Theater Story #4

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I almost got fired, and there was nothing I could do about it. There was an incident, and I was accountable. At least, by rule. But I didn’t get fired, which shows you rules are made to be broken.

Huh?

Go back in time three weeks. An elderly lady stands at the concession stand thumbing a book (The Namesake) we have for sale. I wasn’t there at the time, but as it’s told, the lady thinks she clandestinely slips the book into a bag, though she is spotted by multiple people (and the security cameras which are haphazardly situated throughout the lobby). She roams around the theater for ten or twelve minutes before trying to leave, at which time the manager on duty stops her.

She’s embarrassed and ashamed but not necessarily surprised. The woman seems to have problems. The manager mentions that peoples jobs are on the line, as the person responsible for manning concessions must prevent theft. If things are stolen, the concessioneer is not doing his or her job. Did the lady want somebody to get fired?

The manager was probably laying it on a little thick, but it’s understandable. The lady just tried to shoplift a book. The eventual solution: the lady gave our manager $14 to cover the cost of the book. The incident ended up being a sale. Nobody else need be involved.

Back to the now and I’m working concessions on a Monday night. Weeknights at a theater are usually slow, so management understaffs. But on this Monday there was an advance screening of Black Book being put on by the San Diego Cinema Society. Anticipating a sold-out show of 370 people, I was pulled from behind the concession stand to assist in crowd-control. The box officer would sell tickets and concessions from behind the inside stand – normally, on busy nights, we have ticket sales outside the theater, to help reduce crowds in the lobby.

For an hour I was out from behind the stand, interacting with the line-up of customers (which will be another story enitrely). One other worker ended-up jumping behind the stand to augment the box officer, but I remained on the floor with the manager trying to make sure the screening’s presentation went as smoothly as possible. Once everybody was in the theater and things were back to normal, I returned to more responsibilities.

At the beginning of each shift, we count all the sellable items at the concession stand. These are compared to the same counts done at the end of the shift and it tends to be a good way of ensuring accountability. At the beginning of the shift we had four Namesake books on display, but when I returned to the stand we had only two.

“We only have two Namesake books left?” I asked the two co-workers who had stayed behind the stand.

“Yeah” was the unremarkable response.

“Did you sell any?”

“No.”

“Well, we’re missing two.”

“Yeah, right.”

“No. I’m not kidding. I counted in four. Now there’s only two.”

I didn’t bother asking if they were kidding with me. I knew that something else was going on. I heard my manager walking up stairs to the office and called out.

“We’re missing two Namesake books.”

Yes, I was serious, I responded when she asked. Then I got to looking at the rest of the merchandise.

“We’re missing a Children of Men (DVD),” I added as my eyes scanned the merchandise rack that sits on the concession counter. “And more. You better come back down.”

I hear an pained sigh from the manager as she turns and starts to comeback down. I start comparing my counts. What did we have two hours ago, when I started my shift? What do we have now?

Theft is something you don’t think about when you imagine a theater. You don’t imagine sky-masked robbers holding up the popcorn guy, nor do you think of teenagers palming candy bars or sodas. Theaters aren’t designed like markets or liquor stores. It’s not the greatest score for the high or low-end robber.

But theft is still a major concern when you have hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise on the floor. When enough stock is missing district managers and executives have to get involved. Managers are held accountable for their procedures and training. How are we losing money where it can otherwise be saved? It seems reckless, allowing things to be stolen, and its difficult for managers to have good answers as to why they’re allowing things to be stolen. This inability to explain trickles down to the theatr floor staff as an unspoken pressure – don’t put us in a position to explain.

I don’t know if the concessioneer who almost had a book stolen would have gotten fired if that old lady would have been successful, but all the staff at the theater was convinced. Our management is capable of using a firing to send a message. They’ve done it before. And as I determined how much merchandise was missing, I also determined that like it or not, my head was on the line. I was the person who was assigned to the stand. If they want to send a message to the rest of the staff about theft possession, they could resort to that technicality, regardless of what I was being asked to -

Uh oh.

Two books. Six DVDs. One hundred and ninety-six dollars in merchandise missing. They might as well just have taken the money right out of the cash register drawer. It was that much stuff.

Upstairs the manager went to talk to the House Manager – the theater’s head hauncho – who happened to be in the building at the time. Security tapes were reviewed. Questions were asked of all three of the floor staff who remained downstairs. Did you see anything? Are you sure about your counts? Could that merchandise be anywhere else back there? They were all perfunctory steps. Somebody had stolen that stuff.

It was haphazard, the items they grabbed. They snagged two of the same book. The DVDs they picked up – it was one of each of the titles that were easiest to grab (closest to the book). Some of the DVDs where left out of order – falling onto the neighboring DVDs on the display rack.

The person had grabbed as many discs as possible, as quickly as possible. And they were gone. No way somebody was sticking around to watch their movie. And in all likelihood, the person who stole the merchandise was leaving a movie they had just seen. If they had just bought a ticket, they would have come to the attention of the box officer. The box officer would not have noticed somebody coming out of the theater – coming out with all the other patrons who just saw the movie. Whoever stole the merchandise was gone.

Such an unprecedented event, management had no standard operating procedures governing how to handle the event. But the managers clearly wanted the merchandise back. They wouldn’t have answers to the questions from the district manager. No, we don’t know who did it. Yes, there was somebody behind the stand. I don’t know where they could have gone.

Reviews of the video tape proved fruitless. Nobody could be identified. Turns out the merchanise rack was being put in a position which obscurred the camera’s view of whomever was engaging it. And us on the floor staff asked the same questions we had asked in the preceeding weeks. Why do we just leave the DVDs on the counter? It’s too easy to take one without anybody noticing. But we had never imagined six. And two books.

The more time went by without any word from the managers, the more we worried about what was going to happen. Was Richard to be fired? It didn’t seem fair and it didn’t see likely, but it was surely a possibility. Rules are rules, and when you’re $196 short in concessions and merchandise, you usually are asked back for the next night.

We made jokes to pass the time. Jokes about the theft. Customers buying popcorn were told “You better get a DVD now. They’re disappearing right before our eyes.” I asked what everybody was going later in the week, because I wouldn’t have to work.

I wasn’t serious. I was just trying to eleviate the weight of the mood. But when we got the answer from management as to what we were going to do in response, the measures sure made it seem like I had something to worry about.

One of the three of us needed to go home else draw overtime, but the extra pay was going to be approved tonight. He, myself, and the manager would be asking people, as they left their theaters, to allow us to look in their purses, hand bags, in inside their jackets. Did they have to? No, we didn’t have warrants. But we were going to ask to search people.

Put aside the fact that the person who was responsible for the theft was, in all likelihood, no longer on the premises. Somebody should have stopped and thought about the utility of this plan. Was it worth offending some customers to increase the probability of retrieving the merchandise from 0% to, say, 4%? I say only 4% because what person with all that merchandise would a.) stay in the theater and then b.) allow themselves to be searched when they had the option to just walk away.

But from a business perspective, the management needed to ask: Was it worth $196 to have the over 600 people in the theater be subjected to even a casual search?

Nonetheless, this is what we did, what me and the other staffers were asked to do. Most people were cooperative when we explained “We’ve had some merchandise turn up mssing, and we’re asking to look in people’s bags,” asking “May we look in your bag, very quickly?” Some people were put off, reacting as if invaded. And nobody, whether cooperative or stand-offish, had any DVDs.

I left the theater that night in doubt. Would I have a job? Logically, it didn’t seem like I was accountable for the theft, but if a message needed to be sent, I would be the one who should be fired. And out of all the people involved, I could handle being fired. I don’t need the theater money. I have a regular job that pays well, and I only work at the theater for fun and extra cash.

Over the two months that I have been working both jobs, I’ve asked myself if it’s worth it. My life is rigidly defined, working 70 hours a week. No time to write. No time to develop. No time to make music. No time to sleep. Perhaps getting fired wouldn’t be that bad. Perhaps it would be a blessing.

No. I wasn’t going out that way. I take pride in my job and I like working at the theater. To get fired from something I shouldn’t be responsible for would be wrong. I discovered the theft the second I went back behind the stand. I was the person who contributed to a potential solution. I discovered the theft. No, I wasn’t going to let it go down like that. I would fight for the job. I would fight to justify coming back to the theater after returning from San Francisco, asking for my job back even though I knew I was going to get another. Allowing myself to be fired would be the same as quitting.

Two days spanned between that Monday night and the next shift I was to work. The employee schedule for the following week that’s normally sent out on Tuesdays didn’t get sent. Were they still deciding if I was going to be on that schedule? I worked on Wednesday. They’d have to decide by then. I got no phone calls, no emails from any staff. So, I showed up on Wednesday night, not knowing.

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