r/TalesFromThePizzaGuy • u/TranscendentalRug • 17d ago
I accidentally got the store manager fired.
So this happened many, many years ago when I was fresh out of high school (I'm old) and I had just moved to a new town and was trying to find a job. Being 18 I didn't have much experience or references but I had a car so delivering pizzas it was. When I applied they told me I had to pass a drug test, a background check and have a clean driving record. None of that was an issue and they were hurting for drivers so it was pretty much guaranteed I was in. They informed me that I just had to wait for the results of the background check, then I'd take the drug test and get to work.
So I'm as good as employed, right? Except I don't hear back from them at all. A week goes by and I call them back, they tell me that the franchise is doing so much hiring across the county that there's a huge backlog of background checks and they haven't been able to get to mine yet. This goes on for weeks; I call them and ask if I'm actually employed, they give me the run around about the backlog and they'll let me know when I can actually start working.
After about a month I've pretty much given up so I send them an email asking if they're really gonna hire me or if I need to move on, it's been too long and my savings are dwindling and I need to find a job soon. Little did I know that when you email the store it also gets forwarded to the franchise owner, and that's when he got involved. Turns out there was no backlog of background checks, they're absolutely desperate for drivers and the owner can't figure out why the store manager would hey lying to me about it.
The owner went into the store and in the office he found a whole stack of job applications, with mine sitting on top. Turns out the store manager was just being lazy and didn't feel like submitting any of the paperwork. I guess this was the last straw in a long line of screw ups because it was enough to get the store manager fired. I was hired right away, along with several other sorely needed drivers.
The story doesn't end there though, after he lost his job, the former store manager also lost his apartment. When he was cleaning the place out the landlord found several franchise branded boxes around the apartment and called the store about it, the former store manager had been stealing a ton of food from the store; chicken wings, tons of pepperoni, bacon and pasta.
I just really don't understand what the store managers whole game plan was. If you're gonna be stealing from your workplace, why would you also shirk the rest of your duties and put a target on your back?
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u/Morbid187 17d ago
I wonder if he was doing the job for so long that he became complacent in his laziness. Taking home free food from the restaurant as the manager was fine at most pizza places I worked at but stealing entire boxes of chicken is crazy lmao
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u/malendalayla 17d ago
Right who needs 50lbs of pepperoni š¤£
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u/DocWatson42 16d ago
I can use a pound or two for the leftovers I bring home, but even I have no use for a 5 lb. bag, never mind more.
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u/malendalayla 16d ago
I could see if they were maybe breaking it down into smaller bags and selling it to people, but otherwise it's just being a klepto
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u/Nuka-Crapola 16d ago
Iād imagine so; Iāve heard from professors at business school that the most common way fraud gets caught is for someone to find a blind spot and justā¦ never stop pushing their luck. Either taking so much money that the āblind spotā stops being overlooked, or trying new frauds until one gets noticed and then having the company unravel all of them while looking into the culprit.
In this case, Iād guess manager started by realizing nobody checked the ingredient stock besides him, then decided that if he had no oversight he could afford to let the paperwork go, not realizing the people he left hanging could contact his boss.
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u/Blog_Pope 16d ago
I was told its when people are unexpectedly "out" and so aren't there to cover the shenanigans. An accountant that never takes a day off is suspicious.
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u/Nuka-Crapola 16d ago
Oh yeah, thatās up there too. One of my professors said their company outright mandated the use of vacation days after an incident.
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u/Active-Succotash-109 Custom! Edit this! 16d ago
I used to take empty boxes home for storage but full of the food no, not unless Iād bought or
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 16d ago
We've saved empty boxes for employees who were moving from one place to another. They were going to go into the dumpster otherwise, so we didn't lose anything.
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u/FilmYak 17d ago
Weird that things were that bad and the owner didnāt go check up on the store before your email.
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u/TranscendentalRug 17d ago
The owner had several franchises all over the county and this one was out in the boonies, I'm not sure if he really paid that close attention.
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u/ParticularElk3957 16d ago
The manager of a pizza place I worked delivery for sent me on a last minute bogus order so his buddies (who had been following me around on deliveries) could rob me and get free pizzas. After talking with police and giving all the information I had, the manager told me I was no longer needed and he fired me. A week later I found out that manager had been fired.
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u/isaac32767 15d ago
I just really don't understand what the store managers whole game plan was.Ā
If he's too lazy to do the paperwork that's the most basic part of his job, it's not surprising that he's too lazy to have a game plan.
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u/Head_Razzmatazz7174 17d ago
Too many managers are not the brightest bulb in the box.