I was fired for being ‘lazy’ — all I did was check my phone at work

She’s toast.

A UK restaurant worker claims she secretly filmed herself getting fired by a boss who reported that she had “the worst day of work he’d ever seen.”

Sophie Alcock, 20, was sacked from the eatery Toast in Withington, Manchester, this month after just two weeks for alleged phone usage on the job.

“The way he fired me was so unprofessional, and he couldn’t provide me with a just cause,” Alcock told Kennedy News, adding that she has since told others not to visit the business so that it “suffers.”

The furious former employee claimed she went to work on July 6 and told the cafe owner, Matt, that she might be “distracted” because she was anxiously awaiting her degree results.

She claimed it was the first and only time she had met Matt, and that he seemed “fine” with her work ethic at the time.

“He didn’t say I wasn’t doing my job properly. I got out every order on time,” reported the resident of Wimborne, Dorset.

But she says a rumor circulated among fellow employees the following day that Alcock was supposedly getting fired due to her “attitude.”

“It was weird,” she said, recalling another chef asking if Matt had approached Alcock.

“I half-jokingly said, ‘No, am I getting fired?’ and they said, ‘Yes probably,’” continued Alcock, who said she left work “in tears” as anxiety coursed through her.

Her celebration of her degree was quickly overshadowed by her potential unemployment.

She emailed Matt to confirm the rumors, only to be told she was “no longer required … to work at Toast.”

“He couldn’t be bothered to do it face to face,” she scoffed.

Alcock said she confronted her former boss and filmed the altercation, during which he claimed she had been sitting on her phone for “four hours.”

In an attempt to debunk his claims, Alcock pulled up the screen-time tracker on her iPhone, which allegedly showed the phone was only in use that day for 2 hours and 40 minutes.

“I was on it for about an hour, 10 to 15 minutes every so often, and I took two breaks to go outside,” Alcock explained, adding that much of her screen time occurred before or after her shift.

“If I was on my phone in the kitchen, there were no orders.”

Matt also allegedly chided her “for eating” during her shift, which consisted of breakfast when she clocked in and, later, lunch.

She claims he interrupted her often during the heated conversation, prompting Alcock to ask Matt if he “always interrupts women” when they speak.

“It wasn’t really a conversation, it was me getting upset and him saying he didn’t like where the conversation was going,” she said.

“He basically said I was lazy, and it was the worst day of work he’d ever seen, but everyone I know will testify that I’m not a lazy person.”

While she admits she “could have performed better,” she didn’t think it was fair to fire her “out of the blue because of one day of work.”

“I’m not saying my shift was perfect, but I had extenuating circumstances,” she argued. “He could have told me how he wants his kitchen run, but he just fired me.”

A spokesperson for Toast confirmed to Kennedy News that Alcock was an employee for only two weeks this summer, but is “no longer employed” there.

The rep is “very sorry to hear that she is unhappy” with her time at the cafe.

“Over our six years as an independent high street café we have striven for a great atmosphere for customers and staff alike, but accept that this has not been Sophie’s experience,” the statement read.

“We have made contact to see if she would like to discuss her concerns further and we are taking on board her views and reviewing improvements we can make,” the rep added. “Sophie is being paid for the hours she worked. We wish her well in the future.”

Now Alcock feels “embarrassed,” as she will be forced to explain the debacle to her next employer.

“I’ve just moved into a flat, and I’m unemployed. I have to explain to my next employer that I was fired,” she stressed.

“I’m more embarrassed than anything because others knew before I did.”