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I have continuously ran this through my mind atleast a 100 times since being off work. But have yet to see where I messed up.

So this lady comes in and has a unpurchased shirt her husband is wearing so out of experince and instanct i went back and told my manager hey this ladies husband is wearing a unpurchased shirt someone probably needs to keep a eye on them just in case. So i went back to my register they walk up after half a hour of wearing the unpurchased item and pay for it and than walk out and the police are there. So than because the police were called this person apparently is on probation and so i come in today and fixing to head home, my manager calls me into the office and says i have to write you up because they filed a complaint against you. And so in my mind it's like I was just trying to do my job.
Any thoughts?

First of all, have you seen the complaint, and are you certain it was directed specifically to you, or about the situation with the police? If it's about the police, you should ask that the reprimand be instead assigned to whomever it was that actually called the police or told them to speak to the customer after they left the store. Of course, since that almost certainly was the manager, you might then find out that the whole thing miraculously disappears. ;)

Of course, the complaint was almost certainly verbal, which makes it more difficult. And management has wide leeway to screw employees over in that regard - my mother in law was fired from a job she had worked at for over a decade because of a "complaint" even though she really had no significant history. Well, except of course that because of some medical situations, she had been quite expensive to keep insured - so of course, that's not a reason you are allowed to fire someone, but it sure makes for a great motivation to do so when you can find any other excuse to!

I suppose it comes down to how much you care about keeping the job, how much you want to pursue it and how vindictive you think your manager might be. The safest option would probably be just asking to include a statement on the record that states what happened and that you feel you were acting properly and that the customer's complaint should not be specifically considered against you. It's definitely much better than having a generic "customer complaint" on your file.

Have you talked with your human resource manager yet. f you didn't call the cops then it really wasn't you that went over board. You are supposed to report suspicious activity and if the person you told was the next up the ladder (some places train you to tell a Lost Prevention Specialist or a special number or something like that) then you didn't do anything to deserve a write up.

It's just a write up but anything in your file can be used for performance reviews, promotions and possible job retention.

The problem with this writeup is i'm now one strike away from being fired when all I did was my job. I have attempted to contact many people and not a single person has listened

Wait. Is it your job, to follow people around who might shoplift?

Or is it your job to fold clothes, put them on display, and ring out customers?

Troy and Shikago are right dude.
Not your job description.
Edit: my job is to assist therapeutic strategies for the kids where I am at. Not to make diagnosis, or recommend medicine changes, or say "(therapist), (client) is not making any strides for the better, this s--- needs to change".

Last edited by LBJisaCancer at 6/28/2012 7:32:25 PM

Wait. Is it your job, to follow people around who might shoplift?

Or is it your job to fold clothes, put them on display, and ring out customers?

Troy and Shikago are right dude.
Not your job description.
Edit: my job is to assist therapeutic strategies for the kids where I am at. Not to make diagnosis, or recommend medicine changes, or say "(therapist), (client) is not making any strides for the better, this s--- needs to change".

He didn't follow them around or call the cops. From what I see, he noticed something that could potentially be a shoplifter, and notified management of it, and in his own words, went back to his register. The reason there are managers in the first place is to properly handle situations like this - and if how this was posted is how it went down, I'd have a lot more fault for the manager calling the police needlessly than for the employee notifying management of a potential concern.

Wait. Is it your job, to follow people around who might shoplift?

Or is it your job to fold clothes, put them on display, and ring out customers?

Troy and Shikago are right dude.
Not your job description.
Edit: my job is to assist therapeutic strategies for the kids where I am at. Not to make diagnosis, or recommend medicine changes, or say "(therapist), (client) is not making any strides for the better, this s--- needs to change".

He didn't follow them around or call the cops. From what I see, he noticed something that could potentially be a shoplifter, and notified management of it, and in his own words, went back to his register. The reason there are managers in the first place is to properly handle situations like this - and if how this was posted is how it went down, I'd have a lot more fault for the manager calling the police needlessly than for the employee notifying management of a potential concern.

So, trying on clothes is potentially shoplifting now? I mean, I can see the logic, I know what size I am and don't try things on... but that poses a serious problem for a lot of people.

Sure the manager could of handled differently... but if the guy is wearing the shirt, and in the store for a half hour... odds are near 0% he's a shoplifter. In a half hour, PLENTY of camera's have seen you, so its not like you can be an in and out guy, which is the point of shoplifting.

If I were the customer, I would file a complaint too, course, as a customer, the complaint would have been against the store/manager, and not some retail jockey employee. I would not even notice the retail employee unless they were following me, or made a comment that struck a chord on me where I would check their name tag and remember it.

I think there is more to the story than we are being told. But yes, I feel his complaint, valid. But as someone else said. Complaints against you, usually mean your doing your job right.

So, trying on clothes is potentially shoplifting now? I mean, I can see the logic, I know what size I am and don't try things on... but that poses a serious problem for a lot of people.

Sure the manager could of handled differently... but if the guy is wearing the shirt, and in the store for a half hour... odds are near 0% he's a shoplifter. In a half hour, PLENTY of camera's have seen you, so its not like you can be an in and out guy, which is the point of shoplifting.

If I were the customer, I would file a complaint too, course, as a customer, the complaint would have been against the store/manager, and not some retail jockey employee. I would not even notice the retail employee unless they were following me, or made a comment that struck a chord on me where I would check their name tag and remember it.

I think there is more to the story than we are being told. But yes, I feel his complaint, valid. But as someone else said. Complaints against you, usually mean your doing your job right.

Trying on clothes isn't a sign of shoplifting. Heck, wearing them out of the changing booths might not be. But remember the original poster didn't say he'd alerted the manager after a half hour - he saw the person walking in the unpurchased clothes (quite possibly shortly after the customer exited the booth) and told the manager at that point.

Almost all of my retail experience was in grocery stores and I've personally been out of that for over a decade, so I'm not sure what the standards are for situations like this. I can say that if this is what happened, I'd have a huge problem with the manager, and if I had been the person who filed the complaint it would have gone to a higher level than the establishment itself (unless it's a single outlet, at which case I would have wanted to speak to a manager of a different shift). I agree that there could very well be more that we're not being told, but at this point I think I'd rather just focus on giving advice to the original poster and if the manager chooses to come on here to give the other side of the story, I'll adjust accordingly. ;)

I worked at a clothing store at a mall for a short time in college, it sucked. Anyway, shoplifting was extremely common, especially the items that someone can stuff in your pocket or purse like perfumes. I think there was a study that showed that most people don't go into a store with the intention to shoplift, they just do it because the opportunity arises and they think they can get away with it. Mall there are no security, department stores they have the "loss prevention" people so regular employees don't worry about it, I assume he is describing a mall situation.

The employees at our store were taught to make a "recovery statement" when they suspected someone planning to shoplift an item. Recovery statement is when you walk up to the person, lets say they have grabbed a shirt and appear on their way out the door, and you say something like "Hey just a reminder if you get 2 shirts you get bla bla." The idea is to let the person know that you are aware that they have the item, so there is a chance that he or she will put it back or whatever because they know u know. But yea they told us never to call the police, they would rather have people steal a few items a day then have police show up at the store and get a bad reputation, so idk what this manager was thinking.

My question would be... how could the customer file a complaint against you when you never approached nor confronted the customer face-to-face (based on your explanation of the situation). If you didn't directly approach the customer, then the complaint couldn't possibly apply solely towards you. Sounds like someone passed the buck.