You can prioritize safety or you can also save money by understaffing your company.

Can you do both at the same time?

Check out how the manager in this story got the answer to this question.

Follow the safety rules!

Years ago I worked for a US chain of supermarkets.

I spent years there and worked a number of positions, but this story has to do with me being a buggy boy, long before the global plague.

This store was NOTORIOUS for understaffing, a 24-hour supercenter serving over 20 communities and the store ran with about 300 people on payroll when it needed 500+.

So workers had to do things a certain way.

I was one of four cart pushers on payroll to cover the parking lot 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It wasn’t pretty.

How did we manage?

Simple, we cut corners.

The safety rules required that we use a ratcheting safety strap anytime we pushed more than three carts, plus no more than ten at a time by hand or twenty in a trip with the remote pusher.

We ignored that.

We didn’t use the straps and my personal record was I think 46 without assistance, but that was late night clean up in a lot empty of cars.

Once in a while management would catch the “Safety rules are absolute” bug and breathe down our necks about it and I got fed up with it.

I was the only cart pusher on schedule for about eight hours and was told when I came in that I was expected to follow all the rules to a T.

So I got my strap and got to work. I did actually try.

I took pride in my work, but I couldn’t keep up with demand and by the time the store quieted down around 10 PM.

But it’s not working out.

When night shift came in, I was due to leave at 11 and the lot was still a mess, so I tracked down the night shift manager since mine was long gone.

“I’m supposed to leave at 11, do you want me to leave at 11 or when the lot is clear?”

“When the lot is clear.”

He wasn’t being a jerk and I liked the guy.

My malice was directed at the day shift managers.

I went back to report that the lot was clean, at about 3 AM.

He told me he thought I had left hours ago (I usually left with a clean parking lot and within about 10 minutes of my scheduled time).

I just shrugged and said matter of factly, “That’s how long it takes to do it the right way.”

Again, I wasn’t trying to be a jerk to HIM, but the store didn’t like giving overtime or hours beyond what was scheduled and I knew he would tell them about it.

I didn’t hear a single word about the safety rules for months afterwards, and the managers looked sheepish when they saw me.

Here is what folks are saying.

I bet it depends where you live.

How efficient! Work smarter, not harder.

Sadly, he doesn’t see this.

SO stupid. It saddens me that people don’t protect themselves.

Courtesy seems rare.

Your body won’t thank you.

And neither will the Man.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were traveling for business.