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Authors: James Seloover
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standing on the sidewalk for half an hour. A job with those dapper thieves was looking better all the time.
In his haste to get the emergency doors unlocked and the lights on, and against his better judgment, he left the maintenance man to dump the trash on his own. He was not entirely confident that this maintenance man was honest. His stockroom manager, Dwight, who, he just realized, was not one of the employees waiting on the front walk with the others. He ’d have to take a look at Dwight’s attendance record first chance he got. His work seemed to have slipped a notch in recent weeks. He distinctly recalled awarding Dwight the Employee of the Month award for his attendance and exemplary work ethic. Maybe he was having personal problems. He’d have to have a one-on-one with Dwight.
After unlocking the exterior doors to building, he walked by the record department where he found that two tape cases had been left unlocked. He pulled the tapes from his jacket pocket, put them in the case, and slid the glass door closed and pushed the auto-lock mechanism. He would be having an interview with the appliance manager about making sure the tape cases were secured at all times. That sort of oversight merited a written review, which would automatically be included in the appliance manager ’s personnel file. He made a mental note to take care of that after Braunswine’s visit.
Since tapes were quickly taking the place of LPs in the record department, losses had significantly increased because the tapes were more easily concealed. Mr. Hedd had suspected it was the janitors who were concealing merchandise in the garbage or hiding it for later retrieving after their shift had ended. He had instructed Dwight to watch for suspicious behavior and especially to keep a close eye on the night janitors. They accumulated bags of garbage throughout the night and put them near the roll-up door in receiving. Each morning, an assistant manager would unlock the door and it was the assistant manager and the stockroom manager’s responsibility to observe the dumping of the trash and to spot check some of the refuse bags.
So far, Dwight had zero luck in finding the culprit. If anybody could catch the thief, it was Dwight. He wasn ’t quite the level of management material, but he was a damn good company man.
In a way, it was no surprise to Mr. Hedd that they had no luck catching the thieves. The DM had slashed the labor hours in the most recent salary budget and there were scant help for anything but basic store operation, much less devoting more hours to security. Loss prevention was one area where productivity could not be readily measured and was a typical area for reducing man-hours. Except for once a year, when a total merchandise inventory was taken, it was impossible to measure waste. Then, it was too late to take action. The total dollar amount on the books should match the value of the goods inventoried. If it didn ’t, which it seldom did, the difference was invisible waste, shrinkage. If waste was too high, it could cost a manager his job. In recent years, Mr. Hedd had heard of two stores being closed apparently because their invisible waste was too high. The managers of both of those stores had been terminated.
Finding the tapes was something he was not going to inform the district manager about. He ’d learned his lesson on that particular topic. He’d have been blamed for lack of security on his part and it would have gone on his performance report. He was on his own on figuring out how to catch the employee, or whoever else it was, that was stealing. He sure as shit in a shoebox couldn’t rely on Braunswine for any useful assistance. Criticism was the only thing he could count on from that fat bastard.
Along with a visit by the district manager, he had other items on his to-do list. He wanted to talk to Ms. Becky, his personnel manager about several things, one being to interview the appliance manager about the unlocked
In his haste to get the emergency doors unlocked and the lights on, and against his better judgment, he left the maintenance man to dump the trash on his own. He was not entirely confident that this maintenance man was honest. His stockroom manager, Dwight, who, he just realized, was not one of the employees waiting on the front walk with the others. He ’d have to take a look at Dwight’s attendance record first chance he got. His work seemed to have slipped a notch in recent weeks. He distinctly recalled awarding Dwight the Employee of the Month award for his attendance and exemplary work ethic. Maybe he was having personal problems. He’d have to have a one-on-one with Dwight.
After unlocking the exterior doors to building, he walked by the record department where he found that two tape cases had been left unlocked. He pulled the tapes from his jacket pocket, put them in the case, and slid the glass door closed and pushed the auto-lock mechanism. He would be having an interview with the appliance manager about making sure the tape cases were secured at all times. That sort of oversight merited a written review, which would automatically be included in the appliance manager ’s personnel file. He made a mental note to take care of that after Braunswine’s visit.
Since tapes were quickly taking the place of LPs in the record department, losses had significantly increased because the tapes were more easily concealed. Mr. Hedd had suspected it was the janitors who were concealing merchandise in the garbage or hiding it for later retrieving after their shift had ended. He had instructed Dwight to watch for suspicious behavior and especially to keep a close eye on the night janitors. They accumulated bags of garbage throughout the night and put them near the roll-up door in receiving. Each morning, an assistant manager would unlock the door and it was the assistant manager and the stockroom manager’s responsibility to observe the dumping of the trash and to spot check some of the refuse bags.
So far, Dwight had zero luck in finding the culprit. If anybody could catch the thief, it was Dwight. He wasn ’t quite the level of management material, but he was a damn good company man.
In a way, it was no surprise to Mr. Hedd that they had no luck catching the thieves. The DM had slashed the labor hours in the most recent salary budget and there were scant help for anything but basic store operation, much less devoting more hours to security. Loss prevention was one area where productivity could not be readily measured and was a typical area for reducing man-hours. Except for once a year, when a total merchandise inventory was taken, it was impossible to measure waste. Then, it was too late to take action. The total dollar amount on the books should match the value of the goods inventoried. If it didn ’t, which it seldom did, the difference was invisible waste, shrinkage. If waste was too high, it could cost a manager his job. In recent years, Mr. Hedd had heard of two stores being closed apparently because their invisible waste was too high. The managers of both of those stores had been terminated.
Finding the tapes was something he was not going to inform the district manager about. He ’d learned his lesson on that particular topic. He’d have been blamed for lack of security on his part and it would have gone on his performance report. He was on his own on figuring out how to catch the employee, or whoever else it was, that was stealing. He sure as shit in a shoebox couldn’t rely on Braunswine for any useful assistance. Criticism was the only thing he could count on from that fat bastard.
Along with a visit by the district manager, he had other items on his to-do list. He wanted to talk to Ms. Becky, his personnel manager about several things, one being to interview the appliance manager about the unlocked
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