Manager Tried To Get An Employee In Trouble For Dancing, And Loss Prevention Cleared The Worker Instead
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Some workplace rules care more about where employees stand than what they actually accomplish.
At one sporting goods store, a manager was warned for briefly stepping away from a camera during a truck unload.
Instead of challenging the rule, he stayed perfectly visible and made the footage impossible to ignore.
See why they had no choice but to approve the performance.
Ok I’ll stay on camera
Years ago, before Sports Authority went out of business, I worked there as the hardlines/ receiving manager of one of their stores.
It was a terrible company, and I’m glad they went out. They were positively obsessed with the possibility of employee theft.
Understandable, I know, but don’t be so awful and you might lower your chances.
Unloading a truck at the store for some bizarre reason required someone to stand on the dock plate while the seal number was called in. I never understood why.
One day, the guy assisting me with the unload couldn’t find the phone number to call in the seal number written on the desk for some reason. I stepped off the dock plate – not even fully sure I stepped off camera, but stepped off the dock plate to point and yell at him where it was.
The District Loss Prevention manager saw it for what it was.
Location Ops manager (glorified head cashier) gives me a warning, I guess.
I think her name was Robin.
Okay, I’ll stand on the dock plate. Except I have ADD, get bored easily, and have a penchant for acting appropriately in situations.
Cue up dancing on the dock plate and riding an imaginary horse while the person calls in the seal number.
Did I mention I’m not good at dancing?
Ops Manager decides I’m not taking this with all the seriousness she can conjure up and reports me to the District Loss Prevention manager.
Shows him a tape of me dancing in the dock plate and asks him what they are going to do about it.
It got back to that his response was “Nothing. He’s doing exactly what we told him to do.”
Wow! That’s one way to make a statement!
Let’s see if the folks over at Reddit have ever done anything like this at work.
This person doubts that the store was an “authority” on anything.
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This food sounds terrible!
It probably does creep him out, too.
Great point.
The receiving manager stayed on the dock plate as ordered, but passed the time dancing and riding an imaginary horse.
When another manager reported the footage, loss prevention refused to act because he had followed the rule exactly.
She submitted evidence of misconduct and accidentally proved flawless compliance.
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