Shady Scheduling
I used to be a supervisor at a grocery store. Most of our cashiers were young, late high school – early college-aged. I’ve worked retail long enough to be incredibly protective of younger employees.
One day, an older man comes up to my service desk. I vaguely recognize him as coming in often, but otherwise, nothing. He asks if one of the girls, let’s call her Jen, is working that day.
Me: “No, she’s not. Was there something I could help you with instead?”
Man: “No, no. It’s a personal thing. Do you know when she’s in next?”
Jen was just-into-college aged, and a man well over twice her age asking for her for ‘personal reasons’ is so incredibly suspicious to me.
Me: “I’m sorry, I can’t give that info out. I can maybe give her a message if you’d like?”
Man: “No, that’s okay. It’s really personal. I’ll just try later.”
Me: “You’re welcome to do that, sir…”
He leaves amicably, and I immediately tell my supervisor that some weird dude was trying to get her schedule so to be alert.
Maybe an hour or so later, I answered a call from the same old man.
Man: “Hi, I was wondering if Jen works tonight?”
Me: “No, sir. And I can’t give you any information about when she does. Is there anything I can help you with or do you want me to leave her a message?”
Man: “No, I can’t. It’s a personal thing. Could you give her my phone number at least so she can call me?”
No, sir, I cannot and will not give my teenage cashier your phone number for ‘personal reasons’ you have yet to explain.
Me: “If you’d like to leave your name instead, I can pass something along to her?”
Man: “Fine, I guess. Just tell her it’s John, and I would really like to talk to her.”
This is not the real name, but it was an equally common one with no last name given.
Me: “Okay then…”
At this point, I go straight to messaging my cashier and warning her that some strange dude keeps asking for her. She is, understandably, a little unnerved. She eventually settles on allowing him to talk to her, if I or another supervisor is nearby, just in case.
He does call at least once more after I’ve left, but the supervisor tells him the same thing. He ends up coming back when Jen IS actually working on her register the next day. I give her a heads up and hover nearby just in case.
Turns out, he works at some medical office and wondered if Jen, who is going into medicine and makes no secret of it, would be interested in doing an internship thing with him. He has business cards, and she recognized the company, I guess, so it was legit, and she actually decided to go with it because it sounded cool.
But honestly, I understand you might not want to share everything with the random manager, but literally just handing me the business card the first time and saying, ‘please give this to her’ would have been infinitely easier and less suspicious than asking after her for ‘personal reasons’.