Can anyone give me some quick advice re work situation.

[raspberryblush23]

I'm having a bad week at work. I'm a cashier in a fast food outlet and my till has been short on 2 (£10 and £15) consecutive days. This has never happened before in this store or my previous store with the same company so I'm shocked and upset.

On the first occasion I was given a written cash shortage letter, however the £10 that was missing was mysteriously found the next day before I started my shift so letter discarded.

On the 2nd night I was extra careful when giving out change, double and triple checking so I was shocked when my manager said the toll was initially £30 down however after checking the safe £15 of it was recovered. Another staff member was down £5 but another manager thought it would turn up in my till through cash moving out and getting change- obviously it didn't. I also took 2 £50 notes and had them checked by management. I noticed one had disappeared but thought a manager had done a skim- none done and I don't recall a manager taking it out to give change either.

Basically it doesn't look good for me: at best I'm incompetent and at worst I look like a thief. My heads going round in circles and I think I'm going mad; it's not like me at all and I'm worried it's going to keep happening. It's not the sort of place where there's much confidentiality or professionalism either so everyone will know.

I'm off until Sat but I think I need to raise this with my store manager before this so I need to phone her but I'm quite an anxious and nervous person and she can be a bit frosty to say the least. Does anyone have any advice to how I can handle this situation with dignity before I accept being reprimanded?

Ouch, I'm not sure what to say but what a tricky situation! £5 yes, but £30 is quite a mistake to make.
When did this happen?
What's the vibe you're feeling off management?
Bump for you

In your situation I would express your concerns formally about the ongoing discrepancies, and how money is 'found' after the fact that shows the situation is not your problem but an issue of reconciling the tills.

Document the specific examples you've shared in your OP, also show evidence of your due diligence (e.g. Getting large denomination notes checked by your supervisor). If you've been double and triple checking how you give out change, you are doing a great job and should be commended for your diligence.

After you've expressed your concerns, get reassurance that the management fully acknowledge this isn't your problem.

Longer term, I would seriously consider moving to a different job. Firstly you need to clear up the above, so that it doesn't get pinned onto you, or somehow appear on a job reference in future, as it is extremely difficult to resolve such matters after the fact. Get it sorted now, so it is put to rest quickly.

Good luck.

Has anyone come in asking you to change cash? Could be a ringing the change scam.

I think you should go in at the earliest opportunity and be proactive in any investigation that may start. You should be proactive, promise this will not happen again and explain how you will make sure it doesn't.

Thanks for your replies. Yes it's definitely a bad situation. The on shift manager on both shifts was surprised that my till was down and tbf pulled the safe apart and wasn't too hard on me. She didn't print any letters on Tuesday as she wanted me to fight my case with store manager first. It's a large store and money is always being moved about and the safe isn't very organised. I'm looking for other jobs and recently had an interview but no outcome yet. I've been told it's unlikely it will be brought up for reference but you never know.

A few months ago, another staff member till was also repeatedly down. The girl in question is not British and generally gets a hard time off staff and managers. She told me she thought she was being framed...I'm going to phone once the lunchtime rush is over.

I worked at McD's when I was at college and they take this stuff incredibly seriously. We had an ongoing problem with till discrepancies in our store and I was given a letter too for being £10 down once. I left for uni soon after so didn't have to worry too much, but about a year after I left I found out our store manager had been sacked for stealing money from the tills and the safe.

Our store was disorganised too, basically staffed by a load of part-time / transient students and the safe was regularly open so I think he thought he'd get away with it. To be fair, he managed 2 years without anyone noticing. The odd tenner here and fiver there, must have come to hundreds.

What I'm saying in a long winded way is it does happen OP and don't be scared to fight your corner. Get your former colleague to give her account again if you think it's help - could she put it to you in an email?

This sounds extremely fishy to me and I would go as far to state that one of the managers is on the take.

Is there CCTV in the manager's office where the safe is located?

I'm currently writing down what I'm going g to say.

Hi X-store manager,

I'm phoning to discuss my cash shortages this week. I'm shocked and upset that this had happened especially as I've never had a problem with till shortages in this store or at X- previous store. I was being especially careful with change so I was shocked when X- Shift manager reported I was down £30. After our shift we both checked the safe and recouped £15.

Before I accept it was error and admit liability there are a few irregularities I would like to clear up.
Firstly why was the £5 from X- another staff members, till thought to be in mine and did X- an assistant manager on duty that day, put money in my till as I didn't see her doing it. Secondly what happened to the first £50 note I didn't see any manager remove it from my till? Do you think this sounds ok?

Yes you definitely want to mention the irregularities with the £5 change and the £50 note.

Got off the phone earlier with store manager. She was actually in a nice mood and she didn't know anything about it . She is going to query night banking practices with the other managers and fing out what happened to the £5 and £50 note. She also told me not to spend the week worrying about it. Im not sure what the outcome will be for me though but I'm still glad I phoned as I hate this kind of stuff hanging over me. Thanks for your advice.

When you get on shift can you check your cash draw to check what float your starting with? If your starting with a discrepancy your going to finish with one as well. Especially since £15 was ‘found’. Also make sure you are present when your cash draw is totalled at the end of the night.

Also don’t go to work with much cash on you, especially if they want to check your bag to see if you’ve got the missing money.

I worked in a national supermarket and the security guard was going into the tills whilst the cashiers were away from the counter. He stole thousands before they caught him.

Do you have individual drawers?

Do you check your till before starting your shift? So you know you've got for example exactly a £100 float.

My boss has just phoned back- she has located the money. Turns out a delivery order wasn't processed which skews up the till figures. However if I hadn't queried it this may have gone undiscovered. I'm definitely going to be more careful with till practices in general now though as this has shaken me up. Thanks for all your advice.

Im amazed they dont have a proper open and close procedure for each person and their float.