I work part time at a supermarket. I will be coming up on three years in a few days. For the first two years I worked on the front end of the store, first as a cashier and then a cart boy. While being a cart boy is bad, especially where I live with the elements, cashier is worse. I was interested in transferring to another department once I turned eighteen, as there are very few positions available at the store to minors. I struggled to transfer for a while because while on carts, I had gotten in trouble a few times shortly before I found Christ. There was once or twice also where I got in trouble for mundane things (blame is often placed on us because mid level management is trying to cover themselves). This record hindered me, but I worked hard enough and eventually they deemed me good enough to transfer inside. Just recently some shifts appeared on my schedule for outside. I was indifferent as I needed the hours, although it was incredibly hot this weekend. For reference, if you are on carts and trained to cash, they will sometimes call you inside to cash when the front end gets backed up. You drop whatever you are doing and go in, and someone else untrained picks up your carts. This is not a problem when it is this hot out, but this is where my mess up begins. Four times I was called in to cash, I drop everything and go in, and it turns out they did not need me. The reason for this is most likely because the people running the front end (coordinators) were all new, before having worked along with me but decided to take the most stressful job in the store. They were still learning the ropes. I saw them as my equals, and since I have been there longer than some of them I thought I could give them some advice. My mistake was doing this over the walkie-talkie, where everyone including customers could hear it. I was not disrespectful or out of line, it was sincere as I have seen how the front end works, where many of them came from other departments or places.. However any criticism like that is to be avoided in front in customers, and there could have been customers in proximity to someone with a walkie-talkie. I was called into the front office by two STL's (Service Team Leader, above Coordinator) who asked me what happened and talked to me for a bit. They were understanding but sent me home two and a half hours early. I work tomorrow and while the incident itself is nothing and would not worry me (they were forced to follow protocol even though they did not want to, it was considered "out of line"), I am worried that my past record will come up if the Front End manager wants to meet with me. All over something I said mindlessly to people I was talking to as friends, not my superiors. Any advice on what to say if he wants to meet with me? I obviously messed up and take full blame for it, but I am worried about my job security. It is part time while I am in college, but it is a great company to work for. Anything else I should say besides owning up to it?
