I screwed up at work...

[knightrider01]

I recently started working at a liquor store and tonight being New Years Eve it was of course busy. At the end of the night though when we had to count the drawers I was $80 short. I know I didn't take it and I certainly can't think of giving out wrong change to any customer.

Thing is I am really worried and am afraid of being fired and I honestly don't know what to do. I tried talking to the manager and even offered to pay off the missing money or have it taken out of my pay but he seemed really distant about it and kind of ignored some of my questions. FAN do you have any advice.

[Deleted]

Did you check if you dropped any money? Or did someone swap some cash with you. If it was busy...it would be easy to have a mix up.

Don't worry about it, everyone has bad days.

[Deleted]

Jan 1, 2014 2:53:51 GMT -5 knightrider01 said:

I tried talking to the manager and even offered to pay off the missing money or have it taken out of my pay but he seemed really distant about it and kind of ignored some of my questions.

Unfortunately your manager most likely took your offer to take the 80 dollars out of your check as an admission of guilt on your part. I know shit happens when working a cash register on a busy day, but 80 dollars is a significant amount of money to be missing from a register. It also doesn't help matters that you're a relatively new employee that (I assume) hasn't had enough time to build a bond of trust with your manager. Not to put you into panic mode, but the outcome will probably be your termination.

[knightrider01]

Jan 1, 2014 3:11:07 GMT -5 @hobojack said:

Jan 1, 2014 2:53:51 GMT -5 knightrider01 said:

I tried talking to the manager and even offered to pay off the missing money or have it taken out of my pay but he seemed really distant about it and kind of ignored some of my questions.

Unfortunately your manager most likely took your offer to take the 80 dollars out of your check as an admission of guilt on your part. I know shit happens when working a cash register on a busy day, but 80 dollars is a significant amount of money to be missing from a register. It also doesn't help matters that you're a relatively new employee that (I assume) hasn't had enough time to build a bond of trust with your manager. Not to put you into panic mode, but the outcome will probably be your termination.

Yeah I know I shouldn't have said it but I have never been in this situation before and was scared. But I know I didn't steal it or had any iffy transactions but I have no idea where it went and am screwed.

[Dean-o]

$80 missing seems like a whole lot to be a simple mistake...I mean I don't care if your Stone Cold Steve Austin, if you hand somebody $80 extra in change their body expression should key you in on an error, UNLESS you made multiple mistakes. Did anybody else use the register after it was counted down for you to use? Are there security cameras on the registers?

Also, I know in my store people can sometimes hit cash by mistake when the customer wanted to pay with a credit card, and myself or another manager would have to do a post void to balance out the cash. Did anything like this happen?

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

At this point, there really isn't going to be much you can do. Try to remember anything suspicious through the night, and see if there some mistake you made that you might be able to learn from.

If you liquor store is part of a corporate chain, it might be best to see if the company has any policies on employee discipline as it pertains to improper cash handling, so you can at least know your potential fate.

[kolani]

As a manager who deals with this and cash audits all the time (and does loss prevention), don't talk about it too much, or be too eager to discuss it. That automatically raises a red flag with loss prevention.

[BigBadZ]

Bang the bosses daughter and you'll be running the store in no time



But seriously, if you are worried they think you stole it, they have probably have cameras that can be watches to show you didn't If ya'll take checks, make sure they ran through the system correctly (if you hit the 'cash' button, the cash will be short but till will balance because of the check). Maybe an order was rung up but needed to be voided and wasn't voided correctly, so the till thinks it should have 'x' amount of money but the product was never sold. Again, I don't know the size of the store but there could have been multiple people on the same register and anyone could have made a mistake. A 5 year person could just as easily made a mistake as a first day employee.

$80 sounds like the end of the world but if it was a mistake, you'll probably be alright but if you stole it, you're gone. At one of my old jobs, I was in charge of cash flow for the store and if someone made a mistake, I talked to them to help teach but stealing got the employee promoted to being a customer.

[jagilki]

Update? Or are you in jail right now?

[mizerable]

I had a similar incident happen at my first job. Only problem is...I had been there for 3 years.

Now, while I DID know a relatively easy way to skim the register, I wasn't stupid enough to talk about it or actually do it. And if someone was to do it, I think they'd be smart enough to not go for a large sum, as that immediately becomes harder to work with.

Anyways, I got pulled into the upstairs office of our grocery story. Both company managers were there, and they began discussing the fact that there was missing money from my register. Now, while I wasn't one to panic, and didn't at first, when they got to the amount, I started to panic.

Over $200 was missing, and I swore up and down I had nothing to do with it. They asked me a few questions, before saying they were "going to watch me on the cameras", which is pretty silly since I was well aware that they didn't have any (not that I took advantage of it).

A couple days pass by, and I hear from another employee that is was actually SEVERAL registers missing money, and that I wasn't the only one at my register that day. The thing that pissed me off the most, was the fact that *I* was the only person they suspected. They didn't question anyone else, nor did they ever find out who it was. I had been a relatively good employee up until that point (at least for a teenager), and the fact that they did that to me, angered me to the point that I ended up quitting a month later, which in hindsight was a bad idea, since I wasn't likely going to get their recommendation, nor did I have another job on the horizon until well over a year later.

All I can say is, there's not much you can do. Sounds like you either gave someone a wrong bill back, or got quick changed. Depending how management treats it, really should be an indicator if you decide to stick around or not.

[CM Dazz]

Jan 2, 2014 1:45:49 GMT -5 jagilki said:

Update? Or are you in jail right now?

I'm guessing he was either locked away in Siberia or had his hands cut off. There's a small chance everything worked out & he forgot he made this thread, but I'm betting on either option A or B.

[Legion]

This reminds me of a time when I was working in retail and my till was down £20 at the end of the day. I knew full well I hadn't stolen it, but couldn't for the life of me think how it could have happened.

Then I remembered that it was this guy who bought a film that I was completely distracted by because he was incredibly good looking, was buying one of my favourite movies and was having the full impact of me trying to flirt/find out if he was in to guys/if I had a chance.

As such, I'd been so concentrating on doing that, I'd de-tagged and bagged his item and such without actually scanning it through the till. Thus, he got a free blu ray.

Obviously I couldn't tell my boss that was what happened so just stuck with the vehement confusion and slight embarrassment about the situation, and as I was a supervisor and had been there a while, just got told to be more careful and that was that.

Unfortunately for me the guy was straight, so I really got nothing out of that situation, aside from the laugh now when thinking back about it and how stupid it was.

[Capt Lunatic]

We all wish you luck in your future endeavors.

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

I use to work a hotel gift shop it was a family business, and the bosses daughter drawer was always short 20 dollars turns out she was stealing the twenty and using it for what ever instead of her getting in trouble or getting fired I was the one to get fired

[Cry Baby]

I once accidently scanned through over £90 worth of products in training mode on my till. Did the card transaction and everything. Gave the guy his receipt, he left and I looked at the screen and realised what I'd done. Obviously the it hadn't worked, because training mode doesn't run real transactions. I'd been there about three weeks at this point. Still didn't get fired. I guess it just depends on the manager and whether or not they're going to take the risk.

[knightrider01]

Jan 2, 2014 7:23:55 GMT -5 CM Dazz said:

Jan 2, 2014 1:45:49 GMT -5 jagilki said:

Update? Or are you in jail right now?

I'm guessing he was either locked away in Siberia or had his hands cut off. There's a small chance everything worked out & he forgot he made this thread, but I'm betting on either option A or B.

No I am not in jail just sitting at home worried. Store was closed for New Years and I went up there to talk to the manager about what happened and feeling a little better. I know saying I would pay for it or even talking about it to him is suspicious but I am just scared. I have never had this happen before and I am just the worrying type. But he said he would count all the money in the store and check the cameras and see what he finds. Thing is I just don't was to be called a thief or an idiot.

[CM Dazz]

Jan 2, 2014 18:47:34 GMT -5 knightrider01 said:

Jan 2, 2014 7:23:55 GMT -5 CM Dazz said:

I'm guessing he was either locked away in Siberia or had his hands cut off. There's a small chance everything worked out & he forgot he made this thread, but I'm betting on either option A or B.

No I am not in jail just sitting at home worried. Store was closed for New Years and I went up there to talk to the manager about what happened and feeling a little better. I know saying I would pay for it or even talking about it to him is suspicious but I am just scared. I have never had this happen before and I am just the worrying type. But he said he would count all the money in the store and check the cameras and see what he finds. Thing is I just don't was to be called a thief or an idiot.

Honestly, I think you're good dude. If they really thought you stole it they would've checked the camera and/or fired you immediately. If I thought one of my employees stole $80, he wouldn't be leaving the shop on his own. He'd be in cuffs & on his way to the unemployment line.
I think you can relax. Don't let it ruin your days.

[jagilki]

Yeah, should note, I'm in no way serious.

[BigBadZ]

Jan 2, 2014 18:52:35 GMT -5 CM Dazz said:

Jan 2, 2014 18:47:34 GMT -5 knightrider01 said:

No I am not in jail just sitting at home worried. Store was closed for New Years and I went up there to talk to the manager about what happened and feeling a little better. I know saying I would pay for it or even talking about it to him is suspicious but I am just scared. I have never had this happen before and I am just the worrying type. But he said he would count all the money in the store and check the cameras and see what he finds. Thing is I just don't was to be called a thief or an idiot.

Honestly, I think you're good dude. If they really thought you stole it they would've checked the camera and/or fired you immediately. If I thought one of my employees stole $80, he wouldn't be leaving the shop on his own. He'd be in cuffs & on his way to the unemployment line.
I think you can relax. Don't let it ruin your days.

You tell us you live in Chicago, but I can't help but think your job is in Cobb County, GA.