~What do you think?~

[kuronosan]

Like I said. Retail is fucked up. And if I didn't say it before, then retail is fucked up. Most people are only concerned about the top line and don't care about the bottom line. If their numbers are high, who gives a shit how the company works on the inside?

That's why I hate retail and I can't wait until I get my degree so I'm done with it. Everyone's expendable, even the people who actually make profit for the company and bring customers in.

[Shuemue]

Reminds me of a friend who worked at winco, she was on the management scheme, literally weeks away from getting her own store, but she ended up in a relationship with another employee, they fired her but not him, because he wasn't on the management scheme.

I can understand firing them both, but they've effectively said, yeah you can fuck your boss but you can't fuck a subordinate

[Azalee]

As someone said above, it seems like they were just looking for a reason to fire you. To me the most reasonable thing would have been to say, "Hey dickface, turn on the security system when you leave." And if you still were not turning it on, then they could fire you. But otherwise they were just being jerks.

[Biggz]

Texas is a at will state they can fire you whenever for whatever pretty much.

[Tekki]

As a store manager, I am not at all surprised by their decision. Ultimately, I suspect you are not surprised as well. You probably know just as well as I do why you were fired. Sorry man, but thats a LOT of merchandise to go missing under your name. I don't know what they did with the rest of your crew, but it would be the opinion of most DMs, RMs, VPs, LPMs, to eliminate the entire staff. I can only echo their opinion on your DMs decision.

It is the priority of Managers to protect their store assets and thus if any actions are taken to jeopardize the companies assets, then yes, they will eliminate you. Especially if it is your direct responsibility to do so (SMs). In the case of an extremely high level LP issue, if any member of the team that did anything that could have jeopardized the assets, they would be fired.

For those who don't agree with the actions of the company I think its a fair assumption that if you invested millions of dollars into store fronts, you would not want any member of your team to take any risks when it comes to your assets. Especially when it comes to nearly $10,000 worth of product....

Id be interested in how he pulled that much product out from under you. My guess is the investigation concluded he was pulling product out of the store when he was working alone. When they pulled the tapes to review when it was happening, they noticed that no one was setting the burglary alarms when they left the store... unattended. Not only did they find how he was taking so much product, but they found a practice that was not addressed by the SM in the first place.

Honestly that just seems like common sense to me... I've never been told "When you go get change from the bank, or need to leave the store temporarily, reset the alarm" I just assumed I had to do that because I was physically closing my store like I would any other time. With the locks locked, and the alarms on.

[Katlan]

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii hiro!!! <3
tell mira I said "hi!'

Whether you have a case or not depends on if it is employment at will (or termination at will). It is possible for a company to fire you for no reason as long as it's not retaliatory or discrimination. If I'm reading this correctly, I don't have an issue with them firing you.

Edit: Every state has different exceptions (and some no net at all). You'll need to research your state.

I hate to say it but Tyche is on target w/this one... They can honestly fire you for no reason if they want to, but it's considered bad employment practice & that's why its hardly ever done this way. If you think you were treated unfairly I would get a copy of the employment handbook and bring it to an atty for review. While they can fire you for no reason... they can't give a reason for firing you that wasn't covered under the employer handbook (i.e. does the handbook list the necessary measures you need to take when you leave the office? If it does - and you didn't set the alarm - then your unfortunantly screwed).

I'd be angry also, but as Tekki said... somebody needs to take the blame for the store to cover their own ass (to be blunt).. So firing the culprit & the person who was responsibel for the store at the time is the most likely outcome

[Yuri-G]

Shit sucks but I highly doubt you have a chance in court, most jobs in retail are at-will as was previously mentioned in this thread. If your contract somehow holds up though, then go for it, fuckers who pull like this should pay. I wish you the best.

[Norellicus]

As for the whole spiel, I'd at least talk to a lawyer, see what they think. Just talking to one doesn't oblige you to carry through with a suit or anything. But as for this:

Do I have a right to be upset at this blatant defamation of character?

I'm not so sure that being fired for alleged neglect can be considered a defamation of character. New hires are usually given the opportunity to explain their departures from previous jobs, so even if your record states "Failure to protect company assets" you still are afforded the chance to provide context.

[Hiro Lionheart]

As a store manager, I am not at all surprised by their decision. Ultimately, I suspect you are not surprised as well. You probably know just as well as I do why you were fired. Sorry man, but thats a LOT of merchandise to go missing under your name. I don't know what they did with the rest of your crew, but it would be the opinion of most DMs, RMs, VPs, LPMs, to eliminate the entire staff. I can only echo their opinion on your DMs decision.

It is the priority of Managers to protect their store assets and thus if any actions are taken to jeopardize the companies assets, then yes, they will eliminate you. Especially if it is your direct responsibility to do so (SMs). In the case of an extremely high level LP issue, if any member of the team that did anything that could have jeopardized the assets, they would be fired.

For those who don't agree with the actions of the company I think its a fair assumption that if you invested millions of dollars into store fronts, you would not want any member of your team to take any risks when it comes to your assets. Especially when it comes to nearly $10,000 worth of product....

Id be interested in how he pulled that much product out from under you. My guess is the investigation concluded he was pulling product out of the store when he was working alone. When they pulled the tapes to review when it was happening, they noticed that no one was setting the burglary alarms when they left the store... unattended. Not only did they find how he was taking so much product, but they found a practice that was not addressed by the SM in the first place.

Honestly that just seems like common sense to me... I've never been told "When you go get change from the bank, or need to leave the store temporarily, reset the alarm" I just assumed I had to do that because I was physically closing my store like I would any other time. With the locks locked, and the alarms on.

I can see how you get that view, and that's only one I could likely get from another person who's ran a store themselves~

However it's not entirely correct, which is a given for the fact I didn't explain that part of the situation (Didn't want to rant further on the original post). For starters, there are no recorded video cameras at the stores, only rolling ones (viewing only), so they have no video or sound captured evidence against the single employee who's being accused of over 10,000$ of theft, only blatant evidence that points towards him being the only possible explanation.

Last Thursday working alone (my day off), this employee called me around 11:30am to inform me he was making a quick bank run (as he occasionally did prior, to let me know it would be a quick thing). I didn't answer the phone at the time, and only heard this on a message.

Skip forward until 2pm, and my part-timer comes in to work, to find the store still closed, and immediately noticed our 32" TV's missing (Floor Stack, hard to miss). She calls me then with no answer, then again at 5:30pm to explain she's not sure where the TV's are, and I inform her I'll do a thorough search the next day.

Friday, I get in and find not only are the TV's gone, but laptops, scanners, GPS', MP3 Players, and many other high value items (Totaling just under 4,000$). I immediately bring this to my DM and LPs attention, explaining every detail and circumstance of the situation, so on and so forth. As you can see, regardless of the alarm issue, this theft would have occurred either way, as an associate planning to steal in this fashion would have succeeded either way. In no way did any actions on my part allow him to steal these items, it was blatantly of his own accord, and was a rather poor choice.

In fact, irony has it that my actions as a Store Manager helped expedite the accusations against him. I just so happened to have completed a Cage Count (Inventory of all high value merchandise in the store) Wednesday night after closing (All things stolen occurred the following day), and of course did a follow-up Cage Count on Friday, to pin-point EVERYTHING that was stolen between those periods of time. This helped speed up the case considerably quicker, as they had an actual dollar amount, without having to wait until the pains of a full Inventory.

Either way, when LP came to hear out the case, and couldn't find the crooked employee, they decided there was a good chance he had an accomplice, and pointed their ire towards me for a good hour of drilling. I by no means had anything to do with it, as my annual salary and even bi-weekly/monthly is much larger than what was stolen, and by no means worth it, however they made their decision. If you think mathematically about it though...4,000$ of merchandise (again, retail cost, not company cost)...let's say you get REALLY lucky and sell ALL of that for 3,000$ (Which is shooting pretty damn high), and then split it by 2 (assuming I'm the accomplice). Therefore I would have mad a measly 1,500$ at the potential cost of my job which makes close to that bi-weekly...Oh Yeah~ Brilliant~ Let's do it....no~

The decision has been made and I'm moving forward, but I still find this to be blatantly wrong~ Nothing I can do at this point with the company, and no use crying much over spilled milk...however I have no intentions of letting them tar my record with "failure to protect company assets" when an employee decides to steal. His lack of ethics by no means should compromise my own~

Side Note: 4,000$ was stolen last Thursday, with the DM believing over 10,000$ total of the recent event, and previous Known Thefts to have been by the employee. I'd been raising Red Flags about him for the last few months, but only the DM has firing capabilities.


Edit: Herro Katlan ^-^/

[Tormentormike]

RadioShack, hahahahahahaha.

God I couldn't wait to quit that job. Manager was a total prick the whole time, constantly bitched that I didn't clock out to take a sip from my drink, but when his best friend goes out for a cigarette every 30 minutes, no big deal.

[Tekki]

I shitty situation man, thats all I have to say. I feel for ya, I trust what you are saying is 100% true. But I also know why they fired you.

The reason I am in the position I am right now is b/c the previous manager was transferred to a store where the manager was fired instantly for a missing XB360. It turns out he was simply swapping 360s, one from home, (He wanted the black elite for his white HDMI regular). He brought it back and everything was fine, but when they found out (through the ASM or 3rd key) he was fired instantly. The guy was a great guy, perfect manager. Just poor judgment and messed with his integrity with the company.

A few years ago a manager was fired for a missing deposit. He turned it in, he was convinced of it, and everyone trusted he did, but it never came up. They fired him. A month later it was found stuck in the tumbler of the banks night deposit box.

Retailers simply don't risk anything, at any amount. They can afford, very easily, to replace employees. With those two mentalities they take no second thought in getting rid of employees.

It can be viewed as a shitty mentality but these firings are actually rather rare. For the most part managers, including myself, try our best to make sure procedures are followed. There really isn't anything overly complicated to follow, and its not like we have to perpetually look over our shoulder to make sure we are keeping everything in line to prevent losing our own job.

If you've moved on, then that's good. Sounds like you have enough time and experience to quickly find a position elsewhere.

[izembo]

and why weren't you answering your phone on the day they were trying to call you when the situation was taking place? being out of reach for such long hours on an off day can cause a lot of problems if you are in a management position.

[Shuemue]

and why weren't you answering your phone on the day they were trying to call you when the situation was taking place? being out of reach for such long hours on an off day can cause a lot of problems if you are in a management position.

Fuck that. A day off is not a day spent on call.

[izembo]

as a store manager it is

[Shuemue]

good thing I don't work in retail then I guess

[MarkM.]

Texas is what is known as a "right to work state." Pretty much, you can get fired for w/e the fuck they feel like and you have no recourse. Sorry to hear about your problems.

[Dezso]

Yo Hiro

First off, hope everything else is going well with you and Mira, second off, that bites.

It boils down to the scapegoat process. Your DM didn't take the proper actions needed to fire the person. Therefore when things started to pile up, your DM probably panicked and needed to act as if they were not aware of the situation. Also working at two retail jobs which had many issues with stolen merchandise, store managers would be the first ones to have actions taken against them, regardless of company history.

When it comes to loss prevention, your DM should have taken quick action - however it didn't happen. The other option that you could have done was to go above his head, but then you'd be accused of insubordination, and thus could be fired for that. In the end, you'd be stuck with no other recourse other than waiting it out - which you did and the end result was this.

I was always trained to turn on the security system whenever leaving the store, even if it was right next door. I don't agree with it being an offense being fired over, however it does seem someone needed to be canned, and they'll get ride of store managers before DMs. DMs are the ones cozy and friends with the higher up suits. As it was posted, retail stores can and will fire many employees at a whim - it's retail, promote one person and grab another off the street to replace the open position.

As far as bringing a lawyer/lawsuit into it, it's not worth it. Lawyers aren't cheap, and you can easily be spending months to years fighting it when you can be placing all of your energy into getting another job. What will be difficult however is explaining in your interview your reasoning for being fired. I'm sure however anyone with common sense would understand what happened.

Only thing I could suggest is to just take what you learned from there, and go find another job. Hope everything works out well.

[Tekki]

A lot of times retail giants only confirm employment when you list them as past jobs/references and LP issues do not follow you unless you are prosecuted. If you have the tenure, then you should have plenty of positive references from co-managers, etc, to create a positive interview/application.