My boss was standing in the women’s restroom with a screwdriver taking the coin box out of the pad dispenser.
Not stealing from it.
Emptying quarters into it.
The video was from the cleaning lady’s phone around six that morning. My boss kept glancing toward the hallway like she didn’t want anybody seeing her. Then she stuffed a whole roll of quarters into the machine and walked out.
I honestly didn’t understand what I was looking at.
My coworker said, “Keep watching.”
So I did.
About twenty minutes later another woman from accounting walked in, checked the dispenser, and started crying because it suddenly said FREE PRODUCT while she was digging through her purse.
Then the video cut to my boss again standing outside the restroom door talking to the cleaning lady.
She said, “Nobody should have to panic over seventy-five cents at work.”
Turns out after I snapped at her the day before, she went downstairs, unplugged the machine herself, called the vending company, and told them if they didn’t remove the charge setting by Friday she’d cancel every vending contract in the building.
I just stood there embarrassed because I’d spent the entire night convinced I ruined my job over a tampon machine.
Around noon HR emailed everybody saying feminine hygiene products would now be stocked free in every restroom permanently.
No announcement about me. No lecture. Nothing.
I avoided my boss most of the day because I was so humiliated about yelling at her in front of customers.
Right before closing she stopped by my register holding a Costco-sized box of pads against her hip.
She set it under the counter and said, “For emergencies until maintenance finishes the new dispensers.”
Then she shrugged and added, “Also, for the record, toilet paper costs this company way more than seventy-five cents.”