The Break-In

The weekend sucked. Big time. My store was broken into. Nothing was taken, but nevertheless there was stress and a mess to clean up and lots of people to call.

Worse, as closing manager the night that the break-in occurred, I did one itsy bitsy tiny thing wrong. Something that we OFTEN do, but apparently are not supposed to do. While that thing did not at all lead to the break-in or make it better or worse in any way WHATSOEVER, if the police include certain details in their report then the higher beings in my company will ask questions. If they ask questions, I have two choices. I can tell the truth and most likely get fired, or I can lie and hope that the other managers and I coordinate our stories well enough.

The police never directly asked me about the itsy bitsy tiny thing, but they did ask my boss. In an attempt to make things look OK and/or protect me, my boss played dumb/was intentionally vague/basically-but-not-quite-lied-to-the-police. I stood by and said nothing.

It appears to be an inside job. Several of our stores have had break-ins with very similar details lately. I'm really paranoid, and I totally don't want to go to work. They know where everything is now. They know how long it takes the police to respond. And apparently, they were waiting for me to leave before they entered the building. Less than a half hour after I left and the alarm was going off. Coincidence? It scares the shit out of me to think that they might have been preparing to enter the store even as I was finishing out the closing paperwork in the darkened store, all alone. The fact that I was talking to someone on my cell phone as I locked the front door and got in my car might have stopped them from attacking me.

The day after the break-in we instituted some changes for improved safety of our employees and better visibility of certain areas of the store. The damage couldn't be completely hidden, even after all the managers' late-night repair-what-we-can-and-get-maintenance-in-first-thing-Monday-morning. Employees were told to attribute the damage to an "accident," if any customers asked. If the break-in was discussed within earshot of customers, employees would be disciplined. It's a safety issue. We don't want it to be widespread knowledge that we're an easy target so the whole area tries to rob us.

We were unable to contact our regional manager until about 12 hours after it happened. We had to go through another manager to get approval for the late-night, expensive repairs. The other regional manager was PISSED. Not that he got a late night phone call or that he had to help us; he didn't mind that. He was pissed that our regional manager wasn't doing her job by being available for this type of thing.

A new employee (lasted a whole 3 days) quit the day after the break-in. Poor timing. I don't think the employee would have done it, but right now I suspect everyone. It could be her. Or maybe the disgruntled employee's husband. That one customer has been coming in a lot recently. Why is that guy so interested in if we've had good business lately? That guy is straining his neck awfully hard to see inside my cashier's drawer. Why is that woman just standing there while I count the change in the safe?

My first night closing since the break-in………..my dad came up and stayed with me until I finished all my paperwork. Then he helped me make sure all the doors were secure, as we're doing a temporary fix on one of them. I must have checked the safe 10 times; each door was quadruple-checked. I am paranoid!

I haven't had much sleep and the sleep I have had is full of "Did I lock the safe? Is the alarm set? Is the side door bolted? How about the back door? Was someone hiding in the bathrooms waiting until we left? What if……………………." Will I ever feel at ease again?

Have I pissed you off?

I had one particularly bad customer today. We were EXTREMELY short-handed while at the same time EXTREMELY busy--a bad combination.

I was helping the lady, probably 40 or 50 years old. Not old enough to be senile, but old enough to be able to look around and see that there were other people who needed help so she should ask her questions QUICKLY and let me help other people. Of course she wouldn't do that! She was indecisive and continued to ask me which item she should buy. Well, that all depends on what you want to do. She never adequately explained what she wanted the item for, so I couldn't very well recommend which of the 50+ items would work best for her. Finally I just picked one, not caring if it did what she wanted or not.

Then she had another stupid question. Then another. When she got to the cashier she questioned the price of EVERYTHING (our prices are very clearly marked) so I ended up cashing her out. She continued talking, asking questions totally unrelated to the merchandise, and even filling me in on her life story. I stopped responding to her comments so that she would pay attention and finish writing her check. {THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY.....IT'S CALLED A DEBIT CARD.}

As we were finishing she asked, "Have I pissed you off?"

I hesitated, {OF COURSE YOU'VE PISSED ME OFF! YOU'RE STUPID AND HAVE NO CONSIDERATION FOR OTHER PEOPLE! I don't need to know that you almost died twice from heart failure and your husband doesn't think you should get another dog because you have too many pets and you're thinking about changing brands of toothpaste but you've had the one kind for so long that you're just not sure yet. There are other customers in the store who need my help! I need to use my key to unlock an expensive item for that woman; that man needs something from the top shelf; the kid over there wants a job application; the old lady needs someone to carry the heavy item to her car; the cashier needs change; another cashier needs a void; there's a spill that needs to be cleaned up NOW............} "No ma'am, it's just that there are a lot of other people who need help."

"You should have told me you were busy so I could have gotten someone else to help me."

"There is NO ONE ELSE."

"Oh. Is _____ still the manager?"

"Yes." {Is that supposed to be a THREAT?}

If she knows the manager, then the manager likely knows her and how ANNOYINGLY STUPID she is.

After we finished the transaction she looked around a little more, continuing to make stupid comments and take up the time of no less than 3 employees. Before she left she commented to another employee about "how rude" I was. Yeah. Whatever. I warned the store manager that the lady might call her to complain about me. The manager had no idea who the lady was, even when I described the way she looked and acted in great detail. I explained the situation, how busy it was, how much time she was taking up, and exactly what I did and said. I'm rude because I won't listen to her? I don't think so. Anyway, if the lady calls to complain, the manager will listen sympathetically, explain how busy it was, apologize, promise that I'll be beaten, etc., and then do nothing further about it.

On a good note, our office called with approval to hire THREE employees. : ) Perhaps we'll be back to normal and fully staffed soon.

Hiring; LAG gets the promotion

We were short-handed all morning (damn the tattletale!) so I ended up cashiering for several hours. It took all day to finish what I usually do in a half-day or less. Then in the afternoon I conducted interviews. Of 3 interviews I hired 2 people. One was GREAT, while the other was OK. The OK one worked at one of our competitors for a few months so I wasn't too keen on hiring her (that store has a bad reputation) but I REALLY needed someone to work mornings so I took the chance. They're both really outgoing and enthusiastic and I think they'll fit into our work environment really well. Hooray!

LAG did pass the background check, but so far she's listening and has a teachable attitude. As I explained things, she accepted my explanation that some things are stupid but they must be done a special certain way or the office freaks out and starts taking money away from the managers. The store manager is letting LAG learn things very slowly…..it will be a while before she's left in charge without another manager nearby. As long as she remembers that being a junior manager doesn't mean she's a real manager (like, as long as she still listens to me!) and continues to work on her attitude with other employees and customers, maybe it'll be OK.

I must say, it is nice to have another member of management in the building. Now if I want to run to the corner store for coffee or need to pick up store supplies mid-shift, I can do so myself instead of sending one of my employees for me. Especially for personal stuff (not foreseeable stuff, but like getting cough drops to soothe a sore throat or something), I hated sending employees because it's obviously not their job to run errands for me. But at the same time, a member of management must always be in the building. Now if I need to leave for 10~15 minutes, I can, with my cell phone close by in case LAG needs help.

Tattletale

More drama in the store. I swear we could make a soap opera about our employees. One of the newer but not very new employees quit. Surprise, surprise, right? Well it's not the fact that she quit that's the surprise. It's HOW she quit.

The current managers didn't want to hire her in the first place, telling the then-manager that we had a bad feeling about her. But the then-store manager didn't care what anyone else thought so hired her anyway. (That manager is now at another store.)

She never fit in with our other employees, was always concerned with when her next break was; she was slow and made lots of mistakes and didn't do her share of the work. I showed her the same thing 5+ times and she STILL couldn't do it correctly. My friend's 11-year-old could have done the same thing after 2 or 3 demonstrations, no exaggeration! That's just some of the MANY, MANY problems we had with her. Had she not quit, she would have been fired within the next month or so anyway. I went into her further in Problem Employees.

So, on to HOW she quit: this employee called the REGIONAL manager, a close personal friend of hers, to quit. She told a lot of lies about the store and how it's run………we let regular employees do returns and voids, the managers don't work their scheduled hours, we treated her badly, etc. etc. Of course, no notice was given, so we're even more short-handed. Luckily, despite the relationship between the regional manager and the employee, the regional manager realized that we wouldn't be stupid enough to do the things that the employee said we did. So, bullet dodged, we're not getting into trouble or getting extra scrutiny.

A couple of things she said are sometimes true in special circumstances. Case in point: if I'm dealing with a difficult customer and another customer has a simple exchange, no money changing hands, I'll toss my keys to a long-term employee whom I trust and let her do the exchange. This lets me continue resolving the difficult situation without making the good customer wait. Officially against company policy, but keeping with the spirit of customer service. Another example: yes, I am sometimes late to work. But considering all the extra time I put in at night fixing that particular cashier's screw-ups, helping a customer when I'm on my way out the door, etc., I work my hours PLUS some.

We suspect that the employee thought she could tattletale, "quit," and then have the regional manager come in and give us all a good thrashing and give her the job back. Nope. Had that happened, we would have found ways to make her life a living hell, while following company rules to a "T." {sinister laugh}

Fine, don't listen to me.

I am SO MAD at the store manager right now. I thought I had her talked out of promoting Loud Attitude Girl. She decided to go ahead and put in the paperwork anyway, to see if she'll pass the background check. But if she passes the check, then she'll be a junior manager. Do you remember the problems I discussed with you?! I SO hope she doesn't pass the check. (It's basically to check if there's a criminal history or if you have a lot of unpaid debts or something—if you can't handle your own money, the company doesn't want you to have access to large amounts of cash.)

The very day that I found this out, the closing paperwork didn't add up right. What do you know, LAG undercharged a customer by a hundred bucks. I caught it so I could charge LAG for the mistake. Had I not caught it, I would have been charged. Again, she can't handle simple transactions on one cash register, yet we're going to let her handle the paperwork for the WHOLE STORE?!