Originally Posted by
Digital_Cowboy
In either case the employee should either be fired or at the least suspended for a length of time. If for no reason then as I've said we have members here who feel that if an employee causes their employer to be embarrassed that that is grounds for termination. And don't you think having an employee remove a customers bike/property going to cause the employer to be embarrassed?
That would largely depend on the owner's attitude towards the employee and their attitude towards bikes in stores. I'll bet there are plenty of non-cyclists who would defend the employee's actions. The level of outrage your feeling over the employee's behavior wouldn't necessarily be shared by the general public. Believe me, I've dealt with some crabby customers and plenty would be far more outraged that there was a bike left in an aisle. There are people who will complain about the smallest things.
From my personal experience as a supervisor, I probably wouldn't suspend or fire an employee over a single incident such as this. I'd talk to them about it and if didn't happen again, that would be the end of it. If the employee were on the sh*t list already then there's a good chance it would be the last straw.
Originally Posted by
Digital_Cowboy
Note added from personal experience:
Several years ago I had gone to a local grocery store to do some grocery shopping. This store did have a bike rack close to the doors. I locked my bike with it's trailer to the rack. When I came out and saw that my bike was NOT where I had secured it. I did NOT go around either the parking lot nor the neighborhood looking for it. Instead I called the police to report that my bicycle had been stolen. So I guess according to you because I didn't waste my time looking for my bicycle first that I "wasted" the time of my local police by calling them first.
This was also probably the first time that I had run into the bias against cyclists, as the officer who responded didn't seem to be taking my case all that seriously.
The fact the officer didn't take your case too seriously is one reason why calling the cops would not be first on my list of things to do. Even if it were a car that were stolen, it's going to take a cop 20 minutes just to get there and another 20 to get your story, meanwhile, the bike or car is getting farther and farther away.
But again, what happened to you is entirely different from what happened to the OP. The critical difference is that your bike was where it was supposed to be so no one would have cause to move it other than a thief. If I had left my bike in a store aisle, my first thought would be that an employee or customer moved it to get it out of the way. For all we know the employee may have moved the bike as a result of a customer complaint.