Surprise Promotion
This happened a few years ago. When I was 16, I got my first job working for a franchise-owned pizza place. I worked there until I was 24. When I was 19, I received the shift leader position and got a 30-cent raise. Our store was pretty slow and we only had a handful of employees there, so I understood. One day, the franchise owner comes in when I’m running my shift to tell me I would be getting a new manager.
The franchise owner gave me his personal number and said if I needed anything, to call him if the new manager had any problems. So the next day I’m working my 10 am to 12 am shift and the new manager comes in. We’ll call him Stan. We talk a little more and he asks why there isn’t an assistant manager. I let him know we probably don’t make enough to pay an assistant manager.
He said he would worry about that and he left. I jumped to the conclusion that he was going to make me the assistant. I was so, so wrong. I closed that night and had to come in at 4 pm the next day. When I did, Stan was there with a girl I’ve never seen before, and she was wearing one of our uniforms. He said it was his roommate “Wendy.”
She had never worked for a pizza place before, but she just lost her job. He hired her as the assistant manager and completely changed my schedule and severely cut my hours. Oh, and guess who had to train her? Yep. Before Stan and Wendy, I worked 10 am to 12 am four days a week, then 4 to close on two other days. Now I just had 4 pm to 12 am five days a week. No more overtime. That severely hurt me financially but I sucked it up.
This place was pretty much in my back yard and I loved my job before all this mess. The next couple of weeks are okay, except one huge thing is off. We are coming up short every night that I close. Usually, it’s no more than $10, but that’s a lot! And it was coming back on me because I’m the one who does the nightly inventory, paperwork, and deposits.
I brought the shortage problem to Stan and he told me if it kept happening, he would start taking it from my check! I had never taken a penny from this place and I felt pretty attacked. He says he wasn’t accusing me, just letting me know what he would have to do. I said fine, but every day from now on, when I close I want to do a shift change.
A shift change is basically counting down the drawers, which would help figure out where the shortages are coming from. He agrees. The very next day, I go in at 4:00 and start clocking in and all that fun stuff before Wendy leaves. I look at the order screen for the day to see how well we did for lunch (money-wise) and that’s when I notice something.
It said at 12 a customer, who just so happened to be one of my regulars, called and ordered 10 pizzas for pick up. Then it said the order was canceled. They had never canceled before, so I was concerned. Quick side note—I feel like I was being more of a manager than both of mine put together. While I was in the back office counting the drawers, Wendy was covering the front.
I pick up the phone and call the customer from earlier. I didn’t ask why he canceled, I just asked how his experience was today since we had a new manager. He said it was fine except she needed to learn how to work the credit card machine. Apparently, she told him she could only take cash. He said he left, went to the ATM, and came back and paid $80.00 in cash for the pizzas.
He said other than that, everything was fine. I asked to confirm and he said he most definitely didn’t cancel. So here’s one possibility. The credit card machine did go down and she could only accept cash, so she canceled the order in the computer until he came back and paid, and she just forgot to ring it up again. That would be harmless. But I had a darker idea.
I thought she was taking money. I knew if I went to Stan he wouldn’t do anything about it, so I called our franchise owner “Eric.” I ask his opinion and he said he thinks I’m right. So he tells me what to do. First, I wasn’t allowed to say a word about it to Stan or Wendy. He said let Wendy leave and finish out the day as usual. He said if she’s not doing it, you will come up $80.00 over at the end of the night.
If she’s stealing, we should break even. I finished counting, and we were just one dollar short. The next day is when the magic happens. I go in at 4 as usual. Wendy is there waiting for Stan to pick her up, then Eric walks in. He tells her to follow her to the office and tells me to send Stan back when he gets here. Stan comes in and asks why Eric is there.
I shrug and tell him he’s wanted in the office. Maybe 20 minutes later, Stan walks out, brushes past me, and gets in his car. Wendy comes out next and tells me she hopes I’m happy. Eric hadn’t come out of the office yet so I went back there to talk to him. He said in three weeks they took over $1,000 between them and he would have never known if it wasn’t for me.
He then says, “Oh, you’re the new assistant manager, I’m gonna give you $13.00 an hour and we will consider more after a preliminary period.” $13 an hour. I was making $8.50 before this. I stayed a few more years after this and left to do the mom thing. I actually miss it sometimes. Wendy and Stan Facebook stalked me for a couple months after, it was pretty hilarious.
Story credit: Reddit / ifallupthestairsalot