07.05.04
I never got to tell Pappy that he couldn't leave early if he was closing, until after he'd done it twice.
Essentially, he never warned, and stupid me, I thought I could just deal with it first thing the following Monday.
Of course, mid-afternoon on Sunday the 4th, I got a phone call from Brit at work telling me that Pappy had left early again, and she couldn't stay late to cover his shift, and she didn't know what to do. You know, the same exact issue from the week before, except with a phone call cluing me in to what's going on.
Brit told me that she had wanted to leave early, but that when he said he wanted to leave early, she figured he'd leave regardless of what she thought, so she said it was fine.
Monday, I told Pappy what was going on, and he was absolutely heartbroken and upset.
He said he'd never gotten in trouble for anything before, and had never been so much as "talked to" for anything in his entire life.
And he also had a few choice words about Brit.
His side of the story was that on both Sundays, he had asked Brit if she minded if he left early, and she said that was fine with her. And since she frequently works until 6, even though her shift was over at 5, he thought she was staying until 6. And, especially on the second Sunday, since it obviously wasn't fine with her, she should had told him that she wasn't okay with it, and that she hadn't stayed until 6 the previous Sunday and she wasn't going to that day either, and that she had actually wanted to leave early. Oh, and that he should talk to me or another manager to make sure that it was okay to leave early.
But she didn't.
He didn't care that she'd called me.
He only cared that she hadn't been honest with him.
True, he should have thought to call me or ask a store manager if it was okay to leave early. True, he should have asked her if she was going to stay late. True, all of this was ultimately his fault, which he accepted.
But also true, is that someone that was supposed to be his friend and teammate hadn't been watching his back. And on more than one occasion.
Ye Gods.
What's in your head?