I was demoted over something I don't believe was my fault. My boyfriend at the time told me it was my fault, but it turns out he was manipulative and abusive, and this was one of the few times I didn't defer to his opinion, so I've never been sure if I was in the wrong or not. Also their practices in general made it the first job I ever quit without notice. So this is basically a work-related AITA five years delayed, as well as a rant. I figured people here would probably understand, and provide some perspective.
I don't believe there's anything they can do to me, if they even see this, so I'll start by identifying the park as Elitch Gardens in Denver. If they want to claim defamation or something, they'd have to prove my claims aren't true, right? And they are.
To explain what I did “wrong”, you have to know how the departments are divided and how we were expected to clock in. I was to be a cashier for Guest Relations, which meant I could be scheduled at any of three different stations: Parking, Front Gate, or Season Pass. My first three days on the job were working at each of these stations in turn. First of all, employees were required to enter through a side gate that was far away from any parking. So we all parked off-site at the HR office, almost a mile away. There we went through security and showed our work badges. Then we got on a school bus which took us to the gate. Then, cashiers had to visit the cash office to sign for and pick up their cash bag for the day. Then we would walk to our station and sign in on a clipboard there. We didn't start getting paid until we signed that clipboard, which I think in itself violates labor laws, for the cashiers if not everyone. How can I be signing for and carrying company cash when not clocked in?
Anyway, this happened on my third day, which was the first time I was to cashier at Season Pass. I was technically still in training. I stopped by the cash office first and was told they didn't have a cash bag waiting for me. It was the responsibility of the manager for each station to sign something for disbursement telling them who would be picking up cash that day. So they told me to go tell my manager I needed that slip. I walked to Season Pass, not even considering signing in yet since it was made clear I needed my cash first, which was annoying because I was now spending even more time than expected working unpaid.
As soon as I got to Season Pass and approached the manager, she barked out “Go to the back of the park.” Before I had a chance to open my mouth. I was confused by the order, and when I blurted out “What?” she explained that we were so swamped that we were opening a temporary second SP counter in the back of the park. She was obviously extremely busy and stressed, so instead of asking about my cash bag, I asked if there would be another manager at the back of the park. She said yes. I still didn't sign in, since the front of the park wasn't going to be my station that day, and I figured the manager I would actually be working under would be the one to ask for a cash bag. So I joined this other manager and some other employees at the back of the park. My first clue something was wrong should have been when I told the manager there about the cash bag issue and she gave me an odd look and said she would be handling the transactions. But I figured things were not as I'd told they would be because we had unprecedented traffic that day, and they'd decided to have me train by watching instead of actually cashiering. By this time I had completely forgotten I was supposed to sign in, as there wasn't a clipboard back there and it was after all only my third day.
I worked until lunch time, when on my way to the cafeteria I saw one of my department managers and waved at her. She waved me over and when I approached, asked where I had been all day. Confused, I explained the manager at SP had sent me to the back of the park. She said that because I hadn't signed in, they had a record of me entering through HR but not getting to a station. I explained that I didn't think I should sign in at the front when I wasn't going to be working there, and admitted that I then forgot when there wasn't anywhere else to sign in. She told me to eat my lunch and then meet her at the front private offices. Ominous enough, I spent my lunch wondering what that was about.
When I found her at the front offices, I was told to wait in the hallway while she and the other department managers had a discussion. There were no chairs, so I sat on the floor for nearly an hour while employees walking by all looked at me curiously, knowing I must be in trouble. When they finally called me in, they immediately told me I was being demoted to a non-cash-handling position. Which I thought would be more appropriate if I had actually mishandled cash, which I didn't because I never had cash that day. Stunned, I explained that I had only done what two managers told me to do. They explained that the manager at the front had mistaken me for a Season Pass Processor instead of a cashier. We wore the same color shirts, and without a cash bag in my hand I didn't look like a cashier. But as I explained further, it was that manager's fault I didn't have a cash bag to begin with, because it was her job to reserve one for me. So she sent me away and it was her fault they were a cashier short.
They didn't see it that way. They basically said that they couldn't trust me because they didn't know where I was half the day, but they were giving me another chance. My only other option would be to quit, and obviously I didn't have another job lined up. So I took the demotion, and actually ended up liking the job, though it did pay less than cashiering. When I went fuming to my boyfriend and told him about it (he was working security there at the time) he told me he agreed it was my fault because I hadn't signed in. I get that, but I feel like the extenuating circumstances meant it wasn't my fault, but the manager who sent me away. It was very demoralizing to be told I was at fault for listening to my managers on my third damn day.
Do you think I was at fault and the demotion was warranted? I know I tend to hold grudges over perceived injustice, and I feel like maybe this shouldn't still bother me. I do still wish I had reported them to the labor board for the clocking in procedure.