The title sounds like a dirty computer game or something.
About four and a half years ago, within the space of four months, I lost two jobs. My day and evening job. I was working in two places. Hard work, lots of hours but I had done that for a long time. (9am-5pm and then around 6:30pm-11pm). Now I can't even get one job, nevermind two.
Anyway, the first job I lost was at a gig venue where I had worked for over 6 years. For the first 5 years, I loved it, I was a supervisor, running my own little bar in the venue next to the stage. It was amazing. A lot of the time, it didn't even feel like work even though some nights it was so busy I almost collapsed through sheer exhaustion.
The last 16 months or so of my time there, we got a new bar manager. I have mentioned her before in my blog. "The Hooker":-
http://muksblogaboutstuff.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/idiots-with-authority-part-2.html
That was my 17th post written two years ago. This is now my 71st post.
The Hooker got rid of a lot of people that she didn't like. Me and her didn't get on from the start. I knew my time was coming soon and she did eventually get rid of me. Unfairly. That was after demoting me from my supervisor position and making her boyfriend (who had a nose bigger then Pinocchios' on a bad day) a supervisor instead. Also trying to humiliate me as much as she could.
Not because we didn't get along but I voiced my concerns to a lot of members of staff, some who were my friends, some who were other supervisors and managers of how I thought she was stealing. In fact, I was CONVINCED that she was doing something dodgy. I didn't have any proof but had such a strong feeling. And it wasn't as if I accused others of stealing all the time. I knew a few people did. But this was to another whole new level.
Nobody took me seriously. Not one person believed me. Not even my own friends there. They all thought I was being ridiculous. I kind of assumed that someone told her that I thought this. That along with the fact that we never got along and we didn't like each other made her get rid of me. In some ways, it was a good thing because the hairy bitch had really made working there awful and so I was kind of glad to not be there anymore. But of course, that didn't stop the whole injustice of it all.
A few months ago, just after 4 years of my last day there, one of my former work colleagues there (note I didn't say friend) told me that The Hooker HAD in fact been stealing. She had been doing so for ages and it had amounted up to tens of thousands of pounds. The former work colleague didn't call me as soon as it was found out. Nothing like "Mukesh, you were right about The Hooker all along-she's been stealing money for years." But I got told when I bumped into this former work colleague. I couldn't believe it. Not the fact that she had been stealing as I had known that all along, but for the fact that after 4 and a half years, the truth FINALLY came out.
It's crazy to think that nobody believed me. I even stopped believing myself at the time which is the worst thing you can do. But sometimes not just with things like this but with ANYTHING, all you need is one person who believes in you and you can do anything. But this story is just an occurrence which is a lead up to how I unfairly lost my other job 4 months later....
It was just after the busy Christmas period. The day after Boxing day when the sales starts and for some reason in retail stores, people still somehow have a lot of money to spend. Though saying that, most of it may have been credit anyway...
ANYWAY, I was the only staff member who had worked Christmas eve, Boxing day and was also due in the day Boxing day. The dreaded sales day where customers not only go crazy, but also have a ton of returns where they "don't have a receipt as it was a Christmas present." Yep, the joy of retail.
The day before on Boxing day was also a day when people bought back Christmas presents. It was so busy and we took an amazing amount of money regardless of that. We still had money from Christmas Eve in the shop. All in a small safe. At the end of a really busy crazy hardworking day, the shop floor looked like a bomb had exploded in it. People in charge that day were our manager Goldilocks (he had long blonde hair), Jupiter (a really big fat lazy girl) and myself. When all the customers had left the store, Goldilocks asked me if I and the rest of the staff could "take care of the shop floor" whilst he and Jupiter counted all the money. I reluctantly agreed, even though I could have done with a sit down and would have been happy to count the tens of thousands of pounds, it was a wise move as Jupiter would not physically be able to actually do anything apart from sitting down (which was always the case with her). So for practicality, it was a good move. Although in saying that, I was the only person who was in the next morning. Two hours earlier than normal to set all the sale things up. 7am. Some idiot staff member would be starting at 8am to help me. Not that he would be much help anyway. Let's call him the turnip.
Apparently over the Christmas period, we had taken £45,000!! That was when the country was supposed to be deep in recession. All this money wasn't banked as all the banks were closed. All this money was put in a small crappy safe in the working stockroom.
A couple of staff went home whilst the shop was being re-made and the money was being counted. They were temps. Why should they care? There were 5 members of staff left.
After what seemed like hours, everything was done. The shop looked amazing, the money had all been counted by Goldilocks and Jupiter and we were all set to go. I was due back in the store in another 12 hours. I was the only one due back in. The other staff would be fresh from a nice day off. We didn't do any searches when we left as all retail stores are supposed to. Where there is so much merchandise and money. searchers were mandatory. What a mistake that was to not do the searches.
We had all just had exited the building when Goldilocks realised that he had left something behind. He wanted to take the cash counter home as he apparently had "lots of copper which we could use for change". As the banks were closed, for a couple more days, this made sense. But Goldilocks wasn't due in work the next day. Would he be dropping the change in work?? He went back in to get the cash counter whilst we all waited outside.
Goldilocks came back and we were all set to go home. My dad had come to pick me up as there was no way I was waiting for a bus in the freezing cold after that nightmare shift when I was having another nightmare shift the day after. I offered Goldilocks a lift as he lived on the way.
The next morning, I was 45 minutes late. I got there at 7:45am instead of 7am. Turnip was due in at 8am and was already stood outside the shop waiting to get in. I didn't apologise to him for being late. He was a turnip. I don't apologise to turnips.
Anyway, me and turnip rushed around...well, I rushed around, turnip was his usual static self and I tried to get as much done as I possibly could. The time went really fast. When you need time, it always seems to go fast. When it came to just before 9am, the turnip wanted to nip to the shop to get cigarettes. I went into the safe to get the tills out and count the floats etc.
I put all the tills out and waited for the turnip to get back from the shop. When he did, a load of customers came pouring into the shop. It got VERY busy with only 2 of us in. None of the sale signs were up and things were a bit out of control. That's what tends to happen when you stay in bed to have a lie-in.
Working with a turnip in a shop full of customers isn't the best way to start any day. It was going to be a very long day. At the time, I didn't realise just how much of an understatement that would be.
At about 10am (when it felt like it should be 3pm), the securicor man came to collect the money. The back doorbell rang. It was still really busy. It rang again. Too busy to leave the shop floor. Again *RING RING* OK OK I am coming. I didn't want to leave the turnip on his own on the shop floor but I had to get the back door. I rushed to it, opened it and was greeted by the usual gormless face of the man who had come to collect all the money we had taken the past few days. Every time that happened, I always wondered why I was being paid so little for all the amount of work I did.
Then came another *RING RING*. This time it was the turnip ringing from behind the tills signalling for help. As well as the gormless one, the turnip had no patience either. *RING RING* as if I hadn't heard it the first time. I told the gormless one to wait as the shop was busy. The gormless one gave me a gormless look.
I came back a minute later and opened the safe. The same safe I had opened before when I took the floats out...and there were no takings.
There were no takings! What the hell??
Were they there before when I took the floats out? I didn't even notice. They must have been? But the safe is pretty small so I would have noticed them surely? And if I didn't notice any money in there before why didn't I do anything?
So I turned to the gormless one. "There's no money."
The gormless one replied "It could have been taken by another security guard".
Yes he was as idiotic as he was gormless. "It is 10am. You are the first security guard here in 4 days."
Again no help whatsoever- "I wonder where it all is then?"
Then there was another "RING RING" from the turnip. The shop was littered with desperate people wanting some cheap bargains and I was needed. The gormless one went. I really didn't have time to think. The assistant manager would be on in an hour and a half. I would have to ask her. She was as useless as the turnip but she was the assistant manager whether I liked it or not. For some reason, she thought she was sex on legs. One time my belt had broke and I said "my pants are falling down" and she replied "is that because you have a huge hard on because I am stood next to you?" She wasn't sex on legs. She looked like a horse and in fact, when I first saw her, I knew her from somewhere and couldn't put my finger on exactly where it was. Then I realised where it was from. She had finished fourth in that years' Grand National. We shall call her horseface.
So for the next hour, the shop was so busy with "I've been waiting ages" and "Can you see if you have this in? How about that? Or what about that" and "Is that all my games are worth? I can get more on EBAY" etc etc shut the hell up etc.
At about 11am I rang horseface who had been on her days off (Christmas Eve and Boxing Day-the two busiest days in retail). Now she is one of those people when there is a crisis, she would just make things worse. I didn't understand half of what she said on the phone when I told her. It was just pure panic. When she came in, she first did her make-up. A thing I was used to. I then went in the back and we tried to figure out what could have happened to the money. She didn't even know how much there was and when I told her "£45,000" she nearly fainted. As little help as she always was "Have you checked the safe properly?" The safe was so small, you wouldn't be able to fit more than 5 chickens in. "How many bags were there?" I realised then that I hadn't seen any of the money as the night before I didn't count it and the morning after, I hadn't seen it. So I didn't know the answer to that. We conceded that we would have to call Goldilocks and also the area manager. That day I didn't leave the shop until 8pm.
What ensued after that day for 6 months was constant questioning, re-questioning, sleepless nights, even more questioning. The money was and yet to this day NEVER found. There were no cameras in the whole store which was stupid in itself. The store didn't report it to the police probably because of their own stupidity and not to give the store a bad name. That is the only reason I could think of why they didn't report it to the police which I only found out after I rang them myself to see how it was going. They didn't even know what I was talking about and when I explained to them, they just said "Why didn't you report it at the time?" They were just as useless as the people I worked with.
Could Goldilocks have taken it all the night before? Is that why he wanted me to be in on my own for an hour in the morning? To frame me as I would have no witnesses to back me up? Could Jupiter be in on it? Could the gormless one have taken it when I left him on his own for a minute? But then he would have had to know how to get in the safe. Was it possible for the turnip to have taken it? He wasn't in the night before but was the day after and he did go to the shop before the store opened. But he didn't go near the safe. So it was impossible for him to have taken ALL that money. But the powers that be didn't see it that way and I got made redundant because I didn't do a search on the turnip that morning when he went to the shop. Goldilocks got made redundant because he didn't do a search on the staff the night before. The gormless one made a statement saying that when he came to collect the money, he had never seen me before in his life. He had seen me about 50 times before at least. I didn't understand that. Why lie? Goldilocks and his girlfriend had a baby, went on holiday and bought a LOT of stuff. How the hell could he afford that?
It was an injustice. Somebody, somewhere had this money and I had lost my job because of it. But the point with this second story is that after the whole hooker stealing for years and the truth eventually coming out, I have always said and believed that with this story too-the truth will one day come out. It always does.
