I was an assistant manager at a gas station. At the end of my shift one night I had bought my roommate some nyquil from work when he was sick, but we realized he needed dayquil instead, so I went back to refund it and buy the right medicine.
When initially purchasing the nyquil, there had been damage to the packaging, and the GM had discounted the item prior to my shift. For proof of discount, we put a little pricegun sticker on damaged items. So there was a sticker denoting the new price on the nyquil, specifically for any cashier to see upon refunding.
But when I came back to refund it off the clock, the employee running the register that night didn't see the sticker, and just scanned the item, hitting the refund button and giving me the msrp amount back instead of the discounted amount.
A note here: I didn't realize he'd done this, and just went along with the refund and exchange for the new item, thinking nothing was wrong.
A few days later, my GM texted me before my scheduled shift that night, to let me know that higher-ups had ordered her to remove me from the schedule for the duration of an investigation they had just opened about me. She said that they had detected a discounted item, bought by an employee -specifically me- and refunded at a greater amount, and were investigating theft. Mind you, the difference was like, 2 bucks. I only knew that it was the nyquil from a few nights before because of the fact that it's one of only two personal refunds I've done in my entire time working there.
I tried for about two weeks straight to get ahold of someone involved in the investigation, so I could try and explain the situation, or at the very least get some sort of update, or give a statement as the associate involved. Complete radio silence.
Finally, in the end I received an automated email from corporate that said “Business Process: Terminate: [my name]”
No other human correspondence, just, “poof, you're terminated.”
I was able to finally find an email address for HR, and I messaged asking what on earth happened, explaining my side of things, how no one ever once reached out to me whatsoever. A couple days later they replied, and this HR person literally told me it's not.. up to HR?? They said that for loss prevention issues, the choice is solely left up to the area marketing manager at their sole discretion, and that there's nothing HR can do to help. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but this feels reeeeally sus.
In my area, there's a law which states that, even though employees are at-will, employers are required to give them this specific legal document stating WHY the employee was terminated. I'm really worried about having employment issues going forward with “theft” as a reason for termination on my record. Especially because none of this was deliberate theft, and arguably was out of my control.