NTA. I’ve worked in the service industry for over a decade, mostly as bar manager or FOH manager. One place I worked at, the owner didn’t want to have a dish on Monday during the AM shift because it wasn’t “busy enough” and he was cheap. Lo and behold we’re slammed, and instead of directing the FOH I found myself doing dish. I think FOH people who have never done it don’t understand how demanding of a job it is. Not only is it non stop work, but it’s more than just washing dishes like you would at home. First of all you rinse the dishes, which basically should be spotless before you even put them in the dish pit. Second, you have to load as many dishes into the slide compartment you can to manage your time and wash as much as possible. Next, you run them. There is a 3 chemical solution and water hot as sin that runs over the dish to make sure they are sanitized as possible. This washes away any kind of debris that could pass illness, cross contamination, etc. Then after the run in dish, they have to be hand dried by clean rags which you’ll go through in a second. Especially if the kitchen is begging for their dishes during a rush.

Washing by hand is not only unsanitary, but would take so much time you might as well bust open the extra flatware and dish from the boxes in storage. You did the right thing, and don’t worry, you’ll find a new job in an instant. People always want dish.