Thursday, November 17, 2011

Fired - extended version - part 1


Just after Trevor and I were married we moved back to Utah (we had been living in Philadelphia for 2 months) and in with my parents.

We were desperate to find jobs; I was hired at Ross Dress for Less as their Front End Supervisor…. a cashier.

If you shop at Ross (which I still do, no hard feelings) you may have noticed their “Loss Prevention” people. They look like security guards, although here is a secret from me to you; they can’t do anything. Basically they are glorified Walmart greeters.

They do have a few additional duties other than saying hello and goodbye to people. Every couple of hours they walk around the store looking for stashed merchandise, broken items, cut hard tags, etc.

One day one of the loss prevention guys, Brian, (actual name, there are no innocent people in this story to protect) found a container full of these chocolate covered candy sticks that had been torn open and some of them were missing.
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At Ross they have a bucket called MOS, I can’t for the life of me remember what that stands for but that is the bucket we put all the stuff that is damaged or when people returned things that is broken and couldn't be resold. Everything that is going to be thrown away we put in this bucket so the manager can make a note that the item was damaged and not stolen, then into the trash compactor it goes, no matter what condition it’s in.

So Brian put this container with these candies in the MOS bucket and ended his shift.

Later in the evening, I was still there. Scott was the Loss Prevention guy working that night, I like Scott, we are buddies. Things were slow so I was back behind the counter scanning in the returns while we chatted.

There were a few of the candies up on the return counter so I was looking at them. They had names like: chocolate kahlua, cinnamon schnapps, and mint julep.  

I said, “there is no way these have actual liquor in them.” 

I pulled the container out of the MOS bucket to double check the ingredients.

Nope, no actual liquor.

So I had to try them, at least one of every flavor.
Scott was standing there so I offered some to him; it was dinnertime after all.

The next day I was working as was Brian. The Manager on duty, Niki, came up and started to pull everything out of MOS to take back to the trash compactor. Brian saw the container of candy and said,

“Hey that had more candy in it when I found it.”

So I said, “Yeah, I tried them, they are actually really good!”

“Well if you had some that means Scott had some too.”

“Yeah, sure, we all had some.”

“That is against Scott’s job description.”

Now I don’t know if Brian had a personal vendetta against Scott, or if he was just extremely honest.

I see him start to bee-line it to the back room, where our store manager, Nancylynn was.
Oh seriously, I thought. So I head back there as well.

I walk into her office as he is standing over her shoulder and they have the surveillance tape up from the night before.

They hear me come in and quickly shut down the tape like I caught them doing something they weren’t supposed to.

“Oh” I say, “Are you guys talking about last night? I can just tell you what happened. I ate some of the damaged candy that was in the MOS bin that Brian found yesterday. I realize now that it was probably wrong of me to just go ahead and eat it but I justified it because it was going to be thrown away anyway. Can I buy it now?”

Nancylynn responds “No, you can’t buy it. It’s not you I’m worried about, it’s Scott.”

“Why? I was the one who had the idea and gave some to Scott, it’s not his fault or responsibility, it is mine. I can write up a statement if you want.”

“Well we will have to see, I need to decide if I am going to report this to corporate or not.”

“Uh……..ok.” 




**This whole situation happened about 2 1/2 years ago when I worked for Ross. Not my current predicament with being laid off while on maternity leave from xango.

5 comments:

  1. OHHHH MY HOLLYNESS!!!! This is hands down the most redonkulous thing I have ever heard. You are bloody pregnant.... if you need a snack that is already in the "garbage" then why in the world do they care? Seriously!!!! I know that Utah can fire anyone for any reason and any time but I think you should fight this because you were on maternity leave and you they should have fired you before you had your baby. Seriously!!!! Not because you need or want money but because what these people did is wrong and I don't mean to sound harsh but Brian sounds like a complete douche bag!!! Again... sorry for the choice of words but I can't think of anything else as perfect as those two words. But seriously.... are we in kindergarden? That guy is pretty dang lame! And I hope he reads this and feels horrible, because that was wrong, along with Nancylynn. Only if Ross has a huge policy around it and she would be in a position of loosing her job by not reporting it, other then that she too is on the same level and Brian. I have to say though, I think it is a blessing for you. Why in the world would you ever want to work back there again knowing that someone would throw you under the bus like that... well I hope you can see it like that.

    I am sorry... that is really lame and unfortunate. If you are looking for work I hope you can find something that will be wonderful and even better then Ross. If you are at all interested in banks Wells Fargo is amazing and has the most amazing benefits!!

    PS I hope you don't mind me reading and commenting on your blog. I just think you and Sarah and all the other Steeds are amazing and I stop by from time to time because of the links you post on FB. I hope you don't think I am a weirdo...

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  2. PPS Good for you for sticking up for Scott... a lot of people would then throw him under the bus to save their job.

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  3. More Story!! That stinks they were going to throw the candy away anyways!

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  4. McKinley, you are so sweet! I am so grateful you have my back on this.

    But I needed to clarify, this story actually happened a couple years ago.

    I was recently laid off while on maternity leave from xango, but not for eating candy out of the garbage. I still do eat candy wherever I can get it, especially when I was pregnant.

    So although the whole thing is still pretty pathetic, it would have been way worse if I was pregnant at the time.

    I love that you read my blog! I read yours, your little boy is a doll! He is so dang cute. I also love that I only met you like once 5 years ago, I am glad we can still be friends. :)

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