Small business owners know fairness doesn’t always equal complete equality.

So when a tanning salon boss was publicly accused of ripping off her staff after one employee snooped through pay envelopes, she agreed to “fix” the issue by perfectly balancing the schedule.

Before long, it didn’t take long for the employee to see the error of her ways.

You’ll want to keep reading for this one!

It doesn’t pay to snoop then accuse the boss…

I own a tanning salon, and it is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.

There are usually five to six girls working part-time there, and the pay is 12 dollars an hour plus cash commissions on the things they sell (packages, lotions).

It’s worth noting that it’s a small non-chain business in a college town.

She handles her employee’s paychecks in a very particular way.

All of the paychecks are kept in a drawer, in individual envelopes with the employees’ names on them, taped shut.

They pick up their envelope on payday, and it has worked well EXCEPT for one instance.

But one day, an employee crossed a line.

One employee decided to open everyone’s envelopes to see their pay, and she was LIVID that one girl was getting paid $2 more an hour.

Instead of just asking me about it, she decided to blast the employee group chat and accuse me of ripping them off, etc.

Little did the employee know, the owner had a very good reason for running her business how she did.

Before you think the same thing, it’s worth noting again that this is a college town with all college-age workers.

For my particular salon, it has meant it’s VERY hard to consistently have someone who wants to close weekends.

They are all usually going home, have plans, want to study, etc.

So she likes to embrace flexibility and offer increases at her discretion.

I try to be super accommodating, and I work around everyone’s schedules to the best of my ability.

If someone says they cannot work, I do not ask questions. I just accept it and plan accordingly.

So, the reason this girl made a little “extra” was because she offered to close both days every weekend because she didn’t mind.

In her mind, this was a fair trade-off.

She didn’t want as many weekday hours, so I offered to pay her a little extra because it was so difficult a lot of the time to schedule that.

Plus, those two days can be a little slow, so commissions are usually not as good.

But the employee didn’t know this before snooping.

I guess the girl who snooped never bothered to look at the schedule to see if there was MAYBE a reason that girl made a little more (even though she really didn’t because she worked so few hours).

Cue malicious compliance.

The owner decided to show this employee exactly what she was missing.

I explained the situation to all of the girls.

I told the snooper that since she was right, totally a rip-off, I would make sure to fix it.

I started scheduling both the snooper and my weekend closer every weekend night for the next three weeks.

I really only needed one person working, but I had done a terrible wrong that needed to be made right! (At the extra pay for the snooper, of course).

Finally, the employee gets the message.

I would’ve done it longer, but she apologized and said she was totally fine going back to how it was because she wanted her weekends back and the extra pay wasn’t worth it!

I guess we could’ve decided that together if she had just talked to me in the first place instead of jumping to conclusions.

This is no way to treat your boss.

Redditors are sure to get a kick out of this one.

This commenter shares a very similar story from a hotel.

If it were up to this commenter, this employee would have been fired.

It benefits workers to be transparent about their wages, but everyone needs to consent to it first.

This employee crossed a very concerning line.

After all this drama, this employee likely wishes she had just kept her mouth shut.

The schedule got balanced, and so did the perspective.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.