Human Resource Blog

Termination of employment over security

I am a store manager with HR responsibilities, including scheduling. I work for a company who is requiring us to cut back. The regulation is that unless we ring up 20 transactions per hour for 2 consecutive hours we must work alone. Our store is open from 10 am til midnight on Friday and Saturday. The rest of the week we close at 11pm. I am absolutely freaking out over leaving the store at 11:30pm and 12:30am on the nights I close. I work in a strip mall with 7 other buildings. Four of these are vacant! The other 3 businesses close between 6 and 9 pm. My store is 2.3 miles from Gary Indiana, a very high-crime city. I am afraid to be in the store after 9 pm. I brought these concerns up to my District Manager. Her response was to call the police for an escort at closing, if I am that freaked out. She told another manager to stop being a baby because nothing has happened recently. Can I be fired for scheduling an extra person from 9 til midnight on the nights we close at midnight? Even if my employer doesn’t care about the safety of the employees in their stores I care about mine.

You are right to be concerned about your own safety and that of your employees. Unfortunately, yes, you can be terminated for not meeting the staffing guidelines or budget restrictions for payroll. You could certainly try calling the police for an escort to your car, but we suspect they would quickly get tired of that, every night.

One option might be to do some creative scheduling. It is likely that the employer will look at the total number of hours used for the week or payroll period, not the time of the hours. Suppose there are 3 hours during the day when sales are high enough to have 2 staff members on duty. You could schedule just one person during that time, and schedule two people from 9 pm to 11 pm instead. This is likely to reduce customer service, unless the person who is scheduled during the busiest times is very quick. But, it will provide better security for those who close.

Another option, if you have one employee or manager who is on salary, would be to have that person work 6 extra hours per week. Then, you could schedule a second person from 9 pm to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and still stay within your staffing guidelines.