Pregnant fast food manager fired when she wouldn’t reimburse money stolen in armed robbery

[Skidmore]

Popeye's needs to experience some backlash for this. Gives you an idea about how little value they place on the lives of their employees. This risk of business should not be placed on the backs of an employee. Dead employees would have been preferable to the business.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/pregnant-fast-food-manager-fired-when-she-wouldnt-reimburse-money-stolen-in-armed-robbery/

A fast food manager from Texas said she was fired after she refused to pay back money stolen during an armed robbery.

Marissa Holcomb, who is five months pregnant, said a masked man waving a gun burst into Popeyes during her shift March 31 and ordered employees to the floor, reported KHOU-TV.

snip

However, Holcomb said she was unable to open the safe but was able to give the gunman nearly $400 from the Channelview eatery’s cash registers.

snip

Holcomb said one of her managers gave her a choice after the robbery: Repay the money she handed over to the gunman or lose her job.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Pregnant or not, that's a despicable act.

The person losing their job should be the manager who demanded that of her.

[Skidmore]

4. That corporate isn't stepping in is telling too.

[yeoman6987]

9. Number 1 the restaurant will get the money back through

Insurance. Number 2 how much over was she? It was only 400 to begin with. Was it during a busy time and the next thing on her agenda was move the money or even possible was she moving it during the robbery. The only negative for her is that she received warnings before but with no details we don't know if they were justified or even the same indiscretion so who knows. I would imagine she could get another job pretty quickly. Just don't leave your boss as a reference and use somebody you trust.

[KamaAina]

2. That particular Popeye's certainly does.

And any others in the Houston area owned by the same franchisee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeyes_Louisiana_Kitchen

About thirty locations are company-owned, the rest franchised.

[daleanime]

5. Company needs to take heat also...

so it can be passed down the chain, trust me, they have a ton of influence on all of their franchisees.

[chillfactor]

3. since when...

does an employee have to pay back money lost is an armed robbery..what a horrible waste of a human body her manager walks around in...I would file a lawsuit for wrongful termination against the company and her manager if I were her...

[JustAnotherGen]

6. In the National Retail Branch of my company?

We wouldn't. We would be offering paid leave of absence and counseling. She saved her life. That's all the payback a company needs from their front line employees in a situation like that.

[SamKnause]

7. I was robbed at gun point

in the mid 70's.

I was not asked to repay the $700.00.

We were instructed to never risk our lives

if a burglary occurred.

If the man had robbed us 1 hour earlier, his

take would have been $3,000.00

I went to court and testified against

the man who robbed the restaurant.

He wife was in court on the same day

for stealing someone's purse.

The man was caught robbing a donut shop later that evening

because of the description I gave of him and his car.

P.S. My boss propositioned me with a trip

to Bermuda with the returned funds. I declined.

Crazy life.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. I worked for several different retail companies

for about a 10 year period. The first rule when running the register was that if someone demanded the money, you opened the drawer and gave it to them. No ifs, ands, or buts. That is what insurance is for.

[SamKnause]

18. Exactly.

[LiberalAndProud]

8. She was fired for keeping too much money in the till.

I feel bad that she lost her job, but the twist is that she wasn't doing her job according to company policy. It's a tough break for her, but the spin is still spin.

[Ilsa]

10. Still, we can let them know that firing her

Was unacceptable. I'm boycotting them.

[LiberalAndProud]

11. I just find it interesting that a one-sided social media post can provoke such outrage.

If she had been fired before being robbed, she'd have no support here.

She didn't follow policy (not the first time) and the insurer is sure to notice. I'm usually on board with the underdog. Not this time.

[Ilsa]

13. What if they were too busy earlier for her to move the money?

And what if she had moved it and the thieves killed them for not having any cash?

I always have cash available for robbers and panderers. Not having it is dangerous.

[LiberalAndProud]

14. What if the manager was offering a way for her to keep her job?

I suspect the manager will be fired in the near future and I'd be willing to bet he was trying to give his employee a break. Had he not made the offer for her to repay the money that wasn't supposed to be in the till, the spin would be less outrageous, wouldn't it?

[Ilsa]

15. And she's supposed to get $400 from where? When she's pregnant

and getting ready for unpaid medical leave?

The backlash from this episode will cost that franchise more than $400. And it wouldn't surprise me now if she will develop amnesia if the police catch the perps.

[BeeBee]

19. Exactly! We give right wingers a lot of shit for doing the same thing.

They always jump on one sided stories without knowing all the facts. I've seen two or three threads just today full of people doing the same thing!

[DanTex]

12. That's an important point. But it still sucks.

[arikara]

17. Where I work also has that policy

but its within reason. If there are people waiting in a lineup you don't start hauling money out and moving it around. I would rather not count out wads of cash when customers are standing there.

[surrealAmerican]

20. If she couldn't open the safe, what else was she supposed to do with the money?

It also said the place was unusually busy. That likely meant she couldn't just take the money to the bank either.

It seems like a pretty small thing to fire her over, especially since, if she could have opened the safe, the company would have lost more than they did.

[strategery blunder]

21. The article I read on the same story said it was $400 taken

If that was everything in the till (it probably was or damn close to it), then the warning that there was too much cash in the register had probably popped up a few minutes before. If the place was as busy as she claims it was, she likely didn't get a reasonable chance to act on the notification. It's less safe to remove that kind of money when there are lines of customers waiting than it is when the store isn't busy and/or when customers can be redirected to another register.

Now, if the robbery happened when there was $1400 in the till, not $400, then I'd be less likely to side with the employee. I've also occasionally been in a situation where I have to call to get the cash deposited in safe many, many times before it gets done and thankfully I haven't been robbed. I don't like negligence in such matters but as I'm a cashier and have some familiarity with when these kinds of warnings pop up, I can also use common sense to figure out whether it was just too busy to do it right that second or something actually worth disciplining.