Author Topic: This is to much (Read 332 times)

wombatt · « **on:** December 13, 2004, 04:04:34 PM »

From the Daily Press, Victorville, CA (my local newspaper)Sun. Dec. 12

Clerk fired after using employee discount to help homeless man
By GRETCHEN LOSI/Staff Writer

HESPERIA — It was 19 degrees when a homeless man named "John" walked into Walgreens Drug Store wearing only a T-shirt and torn windbreaker.

He wanted to buy a sweater, but didn't have enough money.

Paul Regalado, who was working the register, used his employee discount to make up the $3.50 difference, allowing "John" to purchase the sweater.

Now Regalado is the one out in the cold.

Accused of misusing his employee discount, Regalado said Walgreens management last Wednesday asked him to pay the money back, which he did.

Then they fired him.

"He wanted to buy a sweater but couldn't afford it," said Regalado, who had worked at Walgreens for four months before the Nov. 30 incident. "I don't know why they fired me for that. I've never had a problem with them before."

Patricia Sandate, manager of the Walgreens on Bear Valley and Hesperia roads, said the matter was confidential and refused to comment.

But Regalado, 20, said that aside from paying for bottled water after he opened it and drank from it, he had never done anything against company policy until he helped the homeless man buy a sweater.

To make matters worse, Regalado said the company entered a report into a database that accused him of being a thief. Regalado could also receive a letter from the State of California Civil Recovery Service on behalf of Walgreens for civil action against him, he said.

"I felt sorry for him (John). He would come around a lot and I'd give him some food," Regalado said. "I worried about him during the storm and was glad when I saw him. I just wanted to help him out."

Regalado said he doesn't blame his store manager for dismissing him, saying she only did what she had to do.

"It's company policy," Regalado said. "She was sad to see me go. She said she didn't want to do this but loss prevention said she had no choice."

Octavius · « **Reply #1 on:** December 13, 2004, 04:08:15 PM »

wombatt · « **Reply #2 on:** December 13, 2004, 04:09:43 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Octavius

Burp:p

vorticon · « **Reply #3 on:** December 13, 2004, 04:13:00 PM »

if he was a government employee and did this youd be out for his blood...

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 13, 2004, 04:31:26 PM »

Sucks, but the management was 100% right. Companies that allow employee discounts have to be very careful how they are used and implemented, or they will quickly get out of hand and cost the company some serious cash. They have a very strict list of who is allowed to use the discount, and the cashier himself should NEVER be allowed to ring someone else up using his own discount. That route leads to bad things if you let it go on.

What the guy SHOULD have done, if he wanted to help out and still keep his job, was to call the manager, explain the situation, have the homeless man give him the money, and have the manager ring up the sale with the discount. The clerk could then pay for it, take the sweater and give it to the homeless man. Either that or pay for it with his own money and then get it back from the guy. All would have been legal, by the rules, and aboveboard. Instead, he tried to sneak it in and do a favor for a customer (needy or not), and he lost his job over it. Personally, I think they could have done something besides fire him, the guy sounds decent enough and probably wont screw up again, but from the sound of it the loss prevention folks demanded it go this way.

eagl · « **Reply #5 on:** December 14, 2004, 06:08:13 PM »

Star,

I think a reprimand, maybe a pay cut or demotion would have been enough. People are terrified of using their judgement nowadays and upper management in lots of companies are totally schizo about rewarding and punishing people seemingly at random for using their judgement.

Getting labeled a thief on some sort of official record, now that's just BS. He violated a company policy and possibly breached a contract, but didn't steal a damn thing. I hope he gets a lawyer and gets that eliminated from his record at the company's expense. The company (IMHO) ought to pay some sort of penalty for refusing to use common sense in this incident. If they gotta fire the guy, fire him, but don't register him as a criminal. That's really going overboard. It's like that 8 year old little girl that got cuffed and stuffed because she took her mommy's scissors to school and someone at the school freaked and called the cops in accordance with their no tolerance policy. The poor girl is probably emotionally scarred for life because some idiot adminstrator forced a stupid policy onto the schools and the school staff actually followed the stupid rules to the ludicrous extreme. People just can't use judgement anymore because it's too easy to sue for damages when totally honest mistakes are made.

Why can't "no tolerance" mean "I need to take those scissors and give them back to your mommy because you can't have them at school, sorry"?

BlueJ1 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 14, 2004, 06:33:10 PM »

I think the company likes the overall idea, but give one sweater away, next you have the entire population coming for their free handouts. The employee has a good heart in the wrong enviroment.

lasersailor184 · « **Reply #7 on:** December 14, 2004, 06:56:44 PM »

There's a difference between welfare and a good heart.

Most people on welfare don't try. This homeless guy tried, but came up short and was helped by someone who wanted to.

Btw, Walgreens is now going to hell.

CavemanJ · « **Reply #8 on:** December 14, 2004, 07:17:29 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by eagl

Why can't "no tolerance" mean "I need to take those scissors and give them back to your mommy because you can't have them at school, sorry"?

Because that would actually make sense, and you know that anything that has to do with child rearing these days is not supposed to make sense.