19-year-old retail employee saves coworker from getting fired, gets back at their manager: 'I was accidentally the downfall for a manager-in-training'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Feb 14, 2025 5:00 PM EST

There's always that one manager who basically gets paid to sit around. It's admirable, in a way. Imagine getting a job and then just… not doing it. Instead of working, this type of manager will sit in the back office and complain about how busy they are. They'll have one eye on the cameras and one eye on their phone, ready to chastise any employee who's not working, while they themself scroll through their social media feed. The writer of this story calls that type of manager a "dud," and that's a great way to phrase it. Some bosses are ineffective and just create more work for everyone else around them, and this dude, Steve, was a prime example of that. 

As this person shared, they enjoyed their job and their coworkers, with the exception of that manager-in-training, Steve. Keep scrolling to read their tale of confusion followed by a well-earned victory! 

Up next, read about some people who had mildly infuriating broken TVs, smashed iPhone screens, and other tech problems, like one person whose iPhone "wants me to wait 53 years before attempting to unlock [it]."

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    '[Manager] was very startled when he showed up to work to find the District Manager' HOME
    via Jonny Caspari on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    "I was accidentally the downfall for a Manager-In-Training who was a total thief"

    Way back in 2000 I was an adorable, naive 19 year old working retail at a picture framing place. The management of our little shop consisted of our Manager Jenny, the Assistant Manager Nick, and me the "Third-Key". (For those who don't know, a Third-Key is literally that... a third person with keys. I had the ability to open and close the store and act as manager-on- duty, but if Jenny or Nick was there then I was just a regular employee. (Names changed to
    via u/_Internet_Hugs_
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    protect the not-so-innocent.) Jenny was an amazing manager, middle aged but cool. She'd had a LOT of fun in the 70s and wasn't shy about telling us her hilarious stories. She was also kind of like the shop mom, she made cookies and was always very in-tune with people's emotions. She always knew the right thing to say to make me feel better, and she was a fountain of real-world wisdom. Everybody LOVED her.
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    She was also an artist, and her work was starting to pick up steam. That combined with the onset of some health issues made her decide that retail work just wasn't for her anymore. We were all really sad, but definitely understood. Now Nick was just a college kid and definitely didn't want (or really qualify) to be promoted to Manager, so corporate brought in a Manager-In-Training to work as a fourth member of the
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    management. Let's call him Steve. Steve was weird. He was a huge white guy but dressed in clothes that looked like they'd come from Bill Cosby's wardrobe. LOUD sweaters in Arizona heat. I was basically a Golden Retriever puppy and tried to chat with him while teaching him the ropes when it was my turn to have him shadow me, but he just wouldn't engage. It's not just that, but he would stare at me while I worked. Just sit in the office chair and stare. I tried to chalk it up to him
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    just being awkward, but it was creepy. Even when I was trying to teach him something he would barely interact. When he did talk it was usually about how amazing he was at his last job and how low the pay was for managers in our company. Uh duh, it's retail. Okay, so on to the meat of my story. Remember when I said that Jenny was having issues with her health? She called me one Saturday afternoon when I was off and asked if I'd come fill in for
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    her. Of course I did, and ran down to the shop to relieve her. She was having a really bad day and I was happy to close for her. I also worked the next day, Sunday, and the day after that, Monday. That Monday our district manager came in while I was M.O.D. and we got chatting. Like I said, I was basically a chatterbox so this wasn't unusual. He asked me how Steve was doing and I tried to diplomatically tell the guy Steve was a dud, using the
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    example that on Saturday when I relieved Jenny he had just sat in the office or wandered the floor the whole night. The D.M. seemed a little startled, but not about the guy's behavior but by the fact that Jenny hadn't been in the store after 3 pm. After being in our store for about six weeks Steve started swapping out with another store in the neighboring city and acting as M.O.D. by himself. Steve was thrilled because he actually lived
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    in this other city, and the rest of us just assumed this was part of his training. Not so much. Turns out that there'd been a whole lot of "shrink" happening at our store. A huge uptick in people paying with credit card and then coming back later and getting a cash refund. Back then if you did a return on a credit card or debit it took a few days for the money to show back up in
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    the account. If people got mean about it we could do a cash refund, but it had to be approved by a member of the management by signing in with their register code and using their key. Thousands of dollars worth of returns were being done in cash, multiple times a day, when before we'd have maybe one or two a week. What's worse is that it appeared that Jenny was the one doing all these returns.
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    They seemed to think that Jenny was taking all she could get before she retired. That is, until I told the D.M. about filling in for Jenny. Apparently a very large ($750) credit card transaction had been returned that night around 7 pm and Jenny's code was the one used. When I said she wasn't even there, in my naive way I had saved her.
    via u/_Internet_Hugs_
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    It turns out that Jenny had just given Steve her register code to train him because it took a few days for him to get his own. because of some computer glitch at corporate. After my offhand remark they took a closer look at our old schedule on paper (the management team didn't clock in and out) and realized that half these returns were happening on days when Jenny wasn't even there. So they switched Steve to the store in the other city which had a better surveillance system
    via u/_Internet_Hugs_
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    and caught him using another employee's code to pull the same trick, as well as flat out pulling cash from the till. I'm not sure what the actual charges were, but from what I heard he was very startled when he showed up to work to find the District Manager and two sheriff detectives waiting in the other store's office for him. He was literally perp-walked out in handcuffs! I was so upset that they didn't do it in our store!
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    Jenny ended up leaving shortly after, the stress was just too much for her. Nick was made temporary manager and he and I split opening and closing duties for a couple months. I mostly opened and he would close. There were a few managers from around that would sub in to give us days off. Then we finally got a new manager who'd been entirely trained at other stores. He was okay, but he was no Jenny. Thankfully he was no Steve. either!
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    This employee set the wheels in motion to get that terrible manager out of his position! It's bad enough that he was stealing, but he clearly also intended to blame someone innocent for his ruse. He would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling kid! 

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    Lord_Nikolai congratulations on helping with this dude. I've been under surveillance before because someone else was skimming and it was nerve wracking. turned out they kept pairing me with this other person because they knew I was trustworthy and my drawer always balanced.
    via u/Lord_Nikolai
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    When I complained to my boss about always being on audit, she just said "Don't worry, its not you." and left it at that.
    via u/Lord_Nikolai
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    Aggressive-Sky... So glad Steve got caught and it's awesome that you managed to help Jenny out. just by being yourself!! This was a great story, thanks for sharing
    via u/Aggressive-Sky-9482
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    Just by doing the right thing, this person rewarded themself and their coworker

    thatslifeiguess The fact that you revealed this huge thing without actually knowing what you were revealing is beyond. awesome! Good for you!
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cash register retail shopping retail worker coworkers working cashier tales from retail workplace boss manager training
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