Search Terms

I can't believe how many shoplifters there are out there! Lots of people visit my blog through searches for how long shoplifting stays on their record, if they're a minor is it on their record at all, etc. I DON'T KNOW! I just try to prevent shoplifting and call the police if I witness it (which has only happened once because they're too sly).

One person searched for "get me a job, maybe driving, perhaps something in customer services, or possibly, if its a tuesday, e"…….the search engine cut them off, yet still gave search results. My advice: go out and look for a job instead of doing a wacky internet search!

An indecisive customer/web searcher wanted to know "laws about retail store return policy." I say, make up your mind about what to buy BEFORE buying it! Find out the return policy of that store BEFORE buying it! Yes it's legal for us to refuse the return! Go ahead, sue me! Sue the store! It's not against the law!

These people: "customer approaches unreasonable request what do you do" and "how to handle an insubordinate employee I can't fire"…..let me know when you find out.

Apparently someone was either having after-thoughts or was planning something: "retail manager fired for pushing an employee"……that sounds right. Completely hands-off is always safer!

And finally, "can a retail company fire employee for cursing at customer"….Yep. Been there. Done that. It was his first job, he was only 16, but he still should have known better. Curse at them after they leave the store. Make fun of them with co-workers after they leave the store. Make fun of them on the web after they leave the store. Doing it to their face is a really bad idea....if you want to keep your job.

Threats

Another new employee from last week is gone: I worked one day with him and knew he wasn't going to work out. At that point it's stupid to waste time training him further, but Boss said, "Give him a chance." Well, I did. I gave him a chance to do what I said, then when it wasn't done I gave him another chance, then I had to remind him a THIRD time of what he was supposed to be doing. He was polite enough with the customers, but extremely lazy and didn't know much about our specialty area.

A few days after he began working for us we seemed to be short on a certain item. Hmm….what timing. I ran an inventory list of what we should have vs. what we did have and unless the items got up and walked away on their own from the employees-only area, then it looked like the new employee was to blame. I expressed my concern to Boss, knowing that she might tell me I wasn't giving the new employee a chance by making such an accusation. But I was careful of how I phrased it. I showed her the inventory shortage and suggested keeping an eye on that particular item and perhaps that employee because the shortages began occurring just after he started work.

She agreed that it was suspicious and that we should be more alert.
We informed the other managers of the problem with that specific item and asked them to be particularly watchful, especially of new employees. No names were used, no accusations made.

A few days later the problem took care of itself. The employee came in to work in a foul mood, did a poor job all shift, then started an argument with a co-worker over an extremely petty matter. Luckily a manager saw the whole thing, including the part where the new employee threatened to harm his co-worker. You can't do that! You're fired!

The co-worker who was threatened wasn't at all at fault…..the petty matter wasn't anything he did wrong. When the new employee began shouting, it was clear that he wasn't logical or anything…..the co-worker kept silent in an attempt to diffuse the situation. While that didn't work, the fact that there was no physical contact is pure luck.

(May I note that I did not hire this guy or the people in the two previous posts? That's right, someone else did.)

No Notice

We have another new employee who's been with us a few weeks. She seemed to like the job and we liked her. However, she had a full-time job somewhere else. She worked at our store part-time for extra money. One day she called to get her work schedule and the very next day, just 30 minutes before scheduled to work, she called to quit. ??? If it was too much for her to work two jobs or not enough money or whatever, what's wrong with GIVING NOTICE so we weren't stuck short-handed?!

Excuses

Back to hiring.....and firing. We have lots of long-term employees (long-term for retail, anyway) but when one of them leaves or increased business leads to the need for more employees, we go through SO MANY employees until we find someone who will stick around. Many times if we need one employee then I'll hire two because chances are at least one of them won't stay.

Last week's new employee: worked one week with perfect attendance and more or less punctual. He did an adequate job with minimal training, but did only what he was asked to do instead of looking around to see what needed to be done. That's OK, we can fix that.

Week two…..first day he called in sick. O…..K……personally, if I was sick with a new job I'd go to work anyway. I've had many people out "sick" for a day or two while they decide if they want to quit or not. On the second day there was a death in the family (half-brother's grandmother's sister's sister-in-law's great-nephew's wife's dad's dog) so he couldn't come to work. I've been down "excuse road" before.....at that point I started interviewing to replace him.

On the third day he actually showed up, more or less on time, and did his adequate job again. On the fourth day he didn't show up or call at all until after his shift was scheduled to begin. He claimed that his alarm didn't go off so he didn't get up on time but that his dad needed help with yardwork so he couldn't come to work at all that day…??? You're fired!

Weekend Trip

Sometimes you just need to get away. I had the weekend off and was so bored of this city that I used MapQuest to plot a trip out of town.

I went to a well-known place on Saturday. It was super super hot and very sunny. I tried to stay out of the sun as much as possible; during the hottest part of the day I visited the museums and saw the outside stuff when the sun wasn't quite as strong. I used a friend's vacation home that night.

The original plan was to visit a less well-known place but bigger city on Sunday but instead I relaxed in the outdoors with some non work-related reading. It was a nice bit of nature and much needed peace and quiet instead of the heat and noise that the big city would have involved.

After the weekend away it felt like I was playing catch-up this week.....piled up laundry and cleaning, grocery shopping, etc. that I usually do when I'm off. But it was totally worth it to get away and do something different, even if it was just for a couple of days.