BootsnAll Travel Community

So... I work at this place. I won't name names, but let's call it Bal-fart. In my job at Bal-fart, I am supposed to sell people... well... crap. As in swipe their crap over the laser scanner, stick it in a bag, make happy chat, and take their money. All while smiling.

So... back in january one of my supervisors transfers to another store, in another state, no less, and the other one is out sick pretty much the whole time, either because his wife/ kid are in the hospital, or because he fell off a horse and injured himself. So with no real supervision, I was stuck in charge- at my current pay, for 3 months.

Now, at bal-fart, cashiers aren't supposed to have keys, and everyone at the same pay grade has the same authority. Unless lazy a$$ed managers don't want to be bothered in the absence of front end supervisors. Still with me here?

So they tell me to run it. Walkie, phone, power. No extra pay, no keys, just the hatred of my co-irkers. After a couple months of this, a manager just gets sick of running to the front one night, and hands over the keys to the whole front of the store- the cash room, the change room, the registers- with his ID and password, and tells me to just do it myself.

And no one says anything to him.

For the last two months, I've been training in accounting. A different manager, the one actually in charge of my part of the store, gave me the computer access to do that job. Every week, for my whole 40 hours, I've been in that little locked room, with the piles of cash, counting, sorting, and sticking the numbers into the computer.

Today another manager on my shift came up to me and asked me to help with something. I figured it would be with supervision, since it's something I'm not allowed to do by myself- because of the ease of theft. And dropped the front end keys and her numbers in my hands.

Note- if I were going to steal from this place, me and about 150k would be vacationing on the beach in Bali for the last two months.

So my in the money room co-worker and I tell the head of security, who tells us she'll take care of it, and not to call the ethics line.

My co-worker spoke to her again before leaving, and it now seems they're building a case against us- not that they'd call it that, of course. But as a cashier, I'm not supposed to know that room exists. I'm not supposed to know what they do in there, how they do it, or what they do it with or to. This room my manager gave me full powers in. Yippy.

Now, I don't like my job, but I'm really not all over getting fired or asked to leave, or un-scheduled because some manager is more important, or drinks with the security lady. So, I can call the ethics line and risk getting fired anyway- and maybe not have a case for settling, or I can not call the ethics line, and see how long I can dangle here before I lose my job. Wish my mom were answering the phone- she's always good with this kinda stuff.

hopeless
-j.

Build your own case. With days you were given keys, etc. with no supervision. How long you've been doing someone else's job with no pay raise or suggestion of one, or even a new title. Track everything. Then decide: will you call the ethics line or insist on a raise/promotion/transfer/bribe to quit. And if they're going to try to push you out, push first.

At least, that's what I'd do. It's what I do now, in my (very different) job. I like to call it the CYA Protocol.

And call your mom again. Moms have great advice...sometimes.

Write everything down - names, dates, places, events - in a bound notebook.

I'm working on documenting everything now. And, of course, looking for another job.

Ya know, for a place that swears it's big on ethics, it's one of the shadier companies I've worked for.

-j.

And, the fact is, there is no way you and the coworker could have gotten the keys yourselves.

So there was some negligence on the part of your managers.

admit nothing
deny everything
make counter accusations


and you're wise to be looking for another job...