We'll call it a "I didn't fuck up my drawer" tax on your employer. If they're not gonna give you a raise, you're gonna give yourself one.
Even if they're only "alterted" at $20, there's still a real person who counts your register at the end of each of your shifts. If you're manager notices you're consistently short, they might fire you anyways.
Specifically, don't take $10 even from the drawer every shift. Don't even trust yourself to take a "random" amount between $1 and $20 every shift -- people are shitty at generating random numbers on their own, and audits that are sophisticated enough look for numbers that humans tend to "randomly" select at a disproportionate rate.
I would take nothing every fourth or fifth shift as plausible deniability. On the rest of the shifts, generate a random integer on your phone between 10 and 19, then take that number plus some change. Maybe every now and then take less than $10.
You could do more, but (1) "don't get greedy" is good advice when you're doing anything risky, and (2) don't think in terms of what could get you fired -- because you can get fired for anything -- think in terms of what the cops could prove beyond a reasonable doubt if your boss catches on and tries to do more than just fire you.
it's very cool 😎
but my register had a security cam that they did randomized audits of (we found out about the audits cuz they fired someone for vaping behind reg) so ymmv
The saddest draconian employment conditions I've heard of is my friend who worked at a college food court. You had your Subway and Domino's and Panda Express, etc. All lined up in one giant row along the wall. They were expected to work with factory floor efficiency. There'd be three or four minimum wage college kids working each line, burn out was 4-6 weeks for most. There was one manager who would sit in his office operating all the cameras and would radio in on any employee who was on their phone, working too slow, or talking too much to customers. A perennial voice in their ear from an eye in the sky.
Absolute torture.
Same happens at the Amazon warehouse. Rate is tracked on big screens and the managers comes reprimands you if you're below the floor average
a guy i knew worked at GAME for a couple of years, for the first 6 months he had to let management search his backpack every time he finished his shift
99% sure that's illegal, but yeah
I used to be a manager that had to do that.
If I liked the employee, I'd turn a blind eye (which is pretty easy, I tend to like everybody).
Don't think it's illegal - happened at the Amazon warehouse I worked at. Didn't stop me tho lol.
Back in easy 2000 my best friend figured how to scam a movie theatre register she did ticket sales at resulting in the customer not actually getting charged and her getting cash equivilant to the ticket sale, but also showed up properly on the computer system. So proud of her, she saved up a few thousand before quitting to use the money to pay for a tattoo artist apprenticeship.
When I was seventeen a girl I knew got fired from a barista job for pocketing like $300 over the course of two weeks. At the time I thought it was horrible because I was a child but looking back I wish I quit every retail job I ever had by doing that.
Absolutely. When I used to work at the waterpark concession stand during the summers in HS, I would inevitably wind up taking $20-40 from my till at the end of the night to pay for weed. Of course, my reasoning was “you’re only paying me 7.25/hr to essentially manage a concession stand so I’m gonna pay for my eighth with my stolen profit” lmao
how sure are you that there isn't already a $10+ dollar error margin on the register? If you're 100% sure, why not take $19? If you're less than 100% sure, why take any?
In my case, I figured out that my manager was pocketing $20 from my drawer every time because I always had a perfect drawer.
I was supposed to have a 30-min lunch, and after I ordered my sandwich, my boss comes in and tells me the rules have changed and they need me back on the floor immediately. I was so pissed. So in my head I was all, "Fuck it, they're gonna pay for my (now cold) sandwich" and took $10 out of the drawer.
The next shift, I saw my name had been flagged. It said I was off $30 for that shift. But curiously, I wasn't written up or spoken to. Hmm....
I tested it again and took $5. This time I'd been flagged again for $25. The manager came and spoke to me, but he didn't seem mad. Just like, "What's going on?" I turned it on him, "Yeah, what IS going on?"
Apparently I learned after working there for awhile that it's a thing the managers do to nick off the top just enough not to raise the alarms. And my streak of perfect drawers made me an easy mark.
I can't say I was mad. I was earning minimum, my manager was earning that +$2 and working 60 hours a week.
I blame capitalism.
Better manager just quietly offers 15 each and you both go on with your day.
Sounds like you could probably get more value overall from stealing inventory tbh. But if there's not much worth taking for yourself, could probably take random amounts within the margin on an inconsistent basis.
this. feed yourself off inventory and save what you would've spent. thats how i survived.
So that's why whenever I make it obvious I'm going to pay with cash at some stores, pretty consistently a few dollars worth of stuff doesn't get rung up. Smart.
Like others have said it can be dicey with drawer audits. If you work some where with inventory worth having that's generally a safe bet. If youre a closer and your place has a loading dock you can get huge amounts of stuff, my buddy and I made a few thousand each working at a hard ware store. Just watch reselling it locally.
Friend of mine used to work at Teavana, where they sold bulk tea by weight. He discovered that if he set up the sale after weighing the tea out, it would display the price, and then he could cancel the sale and it would never get recorded in the books, so he could then just pocket the cash the customer paid. He did that for quite a while, I have no idea how much he made from that trick but it must have been quite a bit.
It's way cooler than me and if you do it then you're a really cool person and I'd like your phone number.
