Not everyone is a model employee. Given a large enough sample size of people
and you’re going to encounter a broad spectrum of personalities and
attitudes, not all of them good.

Certainly, in my time in retail I’ve encountered plenty of bad employees.
Not just in terms of dishonesty and theft, although that is certainly
common, but also some pretty unique examples of poor decision making.

Such as the guy who was the Most Honest Interview Ever. So, I was conducting
interviews, and was sitting in the office with this one candidate.

“I see you were an assistant manager at 7-11 for nearly ten years.” I say.

“That’s right.” He replied.

“Why did you leave?” I asked.

Without even a pause, he answered. “I was fired.”

“For what?” I asked.

“Stealing.” He answered.

“Oh yeah?” I said, then after a moment my curiosity got the better of me
“What were you stealing?”

“Cigarettes, mostly” was his answer, “but you know, whatever I could fence
pretty easily.”

“Great,” I concluded. “Well, thank you for your time, we’ll let you know.”

Of course, not every bad hire gets screened out during the interview
process. At the department store I worked at there was a salesman who, in
addition to his duties selling furniture and mattresses was also running his
fledging home contracting business out of the sales floor.

He even had the store’s phone number printed on his own company’s business
cards, and took calls at the furniture desk.

Even better, he carried on for over a year before store management even
noticed what he had been doing.