'I have cost the company $12. I quit': Employee shamed for scanning food item incorrectly, quits on the spot, managers have to scramble

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Dec 13, 2023 4:00 PM EST

Managers who make a big fuss over small mistakes should be careful. Otherwise, they might end up losing all their employees one by one.

No one is saying that being detail-oriented on the job is not important. Of course, it's important. But there's a way to motivate employees to pay attention to those details without making them feel like nothing they do is correct. Moreover, it's also equally important (if not more so) to empower your employees and make them feel welcome, at the very least. Here, we have a grocery store worker who felt largely ignored and disregarded at work and who had been looking for managerial experience but was denied those opportunities time and time again. It's that forever catch-22: "How can I gain necessary experience without being given that opportunity?" After feeling the need to quit and move on to a different industry for some time, OP was called to his manager's office and was shamed for scanning a food item incorrectly, costing the company $12. Talk about "not a big deal!"

This thread was posted to Reddit by u/ReallySmartInEnglish, who thankfully was lucky enough to line something up right before quitting. Keep scrolling below for the full story. When you're done, check out this post about crazy job interview questions.