Some back ground.
I work for a cable provider in a brick and mortar store. We do cellular sales , internet and cable TV. It's a small team 5 people, including a manager. About a year ago, we had a disgruntled employee quit on his way put he dropped every bit of gossip and hear say he had.
It started a dispute over sales and other things with an employee I will simply reference to as jones.
At the time I came out and flatly apologized and burried the hatchet, complete unequivocal apology (even though he didn't deserve it) and things have been good for a year.
I'd even go so far as to call him a friend, and he just left for a 10 day vacation.
SO IMAGINE MY SURPRISE, when i'm pulled in the office with HR and two upper managers. And am grilled about an entire list of events. Events that only one person could have known about or witnessed.
We are responsible for for just about everything, cash management, inventory in addition to customer relations.
Management had specific details on when, accidentally cash management software wasn't closed, inventory keeping misshaps and customer confrontations, and other anecdotes.
What gave it away was a specific comment, I had cracked a joke a week ago about, “leaving the safe open to make it easier for the next guy”. It came up in the interrogation by management.
I only made that joke to one person: Jones.
Mistakes happen, and we all cover for eachother. And as with any customer service job, the customeris left dissatisfied at times. Normally we don't apriase management for obvious reasons. If youve been in these shit level sales/service positions you know sometimes the customer os wrong and there is no fix. But promising to “file a ticket” makes them go away. Technically this is against policy as the customer is always right, but it's never been a problem.
Occasionally the cash safe isn't locked properly, but as long as management doesn't see it, nit a problem.
Or inventory count is double scanned, or left unsecured. Again not a problem if it's fixed.
But jones has been keeping a ledger.
The cash and inventory violations are serious, but I've been a good employee for 2 years,
I don't think I'll be fired. None of the customer interactions are bad enough to stick to me. However the next few weeks are going ton be endless investgations, as all my customers are audited. But obviously my trust has been violated and the discretion I exercised on his behalf is unappreciated. Why is this knife suddenly in my back? I actually don't know what to do?
I'm tempted to just quit, I hate my job anyway, but I don't have anything else lined up.
I'm also tempted to make life miserable for jones upon returning until I get fired.