Sometimes, bending the rules at work seems like the right thing to do.

Imagine you were a teenager working as a cashier and saw single moms struggling to afford baby food and diapers.

Would you just mind your own business? Or would you quietly use your employee discount to help them out?

In the following story, one grocery store employee does the latter and almost loses her job in the process.

Here’s what happened.

How I kept my job after giving away $150 worth of product.

For about a year in high school, I worked at an international retail store in the US.

This company’s employees got a 10% discount on merchandise. Naturally, I would use this discount anytime I bought things for myself.

However, as a cashier, you see all sorts of people in all sorts of situations.

I saw single mothers with several children who were buying baby food, wipes, diapers, clothing, etc.

People who are in situations where they obviously cannot afford what they’re buying, but they have to buy it anyway.

It took the store longer than usual to catch the mistake.

I had the bright idea of using my discount to help them out at the register or when I logged in using my ID card.

Do you see where this is going?

It felt really good to see the looks of appreciation on these people’s faces, so I kept doing it.

I ended up doing it half a dozen times over the course of several weeks before management called me to the back room to have a ‘chat.’

Apparently, whenever you use your discount on a register that you’re signed into, the system creates a red flag. The manager who was supposed to be tracking that was on vacation for a week at the time and didn’t catch it until I had already given away $150 worth of discounts.

They decided not to fire her.

The two managers who were talking to me in the room brought me in with the intent to fire me. They told me this afterwards.

When they asked me why I did it, I explained that I was only doing it for the people who clearly really needed the help, and what I was giving discounts on.

They shared a look between themselves for a few seconds, and I could see a silent exchange happen.

They decided to keep me around.

Yikes! This could’ve gone either way for sure.

Let’s see how Reddit readers relate to this situation.

Here’s how this reader gets around it.

This person is impressed with the managers.

What a nice gesture.

Maybe, but she clearly couldn’t do that anymore.

It was sweet of her to help.

If you liked that post, check this one about a guy who got revenge on his condo by making his own Christmas light rules.