Those Who Write Up Get Written Off
It’s Christmas time at the chain pet shop where I work. I am on the register when ALL of the management team decides to hide in the office and eat Chinese food as part of some kind of management-exclusive holiday party.
There’s a line starting at the register.
Me: *Paging.* “Backup required at the checkouts, please.”
No one comes. I keep ringing between customers, as the line isn’t going anywhere.
After half an hour of this, customers have also noticed that I’m alone and being kept occupied at the line, so they just walk out with stuff that’s not been paid for.
Me: *Paging again, very aggressively.* “Would someone PLEASE like to come and help me out on the register before all of our customers and merchandise walk out of the store?”
One (just one!) of the managers finally walks out, sees what is happening, and starts shouting at me.
Manager: “Why didn’t you call us?”
Me: “I’ve done that about ten times in the last half hour. Did you all turn your radios off or something?”
He quickly looks at his radio… and sheepishly turns it back on.
Manager: “Well, we were having our holiday meal. Why didn’t you come and get us?”
Me: “I was told once that leaving the register unattended when we have customers – for any reason – gets me a write-up.”
The manager grumbles, but doesn’t have any more blame to throw my way, so he gets on a register and helps me get the line down.
They tried to write me up the next day for the losses, but I took the write-up to the head office. By the end of the month, the entire management team had been fired, and I got promoted to a supervisor position! Great Christmas gift for me!
