Three years ago while working in a sports bar as a Kitchen Manager I had a WTF termination. So another manager and myself were in the middle of a termination with a dishwasher( hired with the previous KM) who had been a problem for awhile (late, rude to coworkers, slow)you name it. He was the absolute worst of the worst and everyone hated working with him. Needless to say it was time for him to go. The termination is standard and by the book. We all signed and it seemed like a pretty calm overall interaction. So as we are walking him out the back we passed by the the prep tables in the BOH that happened to have chef knives out and prep cooks in the middle of production. The guy got the bright idea to grab one of the knives turn around and shout at me ” IM GONNA KILL YOU”. I’m talking full Halloween Mike Meyers status. So I kick him into the dry metro shelves and turn to run around the corner to get some cover. On the way I see a Ice paddle (big metal paddle for the ice machine). I figured this was gonna end up with either me or another employee butchered so I decided that was going to have to do as a weapon. We get into a weird kinda sword fight in the middle of the prep room until I finally knocked the knife out of his hand and he ran out the back door. We called the cops and they ended up picking him up down the street. Guy ends up having 3 prior felonies and 14 misdemeanors in 3 different states. Needless to say… Maybe give out a snickers before you fire the crazy guy
