The Money Is As Real As Her Managerial Skills

I work at a fast food restaurant and we have a scanner machine to check if money is real or not. One day, I touch the machine’s sensor and notice that it still scans my hand as money. I do this with a piece of paper, as well, and conclude that the machine is broken.

During the same shift, I have a manager that does nothing but sit on her a** all day and only helps us with orders if we are behind orders by twenty-plus minutes. I tell her about the machine and she says she’ll check it later. I’m supposed to scan every ten- and twenty-dollar bill, and for fifties and hundreds, I have to give it to a manager to check.

A few hours go by, and my manager still hasn’t checked the machine, and by this point, I’m checking every ten and twenty by holding it up to a light, which can be seen as rude to a customer. One customer complains to me and calls my manager over.

Customer: “This employee is discriminating against me! Checking my ten-dollar bill like I’m a criminal!”

Instead of defending me, as the machine is broken and she still hasn’t checked it, she begins yelling at me in front of this customer.

Me: “[Manager], the machine is still broken, and I still need to check each bill the same as I would if the machine was working.”

Without even checking the machine, my manager just says:

Manager: “Just use the machine. Who would even use a counterfeit on a ten- or twenty-dollar bill?”

I decide the argument isn’t worth $9 an hour and just comply. I quickly scan every bill until I see two shady-acting women.

The first woman hands me a twenty-dollar bill that is obviously fake; I don’t even have to check it. It feels and looks like paper. I decide I will just follow orders and scan it. Since it goes off, I put it in the register. The second customer comes and hands me a similar counterfeit bill. I do the same thing.

Later, when my shift is about to end, my manager counts my drawer, finds the two counterfeit bills, and freaks out at me. I zone out for most of it, but most of it consists of her calling me dumb for not noticing these obvious counterfeits and telling me I’m going to get fired.

Well, what actually happened was the regional and general managers called me in to fire me on my next shift, and then I told them the story. They then checked the cameras and listened to our conversation about the machine being broken and concluded that the manager was in the wrong for: one, not letting me check the bills visibly, and two, telling me to use the machine that I explained as broken.

She was fired, and I later saw her working the cash register at a grocery store. Hopefully, she checks if she gets any counterfeit bills.