One amongst many tales from the supermarket years:
A few years back, predating chip-and-pin; there was a scheme run by APACS, in which they offered rewards of £50 for certain stolen credit cards that were spotted and confiscated. The sensible idea was that it was cheaper to pay a one-off cash sum, than to let those cards be used again and again to scam thousands of pounds. The scheme stated these payments were meant to go to the cashier, to reward vigilance. I'm sure you can see where this is going. Now, the company encouraged us to believe that we were eligible; putting up posters from them and so on.

After a spate of pulling in several cards (using my super autistic powers of hawk-like observation), I'm in a good mood becasue I've probably done a good deed helping end cases of identity theft; and I'm expecting a decent payout. I might even get to go on holiday this year! But, like the bloody naive idiot I am; after a few weeks of waiting I ask when they're likely to come through. I get a very evasive answer about how they won't. I pry, and it turns out that they've all already been claimed and pocketed by various managers.

Naturally, I'm upset; but I remain calm and rational. I point out that the scheme itself says that they are meant to go to the cashiers themselves. The duty manager responds (technically correctly) that it doesn't have to, and that they allocated these prizes amongst the bosses based on who made the actual phone call to confirm they were fraud cards. Yes, they claimed the person who did the least dangerous part of a retention (telephoning from the privacy and safety of the offices) deserved the cash; instead of the person who actually had to face the usually angry and often violent criminal when they realised their cover was blown, they've lost their source of free cigarettes / spirits / cash, and the police are likely coming to arrest them - people do get so upset at you when you shatter their easy life leeching.

I asked if I could do my own authorisation calls from now on, this was laughingly rejected. She then changed tactics, tried to justify it saying she needed the money. I pointed out that if that was the criteria, then I deserved it more; as I was still stuck on a part time contract, had a lower basic rate, and didn't get allowances (i.e. keyholders) like she did. She wouldn't look me in the eye, and just walked away without saying anything; and on that day I lost the last respect I had for her and her fellows. She sold out her former colleagues for a few notes.

edit: continued in replies
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 13:32, 8 replies)

continued:
I take this up as a grievance with HQ; feeling cheated. The eventual result is perhaps inevitable: HR never criticise store management; claiming because she didn't actually break specific rules - apparently being a devious bastard isn't classed as misconduct if you're management. They won't demote her, they invested too much time and money getting her trained and licensed up. They can't make her repay the cash, and there's no way they're going to cough up.

However, they can't do nothing; risking bad press if they admit it's offically ok to act against the spirit but not the letter of the scheme, and certainly getting a hefty morale & accuracy penalty as a heap of cashiers realise they're officially on NMW+1% with NO prosepect of the odd bonus.

So there's an official policy change: All such rewards had to go into the mythical "Staff Fund" for the benefit of all staff. Not a bad result, in theory; but the staff fund is secretive, unaccountable, unaudited; it's spent at the whim of the branch manager; and consequently just used to pay for things the company was obliged to provide anyway; like welfare facilties (a constant supply of replacement kettles and toasters; because they keep buying cheap domestic-grade stuff which can't take the strain and rapidly breaks). We had nothing like the subsidised christmas "do"s we were meant to be getting, as at other branches. So in fact, no staff benefited from the staff fund but the company owners, and maybe the branch manager who gets a better bonus for spending little.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 13:34, closed)

I would of just turned round and asked them what incentive I had for looking out for stolen cards

( Crap Little Monkey Deathstar, so good they built it twice, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 13:44, closed)

This
No incentive, what's to stop you just not checking?
(syz, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 14:33, closed)

Next time
you get a dodgy card, just let it through, fuck 'em. Let her see if she can spot them from the comfort of her office, tell her you don't get rewarded for vigilance, so if a card belonging to Mrs Patel is presented by a young white man, fuck it, you're not going to question it, why should you?
(Rsoles, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 14:50, closed)

well, once word got around
and people realised how neatly we'd been stitched up, that's more or less what happened in most cases: Already poorly motivated people now cared even less.

Personally, I kept on spotting; if not with the same vigour. After all, it was part of my job. Also, you had to consider that they had the technology; it wasn't unheard of for people to be called into the office "for a chat" because they let a card through a few days earlier - and the managers were NOT professional enough to prevent their feeling of losing an easy £50 from clouding their judgement.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 15:40, closed)

do you mean
retention? /pedant.

Also click cos Sainsburys did the same thing to me when I was a checkout slave.
(Psymon_Spark Jesus Saves! The rest of you take 4d6 damage, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 13:41, closed)

Thanks
Ninja corrected
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 13:59, closed)

I used to work in a hardward shop back in pre-chip 'n' pin days
If we got a card on the stop list (A4 sheet of tiny printed rows of numbers), we called them from the till, cut the card up in front of the 'owner', and took the £50 out of the till...

Of course, being a hardward shop, there was generally a big axe sitting behind the till :) - not to mention the white spirit filled spray bottles (sneaking up behind fellow workers and setting their overalls on fire FTW)
( snee held his breath since, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 14:02, closed)

we also had a big axe behind one of the tills
but we never called her that to her face
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 14:06, closed)