If you haven’t read my previous post on my first job, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out BEFORE reading this post! Go read it and then come back to continue on with this story!
New Manager; New Nightmare
I had just enjoying my work at Dollar General when I was hit with my store manager, B, leaving. I’m not a big fan of change and was really nervous to see who our new store manager would be.
I remember coming in one day, at the time I rode my bike to work, and the new manager, T, was working and he asked if I wanted to take my bike and put it in the back warehouse that way it wouldn’t have to stay outside my whole shift. After my first meeting of him, I thought he was really cool, pretty relaxed and I thought he would be fun to have around to work with. This opinion quickly changed.
First Closing Shift with T
I have never been a big fan of working with the head manager. Not that I had anything to hide or there was really anything wrong with it, but it always made me extra nervous or paranoid that I was doing something wrong or do something they didn’t like. This first night that I closed with T, everything went really smooth. As said he seemed really laid back and he wanted to get out just as much as I did.
Now how the store is set up and how it runs, at the time, the registers were in the very front of the store, as most are. When it came to closing, the manager or key holder would take all the registers and count the money and then count out the safe and have the deposit ready for the next morning. There’s cameras in just about every spot of the store, except the restrooms and the break room. The problem with this is that in order to get to the office you have to go through the break room, so there’s a period of not having a camera on you.
When it has come to closing, I have always been spot on with what was suppose to be in the register come time to count. This night, I finished cleaning the bathrooms and swept and mopped and was ready to leave, when T comes out and says that I was $30 short on my register. I was shocked and the company has a pretty strict rule of being that short in the register. You’re basically given 3 chances and then you’re fired.
So T comes out and tells me this and proceeds to say “But if you bring me the $30 tomorrow I won’t tell anyone and nobody has to know that your register was short.” Red flag right away. I knew there was no way that I gave that much extra change away and I knew I didn’t take it. I didn’t really say anything to him, but when my mom picked me up that night I went home and just cried because I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t want to end up in trouble.
The Next Morning
The next morning, our key holder, C, called me and asked me what happened. She knew that I was never short like that and just knew something was wrong. I went to tell her the conversation that T had with me about bringing him the money. She reassured me that everything would be alright and that she was going to make a call to our loss prevention to get it taken care of.
I was somewhat relieved but at the same time was nervous to go into work that afternoon. When I got into work that day, loss prevention was already there with our district manager, G. They told me that they would going to be interviewing both me and the store manager to get down to basically see who the guilty one was. When it came time for my interview, honestly, it was terrible.
They sat me down next to them. It was me, the loss prevention lady and my district manager. They asked me to tell my side of the story and after I finished, it was a full on lecture and a threat. She told me, “Well the problem here is that there are different stories being told. I am hearing that you are the one that offered to bring in the $30 so that you wouldn’t get in trouble and if we find out that you are the one that stole the money, we will have a police officer come into the store and arrest you in front on everyone.”
At that point I just wanted to quit but I knew I couldn’t because that would just make me look guilty of something I didn’t do. They gave me time to calm down, because at that point I was having a full on panic attack and was told that I could go to the bathroom to calm down. However, T came knocking on the door to tell me that I needed to get on register.
Further Theft
In the weeks/months that followed, every time our store manager would close, someone’s register would come up short on money. After multiple phone calls to the district manager, it was finally decided that everyone would count their own register in front of each other that way there was no way that someone could steal without the other person knowing and you were now in control of your own register.
Nobodies registers were coming up short anymore and it was fine for a little while. That is until the nightly deposits started coming up $200 short every time T closed. Nothing was being done about it because according to our district manager, there was no proof that he was the one taking the money, even though it only happened when he closed.
Not only were the deposits coming up short, every time they would come up short, suddenly our store manager would go on “vacation” or would have a “family emergency” and would be gone for 1-2 weeks before he would return and start the process over again.
FINALLY our district manager came in one day to tell us that T would no longer be working with us due to him being caught on camera taking money and putting it in his pocket. The nightmare of dealing with this manager was finally over and we were going to be getting a new store manager soon.
Stay tuned for my future post on this last store manager and the reason why I quit working at Dollar General. As always, thank you for reading along. Don’t forget to hit the follow button on the right side of the screen to get notified of future posts.
Mel's Life 
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