I am so screwed

[ShinyGreenApple]

Me + service desk + busy Saturday evening = Epic fail.

Someone handed me a payroll check to cash for $106 dollars.

FEM asks me later if I had cashed it, and shows me on the back that I tendered it for $160

That easily blasts any chances of them still wanting me as a front end manager, so I can wave bai bai to that. Probably won't be at the service desk anymore, which I actually wouldn't mind, as I hate it there, and unless there is some odd chance they overlook this, I'll proabably be demoted to bagger or just let go altogether.

Nearly three years I've been in retail, and never have I screwed up a transaction so badly. I really wish they would have said something though, instead of just 'You know your till is $50 short, right?' Um, yeah, kind of figured that out when you guys showed me the check I fucked up.

Gods, I just wish they'd call and fire me now

Oh yeah, and they've also got me scheduled for opening cashier tomorrow at six in the morning after not getting off till 9 tonight. I used to tell myself I was imagining things when I started to think the front end lead hates me. Now I'm honestly beginning to wonder.

[JustaCashier]

Was this an employee's paycheck? If so, management should be able to recover the difference from the employee. If your store cashes paychecks for other companies' employees, maybe it's time they rethought the policy. It's a store, not a bank.

Although employers rightfully expect us to be accurate, and careful with the transactions, we are still human, and prone to making mistakes, especially when slammed. Hopefully they'll just let you off with a warning to be more careful.

I had a similar situation about a month or so ago. Our store will occasionally cash an employees paycheck, with management permission. One of the employees came in on payday, his day off, fairly early in the day. I chose the till with the most available cash in it, at the time, but still didn't have enough.

I ended up having to "borrow" the balance from the change supply. I paid it back as soon as the till recovered the amount, but at the end of the shift, that till was something like $50.00 short. I don't know if it had anything to do with cashing the paycheck, or not.

I personally don't have a problem with cashing any employees' paycheck, and can understand when they want to pick it up and cash it early, but I put my foot down after that, and told management that I would no longer cash paychecks until a till had enough money in it to cover the entire amount.

As far as your job status, hopefully they won't bust you down to bagger, but just keep you at the cashier level. You don't like working the service desk, which is understandable, so you will not have really suffered a loss should they take you off of it.

On a semi-related personal note, when I go back to work on Tuesday, after a couple of weeks vacation, I will no longer be lead cashier, stepping back down to the level of a regular cashier. Nothing to do with the above mentioned incident, it's just that the stress inherant with the position was getting to be too much, and the other store staff, and management were noticing that I was no longer my usual fairly happy-go-lucky and wacky self, and had become increasingly crabby.

Anyway, best of luck to you on this, I hope it works out the way that you want!

Mike

[Boozy]

They won't fire you for one mistake! It costs far more than $50 to the company if they lose a good employee.

The whole thing will be forgotten in time. You still have the chance at management. Everyone makes mistakes.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Well, I didn't sleep well last night, to be certain. Woke up at four and mulled around for a bit, then decided to ring up the store at a little after five when I knew the MOD would be in. They are very fortunate that I'm fond of this certain manager and enjoy working with him, or I would have been tempted to leave them royally screwed this morning. I told him what happened and asked if he was still comfortable with me on a register and did he still want me to come in.

M: "Um, YEAH."

I really, really wish I could have seen the look on his face

Anywho, I'm not allowed to run the service counter anymore (Woo! No more lotto and Western Union and friggin check cashing!) and they said if I come up that drastically short as a cashier, I'll be demoted to bagger. In which case I would promptly make use of the front door.

But to answer your question, JustACashier, no, it was not an employee of our store. You can bring government checks, child support checks, payroll checks, etc and have them cashed here for a small fee (Government checks are cashed at no charge). Most screwed up idea ever, IMO. As you said, we are a grocery store, not a bank. But at this point, I don't care about management. I do not want any parts of it, as they have been very shoddy and haphazard about training me. See this journal entry for more details on that. I'm going to start looking into other jobs, because I'm tired of all the half-assedness, if that is even a term

[Anakah]

You'll be okay, I can beat that one. I overpaid someone by $800 and I still have my job... Read "almost cost me my job." Everybody makes mistakes.

[ShinyGreenApple]

Update:

They've actually been quite forgiving. I was greeted Monday afternoon with the cheerful announcement that "We're not going to pull you off the counter, but if you're short by $5 or more again, then we will." I got written up, which in this case is hardly even a slap on the wrist.

I was caught somewhere between "Woo, well that's not so embarrassing then!" and "Shitties, that means I still have to run the stupid service desk." However, the new schedule has me doing nothing but acting as closing cashier for the next week, so I dunno.

And meanwhile, a career as a correctional officer grows to look tempting more and more each day. I'm just trying to decide if I'd rather make minimum wage for the beef people, or haul in $2400 a month babysitting inmates. Decisions, decisions

[RammsteinGirl]

So, the person you cashed the check for conveniently didn't notice that they had been given an extra $50?

[ShinyGreenApple]

So, the person you cashed the check for conveniently didn't notice that they had been given an extra $50?

Of course not. Such is our clientele.

I'm still of the mind that the only place you should be able to cash a check is at a bank. Period.