When DS was a toddler for various reasons I ended up working three part-time jobs, one of which was an overnight and evening supervisor for a 24 hour town centre convenience store. This was mid-90s. I was a licensee having taken the right exams. I was obviously very hot on checking ID for sales of alcohol because of the huge ramifications of not doing so.
When 11.00pm came round and alcohol sales stopped and we had to switch to hatch service, on a Friday or Saturday night there was usually a surge of people trying to get their last minute drinks. We were close to a few pubs and clubs so often got a fair few people ranging from merry to outright drunk and obnoxious, and I was quite good at being appropriately law abiding but keeping things chilled.
One particular weekend I was knackered and strung out and at about 10.45 we had a group of around 8 - 10 youngsters come in who all separately wanted alcohol. I and my colleague were trying to serve them as fast as possible and checking iD which they all had but deadline was drawing close and those remaining in the queue were getting angsty. I got down to the last girl, dolled up to the nines, cool clubbing kid who rolled her eyes when I asked for ID, pointed out that she was with an over-age group, she really wanted her half bottle of vodka and would I FFS just get on with it. My brain just went to "fuck it" mode and I completed the transaction and off they went.
A few days later, I was called in by the Manager and Assistant Manager. Of course said girl was only 16, her parents had found out about the whole thing and threatened our manager with all sorts for serving someone under age. My manager rightly tore me a new one, but had also mentioned to the parents that their daughter being out at that time actively purchasing alcohol against their edicts and it being against the law was an issue they might like to ponder.
For a few weeks I was on tenterhooks waiting for the worst to happen, but it never did. I never, ever skimped on an ID check again.
When I was a teenager, around 19. I worked for a now defunct off license chain part time. I also had a fling with the manager (not proud). He started to take more and more personal time, giving me more shifts and I ended up being "in charge" by default over the two other older women who only wanted their specific shifts.
The shop was in a Victorian Parade and the flats above were used as storage / office space.
I came in to start a shift one day and one of my colleagues pointed out that there was a hot electrical burning smell in the shop that seemed to be getting stronger. We did a recce of the building from cellar all the way up, could discover no source but customers had started to notice. I tried to get in touch with my manager who did not answer, so using the logic of a shop full of alcohol being high risk in a conflagration, I took it upon myself to ring the local fire station which was two minutes around the corner and ask if someone could come and give a professional opinion. I stressed there was no actual fire and that I didn't want to be a nuisance.
Ten minutes later we had three appliances blocking the main road outside and hordes of fireman sweeping the building. I was reassured that I had done the right thing. The source turned out to be a burning out starter in a fluorescent light fitting above the till. They kindly switched off the electric, removed it, turned the electric back on and so mid -afternoon we were ready to trade again.
Except - we had a very early computerised till system and turning off the electric had wiped much of the useable data. I tried to get my manager again, and then had to ring the area manager who was lovely about it all, talked me through getting the tills back up to speed and was thankful we hadn't lost a whole days trading.
However, the AM was not impressed with my manager who had been out of reach, left a relatively inexperienced teenager to deal with it all etc etc, and gave him a bit of a bollocking. This of course was passed down to me. Our little fling was thus terminated and I left not long after.
Many lessons learned in both scenarios.