This Job Is Not Her Calling

I worked as a manager at a movie theatre and we hired a new girl to concession who seemed okay at first. Eventually, we learned that she tried to pretend she knew more than she did about the work and lied when caught. Whenever she had a question she would go to the head manager rather than us regular managers, causing annoyance. She also tried to play the managers against each other, claiming one of us had told her things which had not happened, etc. Unlucky for her, all of us were good friends with great communication, so whenever she said something, we called and double checked, even if the person was off from work.

We also learnt that she lied to customers whenever she did not know things rather than ask for help, causing annoyance and anger from the customers when they found out the truth. We two clashed repeatedly and every time we had a shift together there were conflicts.

The final straw was one Sunday when we were going to have an all-kids day, with half-price movie tickets for all the kids’ movies. It’s one of the busiest days of the year with full theatres non-stop from open until close. Everyone scheduled in the morning was going to start at half-past eight. At ten to nine, the new girl had still not shown up, so I called her asking where she was.

She answered very sleepily and claimed to be sick and said she had called the head manager about it around seven am. The head manager or office is who you call in sick to during the weekdays; on weekends you call the manager of the day on their cellphones as no one is in the office. I said I found it weird she had not called me and also noted that the head manager had not called me about her being sick, either, thus not giving me the opportunity to try and find a replacement in time. The girl confessed that the head manager had not answered the phone but she had left her a text. She also said she had called the office, saying she did not know no one was there this time of the morning on a Sunday which I knew was a lie.

Trying not to panic, knowing what lay ahead, I failed to get someone to cover her shift but managed to get a couple of people who were scheduled later to come in earlier. We took a huge toll the first couple of hours, being understaffed, and the stress showed in everyone’s faces. We had to cancel a couple of introductions and games, as well as breaks, and focus on concessions and cleaning.

Around 11 am, the head manager called. She had talked to the girl and wanted to confirm with me. Not only had the girl said she had tried to reach me but failed before calling the head manager, she claimed again to have called the office, forgetting about it being empty. The head manager also said she had received the text around 8:40. She had no missed calls.

Half an hour later, an office manager walked into the theatre, having learnt what was going on. She went into the office and looked at the call logs on the phone. The girl had been telling the truth about calling the office… only the logs said she had called one time after nine, a couple of minutes after my call to her had ended.

For some reason, she still had a job afterward, but every time she and I had a shift together, she found some reason to change it, meaning I never worked with her again. Eventually, she quit on her own. I have met her a few times afterward and every time she acts like I’m some long lost friend she hasn’t seen in ages and is super nice. I’m having a hard time refraining from punching her in the face.