(no subject)
A few days ago, my workplace was the victim of an armed robbery.
Thankfully, it was not during my shift. My shift was spent dealing with the aftermath. Local reporters for some reason didn't believe me when I said I wasn't working when it happened (I still don't know why), and spent an hour interviewing people who weren't around when it did happen.
I watched the report on the news that night, where they showed the (incredibly unhelpful) surveillance footage. I know things like this are shown all the time and many of us don't give it a second thought, but...it's really creepy to watch someone you know get robbed.
I find myself wondering, days later, if the company handled the situation well, at least as far as employees are concerned. My manager - who was the one involved - called me like it was any other day, asking if I wanted to pick up a few hours. Like someone had simply gotten sick or something. For the first hour I worked, I had no idea anything had happened, until a customer at the register said, "You guys had quite a scary morning! I saw all the police cars." I had to find out from a customer. Not from my manager who had called me in (I'm giving him a pass on this one), and not from my coworker (there was a period of downtime in which he could have told me). Don't employees have the right to know about something in a timely manner? I understand the need to feel safe in a workplace, but should that safety come at the expense of denial - or rather, silence?
Maybe I'm overreacting. I had a five-hour shift for chrissakes, someone probably would have told me sooner or later. But shouldn't someone be given that option? Maybe not as bluntly as "Hey, we've just been robbed; can you come work while we deal with the fallout?" but let me know what's going on!
On a side note: I laughed in my head during part of the story, and I will forever burn in Hell because of it. Maybe it was in the way my coworker said it; I don't know. But he said, "They held him at gunpoint and told him to give them all the money in the registers and the safe...and a Wii." I'm likening this to robbing a McDonald's and asking for a Big Mac. It just seems ridiculous to me. Am I a bad person for finding humor in that?
Thankfully, it was not during my shift. My shift was spent dealing with the aftermath. Local reporters for some reason didn't believe me when I said I wasn't working when it happened (I still don't know why), and spent an hour interviewing people who weren't around when it did happen.
I watched the report on the news that night, where they showed the (incredibly unhelpful) surveillance footage. I know things like this are shown all the time and many of us don't give it a second thought, but...it's really creepy to watch someone you know get robbed.
I find myself wondering, days later, if the company handled the situation well, at least as far as employees are concerned. My manager - who was the one involved - called me like it was any other day, asking if I wanted to pick up a few hours. Like someone had simply gotten sick or something. For the first hour I worked, I had no idea anything had happened, until a customer at the register said, "You guys had quite a scary morning! I saw all the police cars." I had to find out from a customer. Not from my manager who had called me in (I'm giving him a pass on this one), and not from my coworker (there was a period of downtime in which he could have told me). Don't employees have the right to know about something in a timely manner? I understand the need to feel safe in a workplace, but should that safety come at the expense of denial - or rather, silence?
Maybe I'm overreacting. I had a five-hour shift for chrissakes, someone probably would have told me sooner or later. But shouldn't someone be given that option? Maybe not as bluntly as "Hey, we've just been robbed; can you come work while we deal with the fallout?" but let me know what's going on!
On a side note: I laughed in my head during part of the story, and I will forever burn in Hell because of it. Maybe it was in the way my coworker said it; I don't know. But he said, "They held him at gunpoint and told him to give them all the money in the registers and the safe...and a Wii." I'm likening this to robbing a McDonald's and asking for a Big Mac. It just seems ridiculous to me. Am I a bad person for finding humor in that?