Acting Shifty About The Shift
RESTAURANT | WORKING | OCTOBER 29, 2013
(It’s a busy day, and my coworker calls in to say she will be unable to come in for her shift. This is the third time in two weeks she’s dropped a shift.)
Coworker: “I locked my keys in my car, and have no other way of getting to work, so I can’t come in today.”
Manager: “Did you call AMA?”
Coworker: “Yeah. They said they can’t come out today because my small town is too far. I called a towing company too, but I can’t afford their rates.”
Manager: “Huh. That’s weird. I guess I’ll start trying to find someone to cover your shift.”
(Instead of trying to get the shift covered, my manager calls AMA to confirm that they won’t come to my coworker’s town. It turns out they have a service centre located there, and would be willing to go unlock my coworker’s car. My manager calls the coworker back.)
Manager: “Hi. So I called AMA, and it turns out they’re located in your town. So they can come get your keys out of your car. Maybe I talked to a different person than you did. Anyways, I can call them back and have them come to you; I just need your address.”
Coworker: “I’m not comfortable giving you my address.”
Manager: “Okay… well, have the towing company come then. You can have them forward the bill to me, and I’ll pay it. I really need you at work right now because it’s busy.”
Coworker: “I’m not comfortable with you paying for that.”
Manager: “Well, then I’ll charge it to our store. They’d be okay with helping you get to work. We need you here.”
Coworker: “I’m not comfortable with that either.”
Manager: “Do you have anybody that could give you a ride in?”
Coworker: “No.”
Manager: “What if I call you a cab? I’ll pay for it now, and you can pay me back later.”
Coworker: “You’re being really pushy! I’m not comfortable with any of this!”
Manager: “I just offered you multiple suggestions for getting to work, all at no cost to you. At our store, employees do everything in their power to show up for shifts because it’s not fair to the other people working when you don’t. Now somebody will have to work overtime to cover your a**. I’m not going to ‘push’ you any further on this, but if you ditch another shift this month, you’re fired.”
(The coworker continued not coming in for her shifts, but quit before the manager had a chance to fire her.)
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