FortySixtyFour
patreon
RE: Trailer Trash 55 pt 5.5
🕑 Added 2023-12-13 17:07:36 +0000 UTC/// Surprise extra section! Wanted to squeeze this snippet in before I write out the actual conclusion of 55.
“Shannon—there’s no two ways about this,” Manager John shook his head in dismay. “Your drawer is fourteen dollars short. Fourteen dollars and seven cents. That’s—hah, this is on your first shift, even. Definitely uh, definitely not a good start, here. I think we need to stop and think about what happened, and what went wrong, and, yeah—I’m gonna have to write you up and put it on your file.”
They were in the back office area next to Food Lion’s safe, and although the ones, fives, tens, and twenty dollar bills were stacked up in rows across the manager’s desk and had been counted and recounted, somehow or other money was missing. The subtle strings of fear Mrs. Moore had been aware of all day in the background of every thought were now pulled so tight she couldn’t even breathe.
“I—I don’t—” Mrs. Moore managed to stammer out, blinking through her tears. “I’m so sorry, I—I don’t even know what might have happened, or, or—”
“I mean… can you check your pockets?” Manager John seemed to trying not to sound patronizing, but it crept into his tone of voice anyhow. “Maybe—I don’t know, maybe it’s just like, out of habit, you meant to put it in the drawer, but you weren’t thinking about it and just, I dunno, jammed one of the sales into your pocket. That’s, uh, that’s happened before. It happens.”
“No! No,” Mrs. Moore was frantic to turn out her pockets. “No, nothing like—I would never—”
“What’s the holdup?” Tracy’s voice was gruff with impatience. “New girl have a problem with her drawer?”
“Hahh, a problem?” Manager John laughed. “Yeah, it’s fourteen dollars short. Hate to say it, but I’m gonna have to write her up.”
“Oh, surprise, surprise,” Tracy chuckled.
When Mrs. Moore dared to look in the woman’s direction she saw that Tracy was waiting with her own drawer propped up on one hip, and likewise Cindy and another Food Lion woman behind her were holding their drawers—it seemed as if the whole rest of the morning shift cashiers were held up from doing their final counts because of her. Everyone was peeking through the doorway into the back office, and it made Mrs. Moore wish she could just crawl into a hole in the ground and die.
I don’t know what went wrong! Shannon felt like she was having a mental breakdown from the stress of the situation. I didn’t STEAL anything, I don’t think I LOST anything, I-I just don’t know what happened at all! Maybe one of the sales just didn’t get punched into the computer correctly? I don’t know!
“But, y’know what,” Tracy continued on in her mirthful rasp. “Betcha I know what happened, if it’s ‘round fourteen dollars…”
“Well, she says she’s sure she didn’t accidentally pocket any, and—” Manager John blew out a breath of frustration and leaned over to open cabinet drawers in search of the forms he would have to fill out now.
“Probably didn’t key in the coupons right,” Tracy finished with a smirk. “Does she have coupons?”
“No, no, she doesn’t have any with her drawer, so—” Manager John glanced over the sheet he’d been filling out and shook his head.
“Oh!” Mrs. Moore jolted upright in her seat. “I, no, I do have coupons! I, I thought I was supposed to tuck them in beneath my drawer. T-to lift up the drawer, and put them in underneath. That’s uh, that’s what I saw her do yesterday, is it—is it not what I was supposed to be doing?!”
“Well,” Manager John scowled. “Where are they now? It—you know what, it doesn’t even matter, because we’ve already done the drawer count, and in any case the computer’s gonna say your register didn’t have any coupons put in.”
“Them coupons’re probably still sittin’ up there in the register,” Tracy chuckled. “You’ll have to go through ‘em, match ‘em up and fix each of the transactions. So the computer don’t think there’s s’posed to be more money in there than there is.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mrs. Moore tried to apologize again.
“No, it’s—we don’t have time to go through and do that,” Manager John denied. “I’m going to have to write her up. If she didn’t key the coupons in correctly, then that’s on her, because she signed that she’s responsible for the drawer.”
“Still can’t write her up,” Tracy sounded downright smug. “She don’t have her mandatory trainin’ hours in, so she can’t even sign for her own drawer in the first place! Not by Food Lion’s rules.”
“She was on register with you yesterday,” Manager John seemed to be growing genuinely angry, and Mrs. Moore shrank back into her seat and tried to hide herself from their notice. “So—yes, she went through her training hours. She—”
“She weren’t on the clock, so no, she didn’t get any trainin,’” Tracy countered. “For her to be through her trainin’ period, she has to be on the clock, gettin’ paid.”
“Then, I can put it in that she has those hours yesterday, and she’ll get pay for them, because she was there shadowing you yesterday,” Manager John tried to reason. “I had her there with you, learning. That’s the whole reason—”
“Nope!” Tracy intended to be stubborn about it. “I had her there and was givin’ her some sorta basic overview, but it weren’t nothin’ like proper trainin’ and she didn’t learn nothin’ bout keyin’ in coupons from me ‘cept seein’ the clippings go in beneath the drawer.”
“I—I can go get the um, the coupon clippings?” Mrs. Moore offered. “If—if they’re, I’m sure they’re still there in the drawer, if that, if that helps…?”
“Well, Tracy, if that’s the way you wanna play it, then I’d have to write you up instead of her, ‘cause she was supposed to be training with you, and you’re saying you neglected to have her go through—”
“Oh nuh-uh, I don’t think so,” Tracy chortled. “You go an’ introduce me to a new girl, yeah okay, but when I asked her, she said she wasn’t on the clock, so she got no ‘official’ trainin’ from me! And, you can’t be puttin’ her out there in her own checkout yet, or cookin’ the books after the fact to make it seem like she was on the clock, when she wasn’t! I been sayin’ and sayin’ and sayin’ it—you can’t do that.”
“That’s all I can do, Tracy—” Manager John held up his hands in a helpless expression. “I mean look, listen, if you—”
“You go through with them coupons and fix the transactions one by one—or you write yourself up for fourteen dollars or whatever the hell it was, ‘cause you were responsible for this shift, kiddo—that’s why you make the big manager bucks, here. But me, I been working here sixteen years, and if Mister Kay asks me what’s goin’ on with this, he’s gonna hear what I have to say about it.”
“We’re—look, now we already have her going over her time,” Manager John scoffed, waving towards the clock on the office wall. “Listen—hey, Cindy! Help make sure the new girl gets clocked out, and then we’ll see if Bob has time during his shift to sort out this mess with the coupons on his drawers, maybe. If you think I have time to—”
“Oh nuh-uh, there’s no way you’re—”
“Well, what do you want me to do? I’m running late already, morning shift all needs signed off and deposited so that—”
“Shannon! Here, come on,” Cindy squeezed past the angry Tracy continuing her tirade to motion her over. “C’mon girl, lemme get you all clocked out and outta here.”
With a jolt of relief, Mrs. Moore abandoned her chair and hurried to escape the room, tears streaming down her face and still wringing her hands in sheer terror. She wanted out of here, and if anyone were to ask her at this moment, she was sure she would tell them she simply wasn’t cut out to work this job. Still cradling her own drawer against herself, Cindy patted her on the back and helped her over in the direction of the timeclock computer so she could punch out—the moment the sniffling Shannon managed to maneuver the mouse over to her name and click CONFIRM to end her shift, she let a sob slip out.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay—you’re okay,” Cindy assured her in a whisper. “Just—yeah, just Manager John tryin’ to throw you under the bus. Typical! If, when you come in tomorrow, if he tries to get you to sign anything sayin’ you’re at fault for somethin’, you ask for one of us to come give it a look, okay? You’re… are you still thinkin’ ‘bout comin’ in, tomorrow?”
“I—” Shannon tried to smear her wet face on her sleeve and let out a laugh. “I-I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“Well, hey, if you do—we’ve got your back, okay?” Cindy patted her shoulder again for emphasis. “Tracy seems like she likes you. I like you! I do hope you’ll stay with us. Just—yeah, don’t trust Manager John far as anyone can throw him, he’s just sittin’ in that office all day playin’ around with the timesheets to keep labor cost under some stupid line so he can get his big fat bonus from Mister Kay. He don’t care ‘bout none of us actually gettin’ all the work done around here.”
With a growing sense of dread, Mrs. Moore realized that she would return for her shift tomorrow. As her watery eyes filled with clarity, she knew she would be here. Not because of the money even, but because she had to. Because—if she didn’t show up, she’d never be able to look Cindy or Tracy or any of these people who were actually nice and friendly with her in the eye ever again. Tracy especially, Tracy who she’d thought was just a miserable old grump, even stuck her neck out on her behalf!
It’s such an awful mess, here! Mrs. Moore thought to herself as she started to undo her apron. I really do hate it. But—also the actual work isn’t as bad as I thought, once you get into the swing of it, and, and—there’s REALLY good people, here. People that cared, or, or stood up for me, or—I don’t know, but that, that MEANS SOMETHING.
“I’ll be here,” Shannon promised with a weak smile. “Same time tomorrow, I guess? I’ll… be here.”
( Previous, 55 pt 5 | RE: Trailer Trash | Next, 55 pt 6 )
/// May seem like much ado over just a measly $14, but this does fall in line with my experiences.
I think this just turned into a MUST INCLUDE section, because this is the real start of Shannon actually forming meaningful connections. She was never ever going to be able to form these same kind of bonds with Mrs. Williams or Mrs. Macintire—those two might as well be from Saturn to Mrs. Moore and where her lived experience/mentality is right now.
Comments
benjamin shropshire
One or the other of the people in the room should have offered you the investigators job. (Maybe not replace them, but at least on the same duty.)
benjamin shropshire
I got a felling about 3-4 books down the line it's going to be _Manager_ Shannon.
Jacob Bissey
Lol, reminds me of one time a higher up at work tried to blame me for missing product in the warehouse. Us delivery drivers aren't supposed to be in the warehouse at all, by corporate mandate, but our location is different because the ONLY bathroom access is through the warehouse, and OSHA requires all employees have reasonable access to a toilet and sink so they are legally obligated to let us in to use the toilet. I go to the toilet a lot on-shift (and in general), so when stuff started turning up missing I was one of the people corporate looked at because they had me on camera "snooping" through the warehouse. I was like "look, you are required by law to provide reasonable access to the toilet, and that's the *only* way to and from the toilet, and my *entire* trip through the restricted area is fully in-view of the camera, you see me to straight to the bathroom and straight back *every time*, and my hands are *always* in my pockets or behind my back until I reach to open the door, and they are *never* within a foot of the shelves. Then there's the fact that the items missing are stored on the other side of the warehouse from the bathroom and I'd be caught on at least three more cameras to get there and I know for a fact that i never was." Then they asked how I could possibly know the number and locations of the cameras if I hadn't been snooping through the warehouse. Like, I have eyes, sometimes those eyes look up at the ceiling when I get bored of the floor, and the shelves aren't tall enough to block my view of any part of the ceiling so I know how many cameras there are (eight) and where they are pointed (they have a view everywhere except two corners and like one row in the middle, so there are blind spots but not enough to get around without being picked up by at least three cameras if you visit even one of them). Then they asked how I knew the section the missing stuff was in and I pointed at the map of the warehouse with all the sections clearly labelled that was right next to the investigator. Good times, lol
Zach
"she’d never be able to look any of these people who were actually nice and friendly with her in the eye" Yep, it's so annoying, having someone looking out for you and having hopes etc.
Flying Goat
Looking forward to the next episode of "Tracy, Retail Hero: Not all Heroes Wear Capes".
Stuart
Love how you deconstruct a small event in granular detail, then use it to expand the characters. .. feels as if I’m physically present. Also enjoyed your explanation at the end.
Stephen Paynter
I am so invested in this story ... great writing!
Porkopio
Woah what a dick manager
Michael Otton
I was the shift manager at a fast food place and the count was always a bit scary, we we're small enough that we didn't have assigned tills instead everyone used one of two till's plus drive through. The end count was generally pretty good but after a few months I came up exactly $20 short on a late shift then I came up $20 short on 3-4 other shifts over the next two weeks and I was panicking thinking I'd need to take responsibility, then the problem stopped and I never heard about it again but I was nervous for a long time about getting blamed for being short.
Jeanie6754
Let's just say in my experience unless you find a good place where the people are essentially good manufacturing jobs kinda suck. They bleed you worse than retail and they don't really like actually hiring people "full-time." It's usually contracted "gigs" usually if you say something about being there a certain time that in some states they are supposed to legally hire you. Quite often that's when they let you go. The people where nice but yeah the books. Also the earliest hires are usually let go first even if they tend to be working their butts off if the books don't work.
Jeanie6754
Thanks Boss. Have a great day
The Dapper Lemon
I had something similar happen at one if my first jobs as a teen, back in 98 or 99. Manager called me back in the office yelling that I was short $20 on the register and that he'd be writing me up. Goes on to lecture me, loudly with his office door open, while I, a dumb shy teenager, sat there near tears trying to work out how I could possibly be short that money. Got told by the assistant manager my next shift that I didn't do anything wrong and I wasn't written up. A few weeks went by and the manager got let go for theft. Apparently he was taking money out of the new hire registers and pushing the blame on them. Got caught by being too greedy and literally doing it to every new hire, which, considering it was a fast food gig, there were quite a few. Taught me a valuable lesson about not trusting management to have my back unless they proved it first.
Undead Writer
Thanks for the chapter! Ya. Worked one of those jobs too. Crappy managers are insane. Had one go out for a smoke break for 4 hours. I had to pick up the slack and let people off for lunch and break. They yelled at me, but I gave them no butts. The manager at the time needed to do his job, if he can’t, someone else will. That shut him up and he pushed me off to the store manager to fire me. The store manager just kept me in the office until my shift was over, let me chill on my phone. Store manager just needed to let the manager of the front cool down. I was happy with it because I got paid for nothing, but ya. Crappy managers is putting it lightly.
mhaj58
I wonder why Tabby never thought of asking Sandy to get Shannon a job at the safety plant
Mocherthrath
Finding the drawer below was the worst and getting written up always sucked.
Mocherthrath
Dude I worked cashier at several places. It was always stressful counting the drawer and seeing if your drawer was above or below.
Nick
Thanks, I hate Manager John
Empty Shelf
Glad Shannon at least has some decent people to back her up. I at least had a year on the job before my boss first tried to screw me over, Jesus.
WarStrider72
Thanks for the update boss
