“Do Not Tell Anyone About Last Night”: Manager Won’t Pick Up Her Phone So Gas Station Employee Leaves The Store Unlocked Because Nobody Showed Up To Relieve Them
People who have ever needed to work in shifts know how frustrating it is when the person that has to come in your place is either late, or worse, doesn’t show up at all. Working in shifts means you have to be considerate of others and be punctual as well as warn the managers if you aren’t able to make it to work as it is showing respect to your coworkers.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Like for redditor DiamondUnlucky, who was waiting for a person to come and replace them but nobody showed up. So they just left after locking what could be locked and asking the police to keep an eye on the gas station they worked at.
More info: Reddit
A gas station worker left the store unlocked as nobody came to replace them and the manager wouldn’t answer her phone
Image credits: midorisyu (not the actual photo)
The Original Poster (OP) works at a gas station that is open overnight. The Redditor wrote that lately other employees would just not show up to their shifts and wouldn’t warn the managers or their coworkers.
It was just a matter of time until it would happen the day DiamondUnlucky worked. They had a shift from 2 PM until 10 PM and 15 minutes after their shift ended, nobody had showed up in their place, so they had to report to the manager.
Image credits: DiamondUnlucky
The employee was waiting for 15 minutes after their shift ended and called the manager to tell her that nobody showed up, but the manager was sleeping
Image credits: DiamondUnlucky
The problem was that the manager was sleeping, as her husband who picked up the phone informed the OP. The husband promised to try and wake the manager up but he never called back.
The employee thought they could call other coworkers to see if they could come in while waiting for the manager’s husband’s call. But none of the other employees were available and some didn’t even pick up.
The other times an employee wouldn’t show up, the manager would come to the store and close it, but this time she was not in the condition to even wake up.
Image credits: DiamondUnlucky
The employee called their coworkers but they either didn’t pick up the phone or were unavailable
Image credits: DiamondUnlucky
For almost an hour, the OP tried to somehow fix the problem and not leave the gas station alone because they didn’t have the key to lock it as the manager was the only one who had it. So DiamondUnlucky locked the doors they could, called the sheriff’s department to ask if they could keep someone close to watch the station, and left because the only other option would be to cover the shift, work for 16 hours then come back home to only get back to work the same day.
The OP decided to lock the doors they had keys to, call the police to ask to watch over the store, and left
Image credits: DiamondUnlucky
The next day, the store was fine, but the manager asked the employee to not talk about what happened with anyone
Image credits: DiamondUnlucky
The next day, the Redditor called the manager to ask if the gas station was ‘alright and she said that it was fine and that she wasn’t mad that the employee left it unattended. Then the employee said that they would not be coming to their scheduled shift that day and felt that the manager was not happy about that.
In the comments, the OP said that this job that paid only $11 an hour was more of a burden than a means to survive and if the manager wanted to fire them, it would actually be a relief. But they are not sure if they can get fired for that as the manager asked to not talk about that night with anyone as it would get them in trouble.
Image credits: DiamondUnlucky
What would you have done if you were in the OP’s situation? Do you think there was more they could have done or do you think it was not their responsibility even if the store got robbed? We would like to hear your reactions to this story so leave them in the comments!
Other redditors thought that the OP did everything they could and protecting the store or worrying about covering shifts wasn’t of their concern
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I worked a 24 hour gas station at 18 years old. I worked 3-11pm 5 nights a week. One night the guy that was supposed to work 11p-7a called in at 10:45 and said that he wouldn’t be in as he was rushed to the ER. I called my boss and she said “I have literally nobody else that can work and I am 6 hours away. If you work I’ll pay you double” so I did it. I worked 3pm-7am. Ok cool. Except the person that was supposed to come in at 7am never showed up. At 9am I called my boss again and informed her that I was still there and my replacement never showed up. By this point I’m 18 hours into my 8 hour shift. She said “Ok. I’m still out of town, I’m jumping in the shower and I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Now, bear in mind, she’s 6 hours away. I’m already 2 hours into my third straight shift. It became clear to me that I was staying until 3pm, which was my next scheduled shift. She showed up at 2:58pm and told me to go home and get some sleep and she’d see me tomorrow.
I took that to mean she was going to cover my shift since I’d been there for 24 hours straight. She called me 3 hours later and said “I didn’t realize you were supposed to work this shift until nobody else showed up and I checked the schedule. I need you to come back.” I politely responded “F you I’m going back to sleep, call somebody else” I went in the following day for my scheduled shift and found an envelope with my name on it with my pay check, an extra $300 cash, an apology note, and a termination letter saying “at the end of my shift I no longer have a job” so I turned around and left.
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First, find another job and quit this one, the notify the bosses boss. No negative recourse will come to you as a former employee. The boss said not to say anything to anyone to "save both their asses," but really it was the boss who would get in trouble. You clearly made an effort to get help and notify the manager.
There should be other procedures in place if this happens. Only 1 manager/person on call is not enough, maybe she is a young exhausted mother, or other reasons why she can't be standby 24hrs/7days. Maybe her husband should have woken her up but just didn't. And maybe the manager needs the job as well. A shitty situation for all. So either have a rotating schedule of people that are standby, or give every employee a way to lock up.
And this is absolutely correct. Why someone who works the overnight shift doesn't have access to lock up makes no sense, as this is the time where robberies happen the most and if that were to occur, you need to close up in order to call police. So I don't get it. But more than that, it sounds like there aren't enough people or labor hours to keep someone in charge on at all times. I know I dealt with this at my situation and I was constantly coming in having to cover for callouts because we just weren't given enough labor hours have more than one assistant to rotate. People should be allowed to call out sick if they are occasionally. If the 2nd person called out there should be a procedure in place for that.
Load More Replies... I worked a 24 hour gas station at 18 years old. I worked 3-11pm 5 nights a week. One night the guy that was supposed to work 11p-7a called in at 10:45 and said that he wouldn’t be in as he was rushed to the ER. I called my boss and she said “I have literally nobody else that can work and I am 6 hours away. If you work I’ll pay you double” so I did it. I worked 3pm-7am. Ok cool. Except the person that was supposed to come in at 7am never showed up. At 9am I called my boss again and informed her that I was still there and my replacement never showed up. By this point I’m 18 hours into my 8 hour shift. She said “Ok. I’m still out of town, I’m jumping in the shower and I’ll be there as soon as I can.” Now, bear in mind, she’s 6 hours away. I’m already 2 hours into my third straight shift. It became clear to me that I was staying until 3pm, which was my next scheduled shift. She showed up at 2:58pm and told me to go home and get some sleep and she’d see me tomorrow.
I took that to mean she was going to cover my shift since I’d been there for 24 hours straight. She called me 3 hours later and said “I didn’t realize you were supposed to work this shift until nobody else showed up and I checked the schedule. I need you to come back.” I politely responded “F you I’m going back to sleep, call somebody else” I went in the following day for my scheduled shift and found an envelope with my name on it with my pay check, an extra $300 cash, an apology note, and a termination letter saying “at the end of my shift I no longer have a job” so I turned around and left.
Load More Replies... First, find another job and quit this one, the notify the bosses boss. No negative recourse will come to you as a former employee. The boss said not to say anything to anyone to "save both their asses," but really it was the boss who would get in trouble. You clearly made an effort to get help and notify the manager.
There should be other procedures in place if this happens. Only 1 manager/person on call is not enough, maybe she is a young exhausted mother, or other reasons why she can't be standby 24hrs/7days. Maybe her husband should have woken her up but just didn't. And maybe the manager needs the job as well. A shitty situation for all. So either have a rotating schedule of people that are standby, or give every employee a way to lock up.
And this is absolutely correct. Why someone who works the overnight shift doesn't have access to lock up makes no sense, as this is the time where robberies happen the most and if that were to occur, you need to close up in order to call police. So I don't get it. But more than that, it sounds like there aren't enough people or labor hours to keep someone in charge on at all times. I know I dealt with this at my situation and I was constantly coming in having to cover for callouts because we just weren't given enough labor hours have more than one assistant to rotate. People should be allowed to call out sick if they are occasionally. If the 2nd person called out there should be a procedure in place for that.
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