Hello out there.

Here I sit at a new desk- I'm temping again. There's been some new developments since last Monday but I was so fried from work this whole week to sit and gather my thoughts.

So here we go, cause I've had time to process.

This week, one of the stylist's tips went missing. Let me lay out the scene that happened:

Every client that comes up to check out, I ask if they'd like to leave a cash tip or put one on the card. I want the stylists to get their tips because they have to deal with a lot and that's part of my job. So every client I ask them these questions and they either put the tip on their card or they put cash in these little envelopes that we have. There was a stylist on this day last week that didn't have any clients at the beginning of the week and I made sure to book her with several people a day or so before because I wanted to make sure she got her money. That's just who I am. I want to work hard and well for every job that I have. Anyway- The stylist ended up with five or so appointments that she didn't have the day before and I was happy that I could fill her schedule.

So the clients come and go, paying with cards and some of them left cash tips. I don't keep track of how many envelopes that a stylist gets- I just take the envelope and put it into a small file folder that we have behind the desk that has all their names on the slots. And, again, I don't have the time or the want to count how many envelopes that they have. All I do is hand them their tips at the end of their shift, or I just hand them the file folder and let them do it.

Now the stylist comes up at the end of her shift- after we close so myself and the front desk assistant are waiting to clock everything out and close out the register and all that. She asks for her tips and I hand her the folder- I am in the middle of our close out procedures- and she asks where her other tip is. First of all, I don't know how many tips she has, I don't know how many she was supposed to have this day, and I don't have tips just laying around. She asks and I didn't really know what she wanted. She said she was supposed to have a red envelope (we ran out of regular brown ones so there's been a mix of red and brown envelopes for days) and I don't know what to tell her. She says that she saw one of her clients hand me a red envelope, but again, I don't really keep track, I just put them in the folder.

I can tell she's somewhat upset and it sets me on edge because I don't want to be accused of wrong doing, especially when I didn't do anything wrong. I should have told her to search my bag, just to prove it, but I was in the middle of closing out and she walked out before I could say it. I end up feeling bad the rest of the night.

Now the next day, I come in and the owner of the salon, also a stylist, is trying to playback the cameras we have at the desk, to check on last night. I'm frustrated but I don't want to seem upset so I just go about my business. Apart of me really wants them to watch them because then they'd see that I didn't do anything. Lo and behold, the cameras haven't been working/recording for a while so they can't watch anything that happened. Now the owner is buying a lock box for the tips and got the cameras to work-which is honestly fine because I hate being responsible for those things and it frustrated that anyone could suspect me of being underhanded. No one is accusing me of anything but it does feel like the stylist still think I did something.

I've been at this job for a couple months and I think that I've proven to be a model employee and I've been handling money, tips, deposits for them all this time and nothing has been amiss. The biggest question I have is 'Why would I take one stylist tip when I've had plenty of opportunities to take stylists tips who have left for the day and forgotten. But that's not who I am. That isn't how I work or how I want people to think of me. I'm so worried about karma that I would never do something like that. Now it feels like I'm not trusted and I hate that. I can't do much more than comply with the changes and try my best to be okay with the doubts. It's not that big of a deal- I think if they really thought something that the owner would have talked to me but it still feels murky sometimes. I've worked several days after with no incident and with good rapport with everyone at the salon so hopefully we can put this to bed.

I'm not staying there long, anyway- but that's a topic for another day.