Fifty Reasons To Fire You

(I have just started my shift. I do a quick safe check, because I notice that the compulsory daily check hasn’t been done, and I find it’s down $50. I check with my manager and fellow supervisor, who are both about to go home.)

Me: “Has anyone done a safe check or taken change today?”

(Both answer no.)

Me: “The safe is down $50.”

Manager: “Oh, yeah, I know; I took it to buy everyone dinner the other day. I haven’t been to the bank yet.”

(I offered to pay on the day we had dinner but the manager assured us that he had the money. The other supervisor and I look at each other with our eyes wide and both go for our wallets. I find $30 and she finds $20. )

Manager: “What are you two doing? I’ll pay it back by the weekend.”

Me: “You remember we’re due to be audited today or tomorrow?”

(Both of those are my managerial shifts, which would make me directly responsible for any shortfalls.)

Manager: “I just borrowed it; what would they do?”

Me: “What, apart from the instant firing, all of us ending up with police records?”

Manager: “I just borrowed it; it’s not wrong if I intend to pay it back. You’re just overreacting.”

Me: “They won’t see it as borrowing, and you’ve just made us accomplices after the fact.”

(He had also been falsifying records for the past two days. I suspect he would have happily let me take the blame or pay the $50 out of my own pocket when I noticed later that day; he doesn’t particularly like me because I keep pulling him up for doing things like this.)