So this happened a few years ago in what feels like a different life when I was an operations associate mainly responsible for money and inventory. Basically I was a seasoned employee by this point and the entire management staff knew I was good. They didn't really bother me, they let me do my job and honestly it was mostly pretty chill. That is until we got a new district manager.
So a bit of background… While doing inventory part of the protocol was to make sure everything had a tag and was properly priced. Of course my scan gun was capable of doing both and switching between pricing and inventory. I was pretty methodical in this, but of course I'm not perfect, especially when I'm trying to meet the end of the week deadline on the third rolling count of the week. But on the whole no one really saw any issue, because the few that I missed either my manager or the sales staff would just correct as customers called them to attention.
Now at this time, because it was a display ready store, it was NOT my responsibility to break out NEW products for demo (just make sure that boxed products were properly stocked and displayed after a delivery), but it was on the sales staff of that department, as they knew the products and how to set them up properly. Queue the issue….
Every 2 months (iirc) the district manager would stop in and choose a recent count to audit to ensure that no errors were made. Which is fine and good so long as you're aware of changes in the inventory…
So the department he chose to audit the day in question had just received a delivery 2 days before. A solid week after I had finished the count. Now as I said, it was not my responsibility to set up demo ready products, just make sure the store was stocked properly after a delivery. If I needed a product opened and set up, I gave it to a sales staff or sales manager… The problem? None of the products that came in and were put on display had the barcodes on them for inventory. A HUGE oversight if I had left it during the count.
He brought the issue to my Operations manager who tried to tell him to let him take care of it (basically ask me what happened if anything because it was unlike me to leave such a huge oversight). Instead, he called me and started grilling me saying “What happened? Why did you leave the department like this after the count? This isn't how we do things.” And general reaming out like that. My manager was off to the side saying nothing while I looked at him, and looked at the newly stocked wall and said “None of this was here last week when I did the count.” Of course he accused me of lying.
From there I went into an 'oh you want to play this game?' kind of mindset knowing full well he would lose. I walked over to the wall grabbed a random product and took it over to the nearby computer. “Lets see if this was me.” I scanned it, and did a product inquiry. At the time of the count? 0 Quantity, came in 2 days prior. I told him flatly that was the responsibility of the sales crew who put them out on display. I returned to the wall and repeated this about 6 times before I turned to him and asked “Do I need to continue?” Mind you, I was never disrespectful, but I was somewhat curt because he was accusing me of something. My manager all the while was clearly trying to hold in laughter. He said “yes that would be all.” I said thank you, I'll return to this week's inventory task, and as I was leaving my manager patted me on the back and whispered “good job.”
Said district manager never did really talk to me after that. I guess he couldn't find any other issues with my work after that and chose to ignore my existence. Granted, he probably prevented me from getting promoted, but in hindsight? That was probably the best thing he could have done since now I have a much better job.