I got hired at a retail company on Feb 02/06/23. I was a sales associate/cashier. This is my first cashier job. I was confronted on 03/29/23 by loss prevention. They brought me into a room and started interrogating me about a bunch of items that have gone off to customers because I forgot to scan them. I immediately felt disappointed in myself because I did not know that I was doing such a bad job. It started getting weird when loss prevention claimed that they have been watching me on camera since February. So they’ve been watching me mess up but not telling me? The whole time I worked there, managers have been showing me that I have bad scores on my time. I knew I was kind of slow and I needed to improve on my speed. I explained to him that I’ve been tryna improve on that and that reason is probably why I may have missed several items over the span of these past few weeks. He tried saying that there were instances (on cam) where I would take an item, not scan it; and just give it to the customers. I was so confused. It’s like he was waiting for me to admit I was stealing. Though, I do have ADHD and other mental issues like PTSD that cause me to dissociate, I kept it to myself because I thought I would be giving out to much information. Once he asked me if I’d be willing to pay back the losses, and I said yes, he sort of calmed down and stopped being aggressive towards me. He started acting nice. The total losses accumulate up to $107.
He handed me a bunch of papers. I signed a paper that was titled “civil lawsuit,” wrote a statement on that paper about how the mistake could’ve happened (I did not admit to stealing just that I’m not a good cashier and made mistakes), and basically agreed that I’d be able to pay the 107 back. He said okay and thanks for cooperating. He also said the paperwork will be sent to corporate and then they’ll decide what they want to do. Till then, I was out on administrative leave so HR at my company could decid what THEY wanted to do.
Two weeks later, on 04/13/23 I was called in by a manager and told I was being let go. This specific manager knew my auntie, so I think that’s why she was sort of gentle when speaking to me. She gave me my last check and said, “Baby, it was really nice working with you. I wish you well.”
When I asked about the $107 I had to pay back, she said, “You’ll pay it back if they decide on it. Sometimes they don’t. If they do, you’ll see it in the mail,” she said
I was sort of confused but I said okay and left. I was relieved that they let me go but also very anxious that cooperate has not reached back out to me, nor sent me anything in the mail yet.
I’ve already accepted that I have a civil suite against me. I’m only worried because I already got a job in the fed gov ( A JOB IVE BEEN WANTING SINCE HIGHSCHOOL) and I really don’t want to lose it.
I got a part time job because I needed to pay for my graduate studies. I’m really anxious and scared that this will ruin my future. I’m 24.
*From what I know, no police were involved yet and I cannot afford a lawyer