"Cash handling has been very poor lately."I like dxb's edition.
dipping in the till; drawer and change errors,; etc.Yes...used to be that running register during the days of manual registers provided the option of counting the drawer (a mere two minute procedure) to check on discrepancies, as when someone claimed you made an error in change. When that happened you simply counted the drawer on the spot and if it was over, you apologized and gave the customer back their change; if it wasn't the customer apologized and went on their way (this also put quick work to cons who went around claiming they gave folks a $20 or $50 after distracting the cashier with conversation). And if you, as a customer, thought you were mistakenly shortchanged, they'd gladly count the drawer for you. And people were never discharged if the drawer was over or under, unless it was a recurring event, and unless it was an even amount (once upon a time, folks were given the benefit-of-the-doubt of making honest mistakes).
Enter computers!: As we all know
computers are never wrong! Computers never make errors! So any discrepancy in the till has to be due to nefarious cashier activity (or a good excuse to get rid of somebody you don't like, as Connie says). And then, when confronted with the situation where you feel you've been shortchanged, they now tell you that "we can't check the drawer out now because it's computerized, but if it's "over" at the end of the day we'll know. So check with us tomorrow." Yeah, sure, right...
And how much can you trust computers,
which can be programmed, in the hands of those trying to manipulate and get over on you? Fort instance, the telemarketing company I worked for in the 90's paid us according to logged-in computerized ticks, 100 per hour, an accountant's dream, even made us log-off to go to the bathroom (and since the more hours we worked each week, the higher our hourly wages and bonuses, a few ticks could cost someone a lot of money, hundreds of dollars in some cases)...so who's to say, we wondered, that the company doesn't have those computers programmed to run 100 ticks
slower than one hour to shave time? (if 100 ticks was running say, an hour and five minutes, or even and hour and
two minutes, it would add up over a two week work period; or maybe it could "lose" 15 minutes every four hours). And believe me, a few ticks can matter, because the manager once docked me a $170 bonus by
one one-hundreth sale per hour!!!...but still named me Employee of the Week, put my name on the winner's blackboard, and gave me this damned chocolate Oscar of theirs...I don't care! Give me my
money, you know!
How would you check that or prove a rigged computer? It's probably not even in the realm of the Wage and Labor's current investigatory abilities.
Computers...ya can't live without 'em, and ya can't live with 'em...
