Empowering Itself

(I have worked for nearly ten years at a convenience store, and am known across all three shifts as the “Tech/Maintenance Person.” If something breaks down, they usually come and get me first. One of the registers has just died and the manager — who is an idiot — tries to replace it. However, they can’t get it to power on, and the backup battery is making the WORST alarm noise.)

Manager: “Sorry, guys. It’s not working. I called tech, and they said they’ll be here Monday.”

Me: “Yeah, if the store is still standing. That noise is horrible, and I work over there tomorrow; I don’t think I’m going to be able to handle it.”

Manager: “You can handle two days.”

(He leaves, and they try to power through it for the first hour before the supervisor has had enough. She came to the side of the store I am working on and begs me to come take a look. I go over with a flashlight and begin taking things apart to try and see what’s wrong.)

Me: “Maybe it’s something with the power cord? If we can get these things swapped out, I may be able to get the new register up and… No.” *I have found the problem* “Oh, no. No, no, no, God no.”

Supervisor: “[My Name]? What’s wrong?!”

Me: “He’s not this stupid. Please, tell me this isn’t what I think it is. Tell me that [Manager] isn’t this much of a dumba**.”

Supervisor: “What happened?”

Me: “He plugged the power cord into… itself.”

(The power supply to the register had a power cord and an outlet on it. It was the same thing as plugging a power bar into one of its own outlets and expecting it to work. Once I plugged it in to an actual power supply, the warning noise stopped and the register came online. I set it up to work and let them get back to business, though the cashier came up officially about $2000 over in her total that night because of losing her records on the original register that had shorted out. They had to do some official audit as a result –- I don’t know why and never found out the “official” reason, but during the investigation, they found unrelated discrepancies in our cash totals, and about three months later discovered the manager had been stealing from the company since they hired him.)