Not Keeping Everyone On Top Form

(I have come into work and immediately rushed into the manager’s office.)

Manager: “We had a discrepancy of £15 on the registers yesterday and we need to investigate. Do you have any reason why the register would be short?”

Me: “Me personally? No.”

Manager: “Did you see anything unusual?”

Me: “No?”

(The rest of the discussion followed a similar path of me answering “no” to practically everything. We reach the end.)

Manager: “Okay, if you can just sign the bottom? I must warn you that if this happens more in future, we will have to consider disciplinary action.”

Me: “Are you serious? I’m not signing that.”

Manager: “Then I will have to note that down as suspicious.”

Me: “[Manager], I wasn’t even working yesterday.”

(The manager blushes, shuffles the forms underneath the desk, and lets me go. Fast forward a few months and I have taken on a role in the back, managing weekend administration. A similar situation occurs where there is a discrepancy, and I complete the procedure as I have been taught. The same manager is on duty that day and is expected to do the investigation.)

Manager: “We need more forms.”

Me: “Those forms include everyone who had access to the register yesterday, including those who topped it up. Even [Store Manager] is in there.”

Manager: “We need more, though.”

Me: “Why? Literally everyone who had the ability to steal from the register is included.”

Manager: “Yes, but you have to do randoms, too, to keep everyone on their toes.”

Me: *shocked* “But they’re used as strikes against the workers’ files. You’re putting people at risk of unnecessary disciplinary action.”

Manager: *staring me down* “We need more.”

(She left with the forms and ordered me to make more. I did, but I didn’t name them, and waited for the store manager, who happened to be coming in that day. I have never seen anyone go pale so quickly as when I told her. She halted the investigation (sending the manager home), and she and I spent the rest of the weekend going through the personnel files and comparing them with the schedules and payroll records. I even found the £15 form I refused to sign, with a poor attempt at forging my signature on the bottom. Overall, the additional forms were responsible for approximately 10 disciplinary actions, some of which resulted termination. The store manager reported it and the manager was promptly fired. I have had to take on a full time role in the interim of finding a replacement. Discrepancies still crop up, but the personnel files aren’t filling up as quickly, and everyone feels a lot calmer now that she is gone.)