Howzabout you take care of your own fucking store?

The BBQ Pit
1

Is that really such a novel idea?

The employees at my store (mostly me, since I’m a closer with my friend Amanda) have been having problems with the lock on the front door. Recently, we spent two nights wrestling with it, literally on the verge of breaking our keys in it. Finally, on the third night, we called the owner in, and he arrived with manager in tow. The problem is that the notch does not line up with the latch, and we have to shove the latch against the wood of the door hard enough that it slips into the notch on an angle. The manager and the owner unscrewed the plate off of the notch to make the hole wider, and everything was (supposedly) hunky-dory.

Guess fucking what, it wasn’t.

Last night, I did the same thing I have always done. I left the store, turned my key in the lock as far as it would go, and pulled on the door as hard as I could to see if it would open. It didn’t. As far as I am concerned, I locked the door properly.

The manager called me today to tell me that he had made a mistake on the schedule (that is a whole other rant, I just lost 2 hours of my day because of his fucking mistake), and also to inform me that someone was able to open the door at 2 AM and get into the store.

Logically, since I followed proper procedure to make sure the door was locked, the problem was with the fucking lock that was never installed properly (by above mentioned owner, btw), and never even fixed when problems arose. I’m willing to bet that it didn’t latch into the notch all the way, and with repeated jigglings, it worked loose.

This owner is a very nice man, but he is a very cheap businessperson and a bad manager (he should really leave that to the actual Manager). He encourages us to sell expired chips to customers and he tells us to put six olives on a TWELVE-INCH sandwich. Honestly, when a customer sees us placing one olive every two inches on their sub like it’s saffron or something, how does that make us look? Like cheap bitches. When an employee who had been referred to the store by Amanda ended up stealing almost $1000, they singled out Amanda by saying that any deposit with her employee number on it had to be witnessed by another employee. That’s where the bad managing comes in - a good manager would have changed the policy for everyone, so that no one felt singled out. They almost lost Amanda over it, and despite the shitty company she kept (she ditched the thief after that anyway), she is an amazing employee.

I know that technically I was responsible for the lock. But short of having x-ray vision, a stethoscope and/or experience as a locksmith, I don’t see what I could have done differently. Now I look bad and I feel very, very bad, because they have a fucking faulty lock on their door and they are too cheap/lazy/irresponsible to fix it.

I’m glad my owner had to get out of bed at 2 AM. Maybe it will teach him an effing lesson. It’s not my job to make sure that the lock is working properly. It’s my job to turn it and make sure it’s turned.

2

How long does it take for the owner to get to your store from his house? I would call his house every night that number of minutes before closing to let him know that you will be locking the door at such-and-such time, and that with the problem you had getting it properly locked you need him to come down and be sure it’s secured. If there’s some sort of employee log, I’d note in there every time you called. And I’d photocopy it and keep the copy. Then if he shows, have him lock the door. If he doesn’t, note it in the log, lock the door as best you can and go home.

Of course I have an attitude problem.

3

I like Otto’s suggestion, I had the exact same problem at the last place I worked. I closed 7 days a week, and the door was a real pain to get to lock. Didn’t matter how many times I complained, the boss ignored me because no one else was having the same problem…which was of course because no one else ever closed.

One day I twisted the key so hard it broke off in the lock. So 10 a clock at night I had to arrange for a locksmith to come and deal with it because I couldn’t get ahold of the owner, and I couldn’t leave because the store wasn’t locked.

4

Why don’t you call a repairman/locksmith and get the door fixed. Have them bill the owner. You’ll probably get a promotion for showing initiative.

5

She’d get fired, more than likely. While I like Otto’s idea, I don’t think it would make her more popular with the owner, either.

Sometimes people are “penny wise and pound foolish”. My daughter is assistant manager at a local used book store. The owner refuses to advertise, other than a spot in the Yellow Pages. The book store was really his late wife’s baby, and there’s not much money in used book stores anyway, but people aren’t likely to stumble across it by accident. Buying a small spot in the local school papers (the shop is VERY close to both a major college and a major high school, both of which have a lot of English classes) could well repay him, but he won’t hear of it. He also tends to leave maintenance undone until the spirit moves him, and he won’t allow anyone to call in a professional to repair anything.

When I worked in a convenience/deli/liquor store, the owner would not close the store during a blackout, but insisted that we continue to work. We were supposed to add up purchases by hand, and figure out the sales tax, also by hand. Then we were responsible if the computations didn’t work out! I didn’t get burned by this, but a couple of my less math-competent cow-orkers did. I DID get to pay off someone’s charge, because the charge card machine didn’t record the ticket properly. These two incidents should not have happened, by the way, as we were working minimum wage and should not have had money taken out of our checks so that we were effectively working for less than minimum wage, but we didn’t know that at the time.

I think that the owner should take the primary responsibility to make sure that his/her business and all of its components can function properly. I don’t think it’s fair to expect employees to lock a door with a faulty lock, or to do business with equipment that’s not working properly.

6

I just found out that the owner freaked out at Amanda on the phone today. She spilled the beans that she left the store before me (I was waiting for my g/f, who works next door, to get off work), so now it’s all on me. The owner is assuming that the door wasn’t locked at all, which I find ridiculous - what kind of people does he think we are, that we could work as closers for three months and then, one night, just take off without locking the door?

I already explained to Gary, the manager, that I did the same thing I’ve always done, and the problem must be with the lock. I’ve also got three witnesses, one who is impartial (the other two are my g/f and my roomie, who both have an interest in making sure I don’t get fired) who saw me lock the door and firmly tug on it two or three times.

I don’t know if I can count on Gary to speak up for me, though, and I know the owner is two-faced enough to bitch about me behind my back and say; “Aww, it’s ok” to my face, so I don’t know how I’ll ever make myself look responsible in his eyes again. I offered to accept a suspension or having my keys taken away, but Gary wouldn’t have any of it, so either he doesn’t care about the store or he still trusts me.

7

Wow, you are much calmer than I would be. I’d probably say something stupid like “I take this as a comment on my ability to close, and professionally, I can’t tolerate it. Either a new lock is placed on that front door, the cost of which can be filed for as a damage claim, or I can no longer in good conscience close for you.”

(at which point, if he chose the latter, I’d send out resumes)