Holiday Hiring Hell

Greetings RHU'ers, C-Store Jockey here.

I have been managing my little store for just over a month now. I've learned the ropes, I've got everything under control. My first two inventory audits came out better than the last four. When I inherited the store, There were six employees. The old manager got done that day leaving five. I was removed from my cashier position to be manager, leaving the cashier count at four. This would be no big deal except we are open 24/7. Cashiers were called from other stores to fill my shifts, being a full timer, there were five shifts to fill.

I hired one seemingly pleasant person "Jon", with plans to hire one more. I took on "Lizzie" from another store, she wanted off overnights and I had days available. Thus, I was back to six cashiers. Three days later, "Jean" put in her notice. Around the same time "Kathy" told me she needed the next five weeks off because she had a seasonal job that was giving her 50 hours a week.

So I was back down to four. I put a sign up in the door stating that I was hiring, applications trickled in. Most of the applications I have seen appear to have been written by a six year old. One person asked for FOUR apps, "In case I make a mistake man". OK, does he think I'm going to give him four cash drawers and hope ONE of them comes out right? Finally, a decent application comes in, and I hire the guy, call him "Mike". His sister used to work for us back in the day.

About a week later, "Aaron" one of my overnight guys tells me that Jon had a meltdown on shift. He had a minor gas drive-off, I was only going to write him up for it. He began swearing, kicking things, and pounding on the counter. He was so worried I was going to fire him over that, that he lost control of his temper in front of a line of customers. Another manager had led a tobacco and alcohol class the week before, he told me that when Jon arrived, he may have been high. I knew of his past weed use, I went to high school with him. I made it crystal clear when I hired him that there would be absolute ZERO tolerance for drug use when it affects work. What he does on his day off is none of my business, but he cant be high on the job.

I fired him for the outburst, I explained that if he is going to react that violently to a minor situation, how could I trust him if something major were to happen, especially where he works the overnight shift. He took the news remarkably well, which leads me to believe that this was not his first termination.

***

Flash forward to today, I still only have four cashiers. I have a handful of applications, none of which are worth considering. Some have lengthy rap sheets, one guy even turned in two applications with two completely DIFFERENT work histories! If the economy is really as bad as the pundits say it is, I should be having people applying who are ridiculously overqualified. It seems here in Maine at least, people would rather sit on unemployment or collect welfare than to do an honest day's work. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people who legitimately collect state benefits, but when people specifically avoid work to maintain their benefits, I get cranky. Uncle Sam takes over $120 of my paycheck every week to pay for people to come in and buy slim jims and redbull on EBT food, and bagged tobacco and tubes on cash welfare. These are often the same people who turn in applications that I swear were written by a dog.

Well, thats it from Management he--, no, limbo for now, next update in a couple weeks.

--C-Store Jockey

 

Comments

[c]

I agree, it makes no sense to write up the employee for the customer driving off. Not a good store policy. The employee has no power to stop it from happening.
The nonchalant"I was just going to wite him up for a drive off " comment was just too flip. To put someone's job on the line for something that was out of his control is soemthing that is not taken lightly.

[Maskedmustelid]

Well, when I worked in a service station, is was my responsibility to record down the numberplate of every care that pulled up, in the event that a drive-off did occur, as the security cameras didn't always get a clear view of the plates themselves, not counting the issue of getting into the office to review the security tapes to find the rego when no manager was present or during the graveyard shift etc.

Without any info on hand to go by, it's kind of hard to call the police and say 'We just had a drive-off, I think it was a blue car...'.

Sure, it was kind of ridiculous to try and get down every single plate when things were busy, but the rest of the time it was actually a reasonable request to abide by, or likewise reasonable to get written up on if we were being careless.

Not saying it's necessarily the same thing as what happened here, but at least they're not being illegally pressured into paying out for the fuel instead.

[Just Jess]

I think all gas stations should have it where it is either prepaid or pay at the pump so there isn't that issue

Also, in the past a former manager showed me an application someone turned in where the question said what is good customer service, the answered "giving good customer service". Really?! WTF kind of answer is that. That answer alone made him not get a call back

[C Store Manager]

To clarify-- It is not my policy to write up cashiers for drive offs unless they become excessive.

Before this month we had gone quite a while without a drive off, and all the ones we had in the past month were on HIS shift.

I attended a seminar for managers recently. The speaker told us that in %70 of cases, drive offs are caused by employees. I tend to doubt that statistic, but when you have a cashier that has/had a drug problem, and you start seeing drive offs in the ten to twnety dollar range, it gets you wondering.

If it were up to me, we would be a prepay only station unless running a card at the pump. The corporate office doesnt want that.

I have a fellow manager whose policy is this: Within a 90 day period, first drive off over $20 without info is a write-up, second is a three day suspension, third is termination. I think thats a bit unfair, but it seems to work for him.

My policy is to use common sense, had the $16 driveoff happend to a cashier whose drawer was always spot on, and who never has drive offs, i would have simply told him to keep a better eye on things.

We only have two double sided pumps, we are hardly a truckstop with poor visibility.

[ScanGunMonkey]

I think my confusion might be because I've never worked at a gas station (and because all of them down here in the land of the Razorbacks are pre-pay, at least that I've seen), but why on earth is a cashier going to be written up for a customer stealing gasoline? I mean...that's like the overblown equivalent of disciplining a sales associate because nobody wants to sign up for the store credit card when they've already got three others...can someone please explain the logic there to me? I can understand if the assumption is that the cashier is willfully allowing the driver to steal...but if I'm manning a register inside, and there's a dude in a two-ton chunk of metal and fiberglass out there...I can't exactly stop him from leaving without a few explosives and a spike strip or two.

[trekkiebabe31]

I might be wrong (never worked at a gas station) but when I get gas I always prepay and usually they unlock the pump from inside for me once they have my money. Maybe this person just leaves the pumps on all the time, thus making it easier to drive off?

[CrazyCatLady]

We have a similar problem at work. There's supposed to be a job crisis with loads of people looking for work, yet we only get applications from people who are really unsuitable.

I've even had to stop discarding applications with misused apostrophes!

[Philos Smith]

Are you advertising for help in the local paper? Personally since I don't go to convenience stores as they're too expensive, I wouldn't see the sign. I only check online and talk to friends and family asking them to keep an eye out for jobs.

[Redheadactress]

Hey C-Store Jockey, you would happen to be in Florida near the Disney area would you? I could come in and apply.

And right now, I have to be on EBT since losing my job. I have been actively applying and taking shifts.

I do however know that depending on the job, you might get more money by not doing nothing than busting your ass. I know it isn't fair.

[Redheadactress]

Let me redo that. I have to be on EBt since losing Cosmo's and Mouse only giving me one day a week if I am lucky.

[Humor_Me]

Wow, you can get power drinks on EBT there? Every other place I've been won't cover power drinks on EBT.

In a way, a person does have to decide whether its affordable to work. I have been trying to get my Social Security worker to call me so that I can find out how much I can work (I've found a possible home telephone service job) without it costing more to work than it would to stay on SSI/SSDI. I seriously have to consider any lost benefits with my health issues. If it means I lose benefits to go back to work, I'm better off not working now matter how much I WANT to go back to work. It sucks, but that's just how my life is.

I will have to say that I'm very proud of my lack of a record and the fact that I can (almost always) complete a sentence without errors (although some days it doesn't feel like it). I don't know if it is the age of texting or not, but the spelling of the younger generation seems to have gone to hell in a handbasket. Its like all of the spelling and sentence structure you taught the younger generation went in one ear and out the other. I would hate to be a teacher. I'd be pulling my hair out. Did you hear that (IN?) was going to stop teaching cursive? *facepalm* Apparently no one needs to know how to sign their name anymore.

[Bobo]

I've always gotten two application forms when applying for a job, in case of mistakes. It seems more professional in my opinion to take more than 1 copy. Not to mention I'm Dysgraphic and can not write things by hand well. My hand writing looks like a kindergarten students. Doesn't have any other effect on me my grammar and punctuation are fine my math is okay. Frankly you don't sound like you are a very good manager. Writing employees up for things they have no control over makes no sense. Not to mention you clearly have some prejudice towards anyone with EBT cards.

[c]

Bobo: "Frankly you don't sound like you are a very good manager. Writing employees up for things they have no control over makes no sense."

That's an unfair statement - OP has stated already that it's not OP's policy to do so. When you're a manager, you don't get to just go crazy and make up your own rules - there's rules you need to follow as well.

[The Doug]

One of the curses of the system is that if you work too many hours, you lose whatever benefits you have on unemployment. Then it becomes a simple decision.

Collect benefits on making, say, 18 an hour.

or take a job at minimum wage?

It's better to stick with the benefits and keep trying to find something in your field or at least closer to the pay range, than to take lower paying work, even if you'd prefer to work.