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A Kohl's Story Brah : Bomb has been Defused
Waffles or whatever
Previously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered User regular
Previously known as, I shit you not, "Waffen"Registered User regular
I'm going to spoiler tag this because its a really long read and those who like to read can read the full version of A Kohl's Story Brah. I'll have the summary at the bottom.
Summary. Despite the statement above (Search for EO statement) I'll just say this clique of chicks don't like me for an unknown reason. They snitched on me all day making my day miserable and attempted to put stolen merchandise into my bag hoping that I'd set off the detectors and get fired/sent to jail for theft. The day was awful. I remember that my douche bag boss offered me a way out and I'm thinking about taking it. I loathe drama and these girls are hardcore at it. Should I take it the offer or should I wade it out till I go back to school in early January? I'm starting to feel that working at Kohls isn't worth going to jail, losing rank, and not being able to commission in 2012 because of a misdemeanor.
Background Story : Over the summer I had to miss a semester of college because I was at Advanced Individual Training at Fort Eustis, Virginia for the US Army Reserve. When I returned in October I was drastically bored. One day I decided to buy some new shoes Kohls. When I got there I noticed that Kohls was hiring. While money wasn't an issue for me because I budgeted the amount of income I earned at AIT I have a safety net established. I decided to apply for a job out of boredom. Because you know, playing WoW all day gets old after awhile. To great surprise they called me back asking me to work retail. Being extremely bored I said "SURE! I'll TAKE THE JOB!"
The Kohls Story : Working at Kohls was fine at first until my second month. As employees got to notice me as well as bosses a lot of the bosses and older workers tend to like me a lot. They feel that my sense of humor and demeanor is very positive. The result, they welcome me. However, the young cliquen (You know, the ones who are disappointed that they'll be working retail for life) aren't really the greatest fans of me because I assume they either don't understand me, or took a few of my awful jokes as "flirting", despite it being known that I have a girl friend. The result is headaches.
Starting on Wednesday they decided to start snitching on me for every little pin drop. The first being a few friends that were looking at house appliances for parents and decided to drop a line asking if I wanted to get beer with them once I got off of work. One of these girls then snitched to a manager saying I was socializing on the job. The hiring manager is pretty cool. All he said is "Hey man, don't be doing that now. It'll get you in trouble." I was a little uneased by it, but I didn't think anything of it. Later that night I eaves dropped on the cliques leader admitting that she was the one who called the hiring manager on me and that she thinks that I am "lazy" because of my "hispanic" heritage. The ironic part is I'm of caucasian descendant and not hispanic. +1 for EO statement. I decided to not report it because it would be a "he said she said" incident
Friday I got to work the warehouse all day. Yeahhh! Nobody can bother me back there.
Today however was possibly the worst day of my life. It started with a disgruntled customer that took a clearance price and stuck it to a bowl just to save a whole $4.00. After being called to the register to verify the price and taking a few brutal insults from the customer I decided to walk to the back and double check the price because I knew it was wrong. The cashier then started to holler at me to hurry up through the radio. I mumbled to myself "Sigh, I'm sick of this shit". To which, one of the snitches heard me and told the big boss of the store. I'm told to page his extension and I get an awful response. Basically he asks if I want to work at Kohls or get fired right there. I didn't feel like coming home two hours into the job that day and telling my dad that I was fired from Kohls because I was snitched on. I then tell the manager that I was sorry and it wouldn't happen again.
A few minor debacles came and went and the managers I assume figured "Snitching is snitching". Therefore, I didn't hear anything about it until later. When I was about to take my lunch break a customer asked me if I could quickly call another store for her to see if they had a certain brand of shower curtains. I told them I was about to go on lunch, but they insisted that I call for them because the sale was about to end. I do them the favor and I call the neighboring store. You have to tell the person from what store you're calling from. I had a brain fart and forgot what town I was in and I told him the Kohls's near X town to which he guessed that I was at Y. He checked and told me that they didn't. I told the customers that they could order them curtains from the phone in the store and have them shipped directly to their house for free. They wanted to do it this way, but asked me to get someone else to help them because they didn't want to keep me from eating. When I radioed a coworker and he said he'd cover it for me. At Kohls you have to ask for permission to take your break and when I asked I get a very VERY angry response from the boss saying "FINISH HELPING OUT THE CUSTOMER OR ELSE!" I then ran into one of the assistant managers who really likes me. She basically informs me that sometime ago one of the snitches heard the brain fart part only and told the managers that I said "I'm Waffen from X, wazzup dooood" and then proceeded to ditch the customers. When I told her what really happened she basically pulled the "Shit son I feel bad for you, but square yourself away" card and let me eat.
After I finished eating a coworker noticed I was stressed out which was highly unusual for me and asked me what was going on. I told her my day and she insisted I talk to the hiring manager once the boss left because hes pretty cool. She paged him once he did and I talked to him. He basically shared condolences and told me to go incognito for a few days to let everything pass. He also informed me that my job was in no jeopardy at all and asked me to try to focus. It calmed me down a little bit and I went out to finish the last 30 minutes of the day.
Almost immediately after leaving the break room I get ambushed by one of the snitches and shes screaming at me that that they were looking for me for the past 30 minutes and I was nowhere to be found (Despite it being known I was on lunch break) and accused me of dereliction of duty. I blew it off as a "K" and asked what the customer wanted. She told me they were looking for something that wasn't on the shelf and wasn't on the truck. Pretty much she knew it wasn't in the store so she made a scene about it. The customer, who was disgruntled just says that shes going to go to Target and buy it there. The snitch practically begs her to stay and apologizes deeply, but the customer was not amused. She blames me for the lost sale and proceeds to report me to the manager. I assume he blew it off because he knew I was with him and on lunch break prior.
After I got off I punched out a minute early and as I went to grab my backpack (I usually go to the gym after work) I noticed that it was positioned differently. Being in the Army it messes with your head. It has you start readjusting your civilian lifestyle similar to that of the military. Anyway, I noticed that bag was facing the wrong direction. As I pulled it down it was heavier than when I came in that morning. I also noticed that the waste clip on this specific back was unraveled. I check every pocket and find a few pair of jeans with security tags tucked into my back pack. Someone tried to set me up the bomb! (Okay, I had to use that line) I then put on a pair of gloves that I had that day, pulled the stuff out of the bag, and quickly push it into a corner. I then dump my bag and check every single pocket and nook making sure there wasn't anything else in there to which there wasn't. (Bomb has been defused). I then promptly decide to leave.
I didn't want to tell the management because it would sound really dumb. Being new and accusing someone of putting merchandise in my bag would sound really stupid and made up.
The Kohls Story : Working at Kohls was fine at first until my second month. As employees got to notice me as well as bosses a lot of the bosses and older workers tend to like me a lot. They feel that my sense of humor and demeanor is very positive. The result, they welcome me. However, the young cliquen (You know, the ones who are disappointed that they'll be working retail for life) aren't really the greatest fans of me because I assume they either don't understand me, or took a few of my awful jokes as "flirting", despite it being known that I have a girl friend. The result is headaches.
Starting on Wednesday they decided to start snitching on me for every little pin drop. The first being a few friends that were looking at house appliances for parents and decided to drop a line asking if I wanted to get beer with them once I got off of work. One of these girls then snitched to a manager saying I was socializing on the job. The hiring manager is pretty cool. All he said is "Hey man, don't be doing that now. It'll get you in trouble." I was a little uneased by it, but I didn't think anything of it. Later that night I eaves dropped on the cliques leader admitting that she was the one who called the hiring manager on me and that she thinks that I am "lazy" because of my "hispanic" heritage. The ironic part is I'm of caucasian descendant and not hispanic. +1 for EO statement. I decided to not report it because it would be a "he said she said" incident
Friday I got to work the warehouse all day. Yeahhh! Nobody can bother me back there.
Today however was possibly the worst day of my life. It started with a disgruntled customer that took a clearance price and stuck it to a bowl just to save a whole $4.00. After being called to the register to verify the price and taking a few brutal insults from the customer I decided to walk to the back and double check the price because I knew it was wrong. The cashier then started to holler at me to hurry up through the radio. I mumbled to myself "Sigh, I'm sick of this shit". To which, one of the snitches heard me and told the big boss of the store. I'm told to page his extension and I get an awful response. Basically he asks if I want to work at Kohls or get fired right there. I didn't feel like coming home two hours into the job that day and telling my dad that I was fired from Kohls because I was snitched on. I then tell the manager that I was sorry and it wouldn't happen again.
A few minor debacles came and went and the managers I assume figured "Snitching is snitching". Therefore, I didn't hear anything about it until later. When I was about to take my lunch break a customer asked me if I could quickly call another store for her to see if they had a certain brand of shower curtains. I told them I was about to go on lunch, but they insisted that I call for them because the sale was about to end. I do them the favor and I call the neighboring store. You have to tell the person from what store you're calling from. I had a brain fart and forgot what town I was in and I told him the Kohls's near X town to which he guessed that I was at Y. He checked and told me that they didn't. I told the customers that they could order them curtains from the phone in the store and have them shipped directly to their house for free. They wanted to do it this way, but asked me to get someone else to help them because they didn't want to keep me from eating. When I radioed a coworker and he said he'd cover it for me. At Kohls you have to ask for permission to take your break and when I asked I get a very VERY angry response from the boss saying "FINISH HELPING OUT THE CUSTOMER OR ELSE!" I then ran into one of the assistant managers who really likes me. She basically informs me that sometime ago one of the snitches heard the brain fart part only and told the managers that I said "I'm Waffen from X, wazzup dooood" and then proceeded to ditch the customers. When I told her what really happened she basically pulled the "Shit son I feel bad for you, but square yourself away" card and let me eat.
After I finished eating a coworker noticed I was stressed out which was highly unusual for me and asked me what was going on. I told her my day and she insisted I talk to the hiring manager once the boss left because hes pretty cool. She paged him once he did and I talked to him. He basically shared condolences and told me to go incognito for a few days to let everything pass. He also informed me that my job was in no jeopardy at all and asked me to try to focus. It calmed me down a little bit and I went out to finish the last 30 minutes of the day.
Almost immediately after leaving the break room I get ambushed by one of the snitches and shes screaming at me that that they were looking for me for the past 30 minutes and I was nowhere to be found (Despite it being known I was on lunch break) and accused me of dereliction of duty. I blew it off as a "K" and asked what the customer wanted. She told me they were looking for something that wasn't on the shelf and wasn't on the truck. Pretty much she knew it wasn't in the store so she made a scene about it. The customer, who was disgruntled just says that shes going to go to Target and buy it there. The snitch practically begs her to stay and apologizes deeply, but the customer was not amused. She blames me for the lost sale and proceeds to report me to the manager. I assume he blew it off because he knew I was with him and on lunch break prior.
After I got off I punched out a minute early and as I went to grab my backpack (I usually go to the gym after work) I noticed that it was positioned differently. Being in the Army it messes with your head. It has you start readjusting your civilian lifestyle similar to that of the military. Anyway, I noticed that bag was facing the wrong direction. As I pulled it down it was heavier than when I came in that morning. I also noticed that the waste clip on this specific back was unraveled. I check every pocket and find a few pair of jeans with security tags tucked into my back pack. Someone tried to set me up the bomb! (Okay, I had to use that line) I then put on a pair of gloves that I had that day, pulled the stuff out of the bag, and quickly push it into a corner. I then dump my bag and check every single pocket and nook making sure there wasn't anything else in there to which there wasn't. (Bomb has been defused). I then promptly decide to leave.
I didn't want to tell the management because it would sound really dumb. Being new and accusing someone of putting merchandise in my bag would sound really stupid and made up.
Summary. Despite the statement above (Search for EO statement) I'll just say this clique of chicks don't like me for an unknown reason. They snitched on me all day making my day miserable and attempted to put stolen merchandise into my bag hoping that I'd set off the detectors and get fired/sent to jail for theft. The day was awful. I remember that my douche bag boss offered me a way out and I'm thinking about taking it. I loathe drama and these girls are hardcore at it. Should I take it the offer or should I wade it out till I go back to school in early January? I'm starting to feel that working at Kohls isn't worth going to jail, losing rank, and not being able to commission in 2012 because of a misdemeanor.
Waffles or whatever on
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And yeah.. it'd be hard to convince them that someone is putting shit into your backpack.
Only thing I can think of for now is either try and request a store transfer, try to get transferred to warehouse permanently, or start looking for a new job in your free time because what the hell. Psycho bitch is going to be psycho forever.
Alternately, is there any way for you to lock your backpack up?
By not saying anything, even if no one believes you when you tell them, you're just inviting whoever did this to do it again.
It's a dumb retail job you don't even need. Not even close to worth it.
edit: but yeah, do be sure your direct supervisors aren't willing to do anything before you go over their heads. but don't hesitate to do it if they won't
@Veevee - No Cameras in the break room
Overall, I just got back from AIT and I'm really burned out on drama. I'm not really even in the mood to bring it up to be honest. Plus I've always got a bad tendency to see stuff like this go wrong and I feel as if somehow I could see this back firing on me.
Plus its not like I really need the job. I have enough money to cover my car payment for about a year and I'll be returning to school in January. At school I was going to get my life guard certification to work at the indoor pool as well as either work at the chow hall or night ops checking in drunk college students at night. The college campus purposely reserves most of the jobs for the students anyway. A job at school is almost guaranteed.
but they're listening to every word I say
This way, if the next person who they hire has similar experiences, and also complains, hopefully the higher-ups realize that something is up.
The only thing I'm worried about is them holding onto my last paycheck and not giving it to me.
Edit: Plus I'm starting to get a little nervous about actually calling in now. I kinda getting a feeling that I'll regret doing it. However, I just feel awkward going back after today.
If you show up tomorrow fresh as a spring flower, with a hearty "good morning" for all your co-workers, I suspect you'll take a good year off their life, just from the frustration.
For bonus marks, stop by a donut shop and bring in a couple dozen for everyone on your way in.
crack some skulls.
and tell us about it
Even if they laugh you out of there, which is pretty much worst-case, you'll know that you were completely in the right. There's a good chance though that if the person is this vindictive with no real reason, she's done this sort of thing before, and may have been reported the first time. If that's the case, she may face actual consequences when you report her, and they may even ask you to stay. If she's never been reported and you're the first, at least you'll be doing the next guy a favor.
They're required to give you your last paycheck, but you'll probably have to go in and pick it up, anyhow.
I mean sure LDRSHIP is 95% bullshit that I, and many others in the Army, would never fucking do, but sometimes it can be pretty clear-cut what you should be doing. Like right now, for instance
You just need to have the intestinal fortitude to do so
I mean the Army really doesn't tolerate its NG/Reserve guys getting shit on in its civilian side, especially something like getting arrested making you unable to get a job, causing you to not maintain operational effectiveness
Also I guaran-fucking-tee if you call your commander/your NCO is good, you will never have to worry about your civilian job or treatment in it ever again. And honestly, you already sort of have notified your managers about the situation, and they're kind of sitting on their hands
they cannot withhold your paycheck just because you quit
call your military supervisor, explain the situation calmly and rationally, DEFINITELY include the attempted frame-up exactly as you have here and ask them for guidance.
Even if they only care about the bottom line, they're sinking and have sunk serious cash into you and your life. They spend time with you, alongside you. They'll look out for you. They probably wouldn't take too kindly to a group of snotty teenage idiots trying to mess with theirs
The attitude I have always taken on things like this, which has always served me well, is that if you report it, and they don't do anything (or worse, they don't take your side), then you don't want to work in a place like that anyway. You're a good employee, you get along well with others, and you do your job. Other people are fucking that up, and if the company can't see that or doesn't have the proper protocols in place to determine the truth and address the situation, then you don't want to work there. It's a waste of time dealing with stupid shit when you have an actual job to do.
Honestly, this job doesn't seem worth it. I would just put in my two weeks notice and tell them exactly why, and then go find another job.
But because of that little anecdote you basically have to inform your chain of command
Like, let me give you a for-instance
For instance, let's say you're working at another job, or at the same job, right after your unit gets cut their orders for...oh let's say Afghanistan. You know that 3 months before dep date for NG/Reserve, minimum, you gotta go to Fort Hood/I think the training center in Alabama? for pre-deployment training
Someone plants stolen merchandise in your backpack, you walk out- boom, handcuffed and thrown in jail (totally reasonable). Just for fun let's make it high-value electronics so now it's felony theft, not misdemeanor
You get stuck in there for three days, missing your fly date (auto Article 15, possible court martial), and plus you've uniquely set yourself up so your unit hates your fucking guts
And that is the last thing you want to have happen, believe me. Whether or not your unit likes you determines so much about how shit goes down when the shit hits the fan (I like to think because I was very passive and never did anything stupid on weekends- in other words a nice guy who didn't cause shit for his chain of command- back in garrison is what made me dodge a bullet after getting counselled six times in two weeks)- and believe me it will
Make sure you do something about this, because if you don't your command will just look at you either disbelievingly or with a "how fucking retarded is this guy?" attitude
You'll be immediately labelled either an idiot or a liar, and you don't want either label to stick on you
He also emphasized that my life was on the right track by going back to College to do ROTC and get my degree. He also said that quitting now won't really do much to me because I didn't work at Kohls long enough. Plus I rarely shop there as well, thus making it not a real loss. When I told him about my guilt trip he told me that "If you feel sick going to work because of the work environment get out. Don't bother with your two week notice. Just leave them a short and sweet message and never talk to any of those people again. He then told me to come in on Monday to drill with him since I owe him three days anyway.
After the conversation ended he texted me saying "You can't win every battle. Consider this as a life lesson. You learned that you need to do a job that interests you. I'll see you tomorrow Specialist. Do some PT to get that stress out and I'll see you tomorrow."
Regarding the message. I just told customer service to tell the boss that I am leaving due to unprofessional conduct by several employees. They tried to get me on the line with a manager, but I hung up before they could.
Regarding the paycheck. I don't actually have to go in for it because they do it by direct deposit.
Edit: Overall, quitting already has me feeling better. I felt sick this morning thinking that I might've had to go back to Kohls and work with these people. While I didn't do what most of you advised to do, the right thing. I feel that they'll get whats coming to them eventually. Perhaps by someone whose more eager to bring major changes to the store. For now I'll just drive on. Thanks all for the advise.
Never tell a customer you can't help them cause you're going on break/lunch/clocked out. If you're already on lunch then that's fine, but the manager was completely in the right to get mad at you for pulling that. It can be viewed as job evasion and can get you fired. Plus customers usually don't give a shit what you're supposed to be doing, only if you can help them or not.