March 21, 2024 at 7:38 am

Forgetful Employee Keeps Taking The Master Key Home, So Annoyed Coworker Finds A Special Way To Make Sure It Never Happens Again

by Chris Allen

Grocery Store Key Forgetful Employee Keeps Taking The Master Key Home, So Annoyed Coworker Finds A Special Way To Make Sure It Never Happens Again

Gotta love some good ol fashioned compliance of the malicious variety.

Because one person’s ignorance should not be set in stone with more bad policy.

And when you work with a team, you need everyone to be thinking about the team.

Here’s a fantastic little story about making sure even management recognizes that team-first attitude.

Can’t pocket this key!

I used to be the overnight cashier at a large grocery chain that was open 24 hours. I worked five nights a week with the weekends off.

The cigarettes were kept behind the service desk, which had a locked half door that had to be unlocked in order to access the area.

The key to unlock the door was on a regular key ring and I would keep it in my pocket all night because I had to get cigarettes for customers.

So OP walks through their process.

A seemingly easy-enough day-to-day operation to follow through with.

In the mornings I would drop the key ring off in the office and it would be waiting for me when I came back in to work the next night.

There was another cashier who worked the two overnights during the weekend.

He developed a habit of taking the keyring home with him.

I would end up having to jump over the counter to get into the area and the daytime employees were pretty annoyed with having to leave the door unlocked all day.

The problems that simple forgetfulness created for multiple other employees was beginning to grow old.

After the weekend cashier did this for a month straight, a manager ended up putting the key on one of those large sticks that are often used in gas stations for restroom keys.

I felt like a fool having to carry around a big restroom key stick when I was not the one who couldn’t remember to leave the regular key ring in the office when I got off work everyday.

OP did the right thing, taking this ridiculous circumstance to the manager.

Who did nothing…

I asked my manager why I had to suffer the punishment of another employee’s incompetence and the manager just explained how we have to make sure the key doesn’t accidentally get misplaced or taken home again and the giant stick is a way to accomplish that.

That night I purchased a large padlock. I used the padlock to lock the key stick to the front of a shopping cart.

I then made large signs on poster board that said “Key Cart” and put it on both sides of the cart.

Picture the beautiful nuisance of this shopping cart routine.

It’s glorious.

To open the door, the whole cart had to be rolled up to the door close enough to get the key into the keyhole. It was a bit of a spectacle and a pain in the butt to do.

The next night when I came into work my manager was pretty irritated about the key cart.

I told him I was just being proactive and that someone could still take the key home even on the stick, but no one would be able to take the key home if it’s attached to an entire cart.

It stayed like that for another day and then it was back to its original key ring that I could put in my pocket.

There we go, OP!

Let’s see what folks had to say, shall we?

One person recalled a story in a similar circumstance.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

While this commenter nailed it.

Twice.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

Another Redditor had a great quote.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

One commenter seems like they’ve been at this game for a while.

Source: Reddit/Malicious Compliance

Hey can you grab the cart? I need cigarettes again.

Serves em’ right!