First post here. For context, I work at a restaurant in a very tourist area, meaning it’s busy as sht in the summer and slow as sht in the winter. I’m in charge of closing and cleaning the kitchen for a couple nights out of the week, which closes at 2am. I also work a couple day shifts as well to keep it even. Over the past few months, I have been bringing in a handheld system to help pass the time during the winter because getting about 5 orders in the late night hours can really make time feel like it’s moving at half speed. Plus, I was told in the past by one of my bosses that handhelds was okay to help kill time.

A couple days ago, I come in with my usual items to help me through the day when I get a very rude statement from an assistant manager “Get rid of it. Put it in your car. I don’t wanna see it anymore” (of course talking about the handheld.) He later tells me that it is a new rule they came up with a couple days ago.

While I get not wanting technology to be a distraction in a workplace, what doesn’t make sense is there was no reason to make this rule at all. While I like to use it to kill time, due to orders or food prep, I barely even find time to use it on a weekly basis at work. Even when I do, I only get time to use it about 15-30 minutes before I shut it down to start closing down. On an 8-10 hour shift. So not only was this clearly targeting me since I’m the only person to do this, it also took audacity to make this sort of move since they know I barely even end up with the time to use it in the first place. AND I was told a few months before that it was fine as long as I made sure the work was priority, which I obviously did. So what changed?

Not even to mention that there is plenty of “distraction” in the kitchen area already. There is a SMART TV hooked up to the cable system at the bar that can also watch YouTube and other video streaming services. Along with that, coworkers will be on their phones ALL THE TIME, with even the bosses and managers using them a good amount while working and even one of them putting earbuds in BOTH EARS to listen to whatever he wants.

I walked into work last night and noticed something. This rule change must have been what broke the camel’s back for me because I lost all my passion for this company that I used to have. I simply don’t feel joy with this job anymore, and it took bit of ‘motivation’ to get through the night. Now, I am close to joining the military so they already have a plan to “phase me out” in a couple months, but doesn’t that make the rule change that much more unnecessary since I’ll be gone soon anyway? Plus with summer once again coming up it would’ve only been a matter of time before I stopped bringing the handheld anyway since I would have no time at all to even touch it. So why make it a rule?

It’s due to all this that I no longer feel any passion for my job and I am considering leaving the company early, AITA for this?