Years ago when I had a real job—managing a fast food
restaurant—okay, that might be an inaccurate characterization of a real job.
Let me start over.
Years ago when I was managing a fast food restaurant, we
went through about a three month period of changing the combination to the safe
quite frequently—every few days it seemed. Actually, I think it averaged about
once week.
This was due mainly to managers quitting, or getting fired
as the case may be. Anytime someone stopped working there, who’d had the
combination, we changed it. Normally, this was only an occasional occurrence
but for some reason, we went through a lot of swing managers that summer.
As you can imagine, having to memorize a new combination so
often was a little frustrating for some of the managers. According to the
rules, no one was allowed to carry the combination on them and we did not post
it anywhere in the store—for obvious reasons. So, it had to be memorized.
One morning, at about five o’clock, on my day off, I got a
phone call. It seemed the swing manager who was opening the store, had
forgotten the combination. It was almost time to open, people were waiting in
the parking lot, and all of the tills were in the safe. I could have given her
the combination over the phone but, that too, is against the rules—you never
know who may be listening.
So, I got up, got dressed, and drove the five miles to town.
By the time I arrived, I was all prepared to give the manager a lecture about
how important it is to pay attention to these kinds of thing, and maybe offer a
mnemonic device of some sort to help her remember in the future. But when I
walked in the office, I immediately forgot about all of that.
Why? Well, because I noticed the safe was open. The door was
closed but the lever was in the open position. All that needed to be done was
to pull—the door would swing right open.
When I pointed this out, the manager was of course very
embarrassed and apologized profusely for making me get out of bed and come in
on my day off. But I wasn’t concerned with any of that. First, she would have
needed the combination anyway, to run the shift, but more importantly, the safe
had been left unlocked—all night.
A check of the schedule quickly determined which manager had
closed the night before. (No, it wasn’t I, if that's what anyone is thinking)!
Later that day, I had a little chat with that manager. My goal was simply to
remind him to double check everything before leaving the store, particularly
the locks on the doors and maybe, just maybe, the safe. That would have been
the end of it because (contrary to some people’s opinion) I’m really a nice and
understanding guy. People make mistakes. As long it doesn’t become a pattern, I
can deal with it.
But then, this not-so-bright manager spoke up. “I didn’t
forget to lock the safe. I couldn’t remember the combination so I just left it
unlocked for my shift. And then I left it that way for the opening manager in
case she couldn’t remember the combination either.” Then the kicker: “But I
pushed the door shut so nobody could tell if they broke in.”
My response? Well, let’s just say the safe combination had
to be changed again. ~
Bruce A. Borders is the author of more than a dozen
books, including: Inside Room 913, Over My Dead
Body, The Journey, Miscarriage Of Justice, and
The Wynn Garrett Series. Available in ebook and paperback on iTunes,
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords, or at www.bruceabordersbooks.weebly.com.
Amazon Profile - http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-A.-Borders/e/B006SOLWQS.
Bruce A. Borders is a proud member of Rave Reviews Book Club.
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