Retail employee forced to work 20 hours unpaid due to daytime managers incompetence, ends up taking matters into her own hands next time: ‘[They're] not ready to play nice’

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Apr 13, 2024 7:00 PM EDT

When your upper management keeps ignoring you, what do you do? That's when you ask for forgiveness, not permission…

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  • There are many frustrating moments you will have to endure in your lifetime as a functioning adult in society. Most of them, most likely, will happen at your place of employment. In this case, it was a retail worker at her breaking point. 

    If you have ever worked retail, then you know that inventory time is a very important and tedious time. If you don't get everything done as scheduled, it's a big problem. This Redditor, u/peacefulrevolution93, worked the night shift. She already did not want to be there longer than she had to, so she tried to communicate with the daytime managers so she could do her job efficiently. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, they did not listen to her. After the third time, she decided to take things into her own hands. Now, that's when she decided that asking for forgiveness would be a lot easier than asking for permission. 

    They made her work 20 extra unpaid hours, she showed them what she's made of. Read the entire story below! 

  • 01
    W "This was about 20 extra hours of unpaid time."
    via Famartin via Wikimedia Commons
  • 02
    Taking matters into my own hands because of entitled co-workers!!! L A few years ago I use to work at a large retail company on the overnight shift at the time. As many who have worked in retail probably know inventory time is a big deal as it can determine whether we gets a bonus or not, on top of having to do extra training if the shrinkage amount is really high. We had these devices that were used to do things like add or subtract items from inventory, print labels, keep track of what bins in
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 03
    had talked the store manager into allowing them to store these devices in their lockers at the end of their shifts which means no one else on any shift could use them, except in one department that needed the device to assist customers. About four weeks prior to inventory I ask the co-manager to have these devices left for us so that we can start getting the back rooms ready for inventory which means getting labels on all the boxes and then the amount that is in each box and if there is a row of
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 04
    Day shift wouldn't do this because they were "always too busy". For the next 2 weeks we were never left any of these devices to get the back rooms. completed. This will have been my 8th or 9th inventory so I know that come inventory time if the back rooms aren't done it is always blamed on the overnight manager. So I spent my two days off (and bare in mind I'm salary so I don't get paid for this time) at work getting the back stock room completed, this was about 20 extra hours of unpaid time. I
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 05
    My co-manager had seen me doing this when he came in the first morning and he asked me why i was there being it was my night off. I told him that since my numerous requests to have the devices available for us hadn't been done, I was there to get the bins in order. I figured when I came back for my next shift after my 2 unpaid nights that we would have some of these devices available for us to keep up on any left over stock that needed to be put away in the bins. I was wrong. When I came in and
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 06
    So, I went to the HR office and got the locker binder. In this binder is the combination to all the pad locks on the each locker. I also grabbed a flash light and began going through every locker that was assigned to a department manager and if I saw one of the devices in the locker I opened it and took out the device. Luckily the area had cameras so it was easy to see what I took out of a locker. I found every device we had, put them in a shopping cart and handed them out to the associates. Eac
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 07
    because the last hour of the shift is spent cleaning up and zoning the aisle meaning making all the product on the shelves look straight. Then I waited for the department managers to come in. They started trickling in around 6:45 am and when they had seen the devices sitting in a shopping cart, well you would have thought that someone had just taken their first born's from them. Generally, what happens with me is the co-manager comes to the assistant's office, I get up and go walk the floor with
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 08
    basically said, hold on, the store manager wants to talk to me first. I asked, “Am I in trouble?" He said, "don't know, but I'll let you know." So, I waited a bit until he came and got me and we started on our walk. I asked him if I was in trouble and pled my case about having asked for the devices for the last 2 weeks and got nothing. He said no, but if I decide to do this type of thing again to at least warn him first.
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 09
    I had heard from some of the other assistant managers before I left that some of the department managers were really and said I should be coached because how dare I go through their lockers. What they apparently didn't know was that company policy actually stated that company equipment is not to be left in lockers after their work shift and if it is, we have the authority to go through their lockers and find it. I left and expected to once again not have the devices available for us because I wa
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 10
    When I came in that night every device was sitting in an office for us to use and it stayed that way every night up though inventory!!! The funny thing is there was a song that was playing when the department managers had started coming in, and it was such a fitting song that now whenever I hear it I think of this event, the song was "Not Ready to Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks (as they were known back then)!!! I don't think I did anything wrong, but I'm pretty sure the department managers thoug
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 11
    CrackaA Cracka 4h ago • You absolutely did do something wrong. Why are you donating money to millionaires? Never ever ever under any circumstances work unpaid. If you want to volunteer, go to a soup kitchen. 48 ↑ Share Reply ... + More replies
    via CrackaA**Cracka
  • 12
    peacefulrevolution93 OP 3h ago It was worth it. If it didn't get done, then the night before inventory would have been hellish for me. 4 5 ⇓ ☐ Reply ↑ Share CrackaAssCracka • 2h ago you are worth more than that, be kinder to yourself. If you aren't getting paid, don't work + 9 ↓ ☐ Reply ↑ Share
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 13
    nerdgirl71 4h ago I was thinking that company equipment shouldn't be left overnight in employee lockers. Could be considered theft. Am I wrong? +63 Reply ↑ Share
    via nerdgirl71
  • 14
    mcflame13 • 3h ago No managers should be salaried and exempt from overtime. As for what happened. The department managers were breaking company policy by keeping the devices in their lockers after their shift. But I can understand their frustration about you going into their lockers to get the devices out of there. Which means I also understand where the store manager was coming from. If anyone should have gone through the lockers. It should have been him. As he can take the heat from HR. Especi
    via mcflame13
  • 15
    • peacefulrevolution93 OP 57m ago I had asked for weeks to get some of these devices. The department managers have been thru inventory before and know what needs to be done and knew that the ONLY way to get the back rooms ready, was by using these devices. But their attitude was that ONLY they should have access to the devices because they need them to do their job during the day so they should get to keep them in their locker. As far as I was concerned it takes a team effort to get thru invento
    via peacefulrevolution93
  • 16
    Jackalopeisa2nicorn • 3h ago Can you set up a common locker for the devices? There's no reason why the day shift shouldn't share. Next time I would just ask the other departments when they were planning to work all nighters to catch you back up. Trust me, when it starts affecting THEM and THEIR OFF TIME things will turn around. ☆ 1 ♡ Reply ↑ Share ...
    via Jackalopeisa2nicorn
  • 17
    Alternative-Ad-8742 . 2h ago I'm just surprised your HR just hands you a binder with pin numbers and lets you rifle through peoples lockers without a witness. That's quite an invasion of privacy even if it's for a valid reason. With locker checks there should always be two people, at least a rep from HR. +1 3 Reply ↑ Share
    via Alternative-Ad-8742
  • 18
    peacefulrevolution93 OP 1h ago • They weren't pin numbers, they were codes for the locks that were company property as were the lockers. Since I knew it was all on camera that was my witness. Besides policy stated that personal items were to be taken with the employee at the end of their shift. 13 ☐ Reply ↑ Share
    via peacefulrevolution93

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employee manager overnight shift retail upper management nightshift retail manager what goes around comes around entitled people karma pay back retail inventory justice served workplace entitled r-entitled Reddit working retail karma entitled people service industry
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