Big News - I may have been fired...

...also, pretty sure my manager's just a racist bigot. Two very different events but interconnected in his behavior to me, so let's start at the beginning:

Got to work around 10:45 last night following a performance. About a half hour into my shift, a group of four come into the store, wanting to get gum, in particular Stride. I don't have any on my side of the store, so I send them to the other side, they go down the candy aisle and return to my side down the beauty products aisle: going nowhere near the batteries - this will be important.

One of them goes to leave to wait outside the store for her friends. She sets off the alarm. I'm busy with a customer so I just assume someone has grabbed something and run off, but instead she comes up to the register to see what set off the alarm. I ask to see her bag and happen to find a four-pack of batteries with a CVS security tag on them (which says something along the lines of "If found anywhere other than CVS, please call..."). She claims she bought them at a Quik-Trip earlier, but since they have the CVS tag on them she'll pay for them again, rather than be accused of theft. One of her friends immediately corroborates the story and says its stupid to pay for the batteries a second time. They ask if they can get the receipt from their car to sort the mess out. I have seen one store's merchandise at another location so I find it entirely plausible that a QT employee, out of stock of AA batteries would run into a CVS, buy some, and mark them up later at their own store. As I said, they didn't go anywhere near the batteries. And if they were stealing, why come up to the counter and let me search the bag? Why not just keep walking?

Anyway, I call my manager (who for today's blog will be call Douchebag) to get his take. He comes up, I briefly explain what has transpired and he immediately loses shit and starts accusing these four of shoplifting and, while they all calmly try to explain that's not the case, he calls the Tempe police. Even as I'm arguing that they never went near the batteries so his theory is pretty much impossible. BUT, I'm pretty sure he let the fact that these four people happened to be African-American, speak louder than my rational thought or their calm disposition. They, understandably in my opinion, grew weary of trying to convince him and left, leaving their gum and the batteries behind.

Amazingly, Tempe PD showed up within a minute or two and wound up taking my statement. In which I specifically stated I didn't think they did it because, as I've said, none of them WENT ANYWHERE NEAR THE GODDAMN BATTERIES. But Douchebag, blind to anything other than his theory that a CVS security tag could never EVER be found anywhere else, demanded they press charges.

Side note: Douchebag is the same guy who tackled the intoxicated woman a few weeks ago who I truly believe didn't pose a threat at all. That's assault Douchebag and I would really love it if she pressed charges against you.

Anyway, I pretty pissed off at what I perceived to be entirely a racist move on his part. Combine that with the fact that I recently learned that Douchebag and the other supervisor have had me doing what is supposed to be their job SINCE I STARTED, I finally decided to take a stand. I wouldn't be facing/cleaning his aisles anymore. I wouldn't stock the cooler anymore. And I would stock merchandise. I am a cashier. I get paid to be a cashier. As it is, I am also expected to face/clean my aisles in the store, whereas the day shift is not. Yet we're all paid the same. Probably largely because the store has such poor turnover and they can't keep anybody long anyway. Have I mentioned that I'm the senior cashier after only 5 months (if I don't get fired that is). Which brings me to...

About 5:40AM. I've just covered a break for the new guy. I tell Douchebag, I'm going on break and that while I covered new guy's break, I walked through some of his aisles and Douchebag needs to teach him what facing an aisle is. I go to grab a soda and he tells me to go back through foods because it looks like a mess. I calmly state that it's his aisle. He presses it stating that it's a load-day and so I need to do his aisles to. However, the only other thing I should be doing on a load-day is pulling the ads from this weeks so the day shift can post next weeks ads, which I was doing. Having become fed up with this mentality, I very calmly said something to the effect of "I don't get paid extra to do that," and walked away toward the candy aisle to grab a snack. He paused for a few seconds and followed me to ask, "What did you say?" To which I responded, "I don't get paid to do yours or [other supervisor's] job. I'm a cashier, not a supervisor." And for the second time in the shift he went from 0 to 90 and told me to leave (an hour and a half before my shift was scheduled to end), rather than, say have a rational discussion about where I was coming from or what my concerns were. So I'll be calling the store manager later to see if I still have a job. If not, I'll write up the remainder of backlogged stories and retire this blog. If so, I'm sure the tense work environment will create a whole new batch of Graveyard Shift drama.

I've realized as I wrote this that people may side with Douchebag. And I'm fine with that. I've simply grown tired of working for him. He is, in my opinion, incompetent (did you read the post about the "Do Not Bounce Balls" sign?), lazy (closes the bathroom for about 6 hours a night because he doesn't want to clean it or let the nighttime Mill Avenue crowd use it), and takes an average of 4 or 5 phone calls a night from his family when he should be working. I've never been a fan of working beneath people I feel I'm smarter than, but CVS has taken the cake.