This Line Earns More Per Minute Than You Do

I ran a small retail store for a few years. A new guy ends up working in there with me, and I’d been thinking that things were going relatively smoothly, until I get a phone call from the district manager asking me if I’d been in the store on a number of specific dates and times.

I said no, I hadn’t been, [New Guy] had been by himself in the store at all of those times. He said he’d explain everything when he got there, specifically at a time when [New Guy] was going to be there.

So, he shows up, [New Guy] shows up, and out come some papers that I realized were phone bills, and apparently, they listed a whole mess of calls to all over the place, none of which had any connection with the business.

It seems that a guy who had been there earlier had left a stack of magazines under the counter, which were mostly oriented toward motorcycles, but which also featured a bunch of ads in the back for what I can describe as “adult entertainment” and all of which mentioned a specific cost per minute. The new guy signed over his paycheck and was terminated on the spot, along with a promise that he’d pay off the rest of the balance.