The Secret Employee

like a secret shopper, except not.

while the secret shopper is designed to watch employees, the secret employee would be doing something like that to the boss.

let me explain.

it is unethical for a bartender to leave their drawer open between transactions because it makes money very easy to steal-- particularly if you're behind the counter. i was hired as a secret shopper once to watch some of the bartenders at swank, and the majority of the info i was meant to retrieve was unrelated to the overall enjoyment of the bar and focused mostly on whether or not the bartenders were stealing from the register.

everybody knows stealing is not something you should do while at work, but most people have tried at one point or another. so, in comes the secret shopper, writing notes and tattling.

well, this is great. but what about the other end of the deal? an unfortunate number of employees are only aware of what they're not allowed to do but they have little knowledge of what their employer is not allowed to do. and those who know the rules and regulations, can often times be too afraid to stand up to the boss and say so.

that is a dangerous thing-- especially during a time when everyone is so fearful of losing their job. the very fact companies hire secret shoppers to watch their employees, but the employees have no secret spy to watch the bosses proves business has a horrific upper-hand.

it's scary how few workers at the shoe store are actually aware of their break-related rights as an employee and i think this is probably true for most retail jobs. and retail is where most people start in the employed world-- no boss should ever get away with taking advantage of what naive employees they've nabbed.


all i'm saying is we need to even out the playing grounds and create the secret employee: someone who will stand up and say, "i haven't had a lunch in seven hours and this is not legal." someone to do it so the rest of the employees don't have to.

the secret employee is not necessarily a narc-- just there as a normal employee, generally making sure the boss is doing what they should be doing in the same way a secret shopper does an employee.

fair is fair.

it would be strange, though, if the secret shopper ever ran into the secret employee. i mean, if they do their jobs well, nothing would happen at all. but i feel like they might be able to sense each other as secret-eers.