP) said they, along with all of their coworkers, were looking forward to eating pizza provided by their human resources department until a well paid district manager snatched up multiple pies for himself.

Titled, “District Manager stole all our speciality pizza from the breakroom,” the post has received nearly 42,000 upvotes and 2,400 comments in the last day.

“We had a visit from all the ‘important’ managers yesterday,” OP began. “One of those checkups where they try to catch you doing something wrong.”

Despite their employer’s highest-ranking managers snooping around, the original poster said that at one point during the “visit,” a human resources representative informed staff members that she brought pizza for everyone.

And though free pizza is often seen as a futile attempt to gain ground with worn down employees, the original poster said they were excited to eat a slice later in the day.

Unfortunately, that excitement was quickly dashed.

“[Pizza is not enough],” OP wrote. “But this pizza was from a locally famous pizza place and we were all looking forward to having some on our breaks.”

“By the time anyone got a break, there was no pizza or pizza boxes in the breakroom,” OP continued. “Front of the house staff confirmed that our District Manager TOOK ALL OF IT (4-5 boxes) when he left.”

“He makes $250K a year and he stole the only little thing we were looking forward to that day,” OP added.

Last decade, behavioral economist Dan Ariely set out to determine what is more motivating for employees: pizza, or money.

With a control group working at a steady pace, one additional group was offered pizza and the other was offered $30.

For the group incentivized with money, productivity increased by 4.9 percent. For the group incentivized with pizza, productivity jumped by 6.7 percent, seemingly proving that a meal on the company’s dime is more desirable than cold, hard cash.

More likely is that employees who feel appreciated are likely to work harder than those who don’t, and for some individuals, a free slice carries more weight than an extra 30 bucks.

The debate between pizza and money, however, becomes meaningless when there is no offer of additional compensation and a district manager takes between four and five entire pies before employees have a chance to eat any.

Members of Reddit’s r/antiwork forum were shocked after one employee revealed how multiple full pizzas disappeared before they, or any other their coworkers, had a single slice. nortonrsx/iStock / Getty Images Plus

Throughout the comment section of the viral Reddit post, Redditors expressed their shock at such a blatant act of gluttony and offered potential responses to the original poster.

“I mean f**k,” Redditor u/jisuanqi wrote in the post’s top comment, which has received nearly 12,000 upvotes. “As cliche as the free pizza thing is, they take it away from you.

“Why not just kick everyone in the junk as you walk out of the office, too?” they added.

“Seriously,” Redditor u/Beopenminded16 chimed in, sarcastically. “Like, here’s a pittance for your suffering. JUST KIDDING!”

Redditor u/1min_2_midnight, whose comment has received nearly 5,000 upvotes, advised the original poster to inform the human resources representative of what happened to the pizza she brought for employees to eat.

“Someone needs to tell the HR lady,” they wrote.

“Tell the HR lady that [Mr.] $250K a year took all the pizza that she specifically came and told y’all about,” Redditor u/GoodMorningMorticia added, receiving nearly 4,000 upvotes. “The bonus that she spent company resources on was not applied to the staff she acquired it for.”

Newsweek reached out to u/NovelTAcct for comment.