Also, I rarely use specific names (even if I know them). I don’t want people fired.
A guy I know used to call those “How am I driving” phone numbers on trucks and claim the guy was all over the road, or gave him the finger or something. Until I told him he may be ruining someone’s life, marriage, career. How would he like it if I call his job and told the company he was stealing or showing up to jobs drunk? What he thought (at the time) was a harmless prank could be a life-altering even for someone and his family. I think I got through to him.
So, I don’t give names. Except once. An assistant manager at a grocery store accused me of stealing a half-pound of roast beef cold cuts. I waved it by the scanner and I guess it didn’t register. When I was leaving, she called me aside and said I was stealing.
I was like, oops, my bad. I’ll pay the $7 and we can get on with our lives. She wanted to call the cops on me for shoplifitng.
i was like: lady, I’m here probably 5-6 times a week. Do you think I’d really try to steal $7 worth of roast beef?
And she said, and I’m not kidding: How do we know you’re not stealing a whole lot more!
That set me off. I put the roast beef on the counter and walked out. She called out and said she had my address info b/c I used my shopper card. i said, tell them to pick me up at my house then.
I called the store and talked to the manager (I was so mad before, I didn’t escalate when I was there, just wanted to get the hell away from the woman.
The manager understood, and said there has been a lot of slippage lately, but the assistant manager was way out of line. Comped my shopping trip and then some with a $100 store credit. (My bill was like $85)
Turns out the lady was suspended for a week. And eventually let go. None of the employees liked her and she had several bad run-ins with customers.
She’s currently working on the floor at a Kohls.
