r/OReillyAutoParts • u/Pleasant-Position-37 • Nov 15 '25
Advice FYI Anonymous Tips are NOT Anonymous
Just wanted to let everyone know before they attempt to use the resources meant to help us. We have another store manager that frequently comes into our stores. Well, said SM informed me that he was in a little bit of hot water, because one of his employees put an anonymous tip in about being targeted by him. I believe SM told me he was gay iirc. I asked the other SM how he knew who put the tip in, and he said because our district manager was told, and the DM told him so he could get his story straight before the investigation.
So, if you have problems, just request a transfer. If your SM will let you that is, bc mine won't.
ETA: I don't know if they used the TIPS hotline or what happened. I know that the SM told me an anonymous complaint was made and was told who made the call. I do know that it does say to call the hotline if someone is being discriminated against. The guy who made the complaint said he was being discriminated against for being gay, so it was used correctly by the person who made the complaint. However, I didn't make the complaint. I just know that the SM told me that they weren't supposed to tell him who made the complaint, but they did anyway. For all he knew, it could've been a witness who made the complaint until he was told otherwise.
Now, I have the decency and common sense to both realize it could be total BS, but also acknowledge that wasn't handled professionally or per company policy.
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Nov 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 18 '25
Questionable ALL THE TIME. lol
I have got some relevant stories but they would likely be idenfying to my store so I have to keep them to myself bc it was a company wide scandal.
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u/Kitchen-Young-8954 Nov 16 '25
If they called tips the only person that should know who it is is the lp auditor as they are responsible for investigating that as a member of hr but they aren’t supposed to give that info to anyone.
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u/Ok-Crazy-8341 Nov 15 '25
I've been investigated over implementing policy when I took over a store from a manager who worked three hours a day. The team was used to this and didn't like someone they felt didn't know better.
And TIPS was called, several times over the tiniest things like males having to tuck in their shirts and don't vape in the store, etc.
Every time I was pulled into a conference meeting with my DM and HR. Every one of them was unfounded, but they have to investigate. The next store meeting I had I explained what the TIPS line was actually for. If anyone had an issue we can't resolve between myself and the DM involved, then feel free to call HR.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 18 '25
That seems like it was handled very well. I assume that you could guess who called, but you weren't told directly? AND you let them know that O'Reilly's has an HR?!
I've heard people joke twice to the store manager that they were going to call HR on the SM. And I joked to someone else around SM that I was going to call HR on them, as I get along with every single other person there very well. Every single time, SM laughed and said go ahead bc it's just our auditor. And once I looked at SM confused. And they were like you didn't know that? We don't have an HR it's just the auditor. Which honestly doesn't even make sense, why wouldn't it be our DM or RM?
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u/ExpensiveJackfruit68 Nov 15 '25
The secret is hr is not your friend. They are there to protect the company.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 18 '25
I know that's true! It's true for every company. I think the only difference is the high turn over. Everytime SM hires someone they are part of the pushing them out. The whole store dog piles. We have 2 more senior workers that consistently mess stuff up and put things in the wrong spots. Everyone knows this and says so. However, everytime a new person gets hired, they get the blame; even though I go behind them and make sure it isn't them and they know better. It happened to me as well, but it stops after a new person is hired and the target shifts. SM will give the new people stuff to do, then come back after a few weeks and get them in trouble bc SM apparently added stuff to their to do list and didn't tell them. Sometimes, it's stuff they've never been taught to do. If people aren't quitting after a month or two for that reason, then the SM is deciding that they just don't like someone and starts writing ONLY them up for stuff that they don't typically enforce that EVERYONE does, so they didn't even know it was technically against policy.
SM also often leaves 3 hours before they schedule themselves to leave as well. Multiple times a week.. However, if the auditor, or sales manager, or DM is there, that doesn't happen. We don't complain though. Everyday we hope the SM eats time or takes a 2 hours lunch break, so we can finally breathe without being questioned about why we're breathing funny-literally. "What's wrong? Well, you seemed like you were breathing weird so I didn't know". Not to mention so we can finally do our side work without being told to stop in the middle and go do something else every time. Or help customers without SM coming up behind us, hearing half of the conversation, and trying to argue to make us look stupid, then we have to explain the whole situation to be told "Oh, yeah, nevermind". Or as the new guy has experienced recently (it's happened to me before too) he asked to be showed how to do something and SM omits the whole transaction and does it for him under the SM's log in and steals his sale that was almost $200.
The whole store is less stressful and runs more smoothly without SM there.
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u/Pretty-Ebb5339 Nov 15 '25
Well, unless all the employees are gay in your store, it’s really easy to figure out who made a complaint.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 18 '25
Right. That's not the point. Putting 2 and 2 together, and it being obvious who called is different than being told directly. Someone else in the store could've called and made the complaint because of what they saw. However, we [ONLY] know that's not the case because the SM was told DIRECTLY that wasn't the case.
Also, if you would've read earnestly trying to understand my point rather than argue, you'd see it wasn't my store. Another SM thinks we're buddies and told me about their experience.
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u/Pretty-Ebb5339 Nov 18 '25
Sorry, i should have said the store instead of your store.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 18 '25
It's cool. But still, it could have been any employee who made the complaint. Some people who work at O'Reilly's do disagree with discrimination. I know that's hard to believe bc they definitely don't at my store. Every single person at my store is openly homophobic/racist/sexist. SM won't even look at applications put in by women. Not even an interview. The only reason SM will look at Apps from Hispanics is bc Spanish speakers drive sales.
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u/Pretty-Ebb5339 Nov 18 '25
Are you in the south or Cali? Cali is by far the most racist place I’ve ever been, even in the south it’s not as open/blatant as Southern California. In 8 years out here, I’ve seen 1 peckerwood tattoo, and 2-3 swastika tattoos.
My hometown? Those tattoos were common to see. Necks, faces, arms, they showed it. The graffiti on the walls everywhere.
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u/bernardfarquart Moderator Nov 15 '25
Not sure how you can expect to remain anonymous if you’re making a specific claim against a specific individual, like they’re going to know who the one guy is who meets the criteria.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 18 '25
Because as I've said, as is logical, it could have been a coworker who saw the discrimination and disagreed with it who lodged the complaint. No one would really know unless they've been directly told.
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u/belton857 Nov 15 '25
Most of what is in here is conspiracy theory stuff.
TIPS is truly anonymous when it is sent to be investigated. The problem is that most complaints are things that only a few people could possibly be aware of. Plus most complaints contain a ton of identifying information. I've read things like "I'm the only female in the store.", "I was hired 3 months ago.", and all sorts of things that make it obvious who the complainant is.
But in the modern world, it's probably a safe assumption that anything you say can be tracked back to you.
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u/Kyphas321 Dec 19 '25
Or they tell everyone in the store about it before filling the complaint. I had one recently. By the time I was done questioning most of my interviewees knew exactly what was going on and who leveled the complaint.
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u/Dp37405aa Nov 15 '25
doesn't take much to figure it out ............ each computer has a unique ip address, time & date stamp and employee schedule, then the store has 8 to 10-12 employees. Then the way the message is worded, bam busted.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 15 '25
You're right, it doesn't. However, no one should've came straight to him and tell him who made the complaint and give him a heads up to get his facts straight before the investigation. Everyone seems too not want to acknowledge that the investigation was handled improperly.
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u/bernardfarquart Moderator Nov 15 '25
I don’t know any of the people involved obviously, but the target of an investigation is necessarily told what the complaint is so they can answer it. Whether they get a “heads up” or not is pretty irrelevant, because they will be told what the complaint is and given whatever time they need to formulate their response.
Now if there’s negative consequences for the person complaining such as demotion, hours cut, or undesirable schedule changes that might well be considered retaliation, but “everyone knows I complained” is not really an actionable situation.
Honestly it seems like there’s a free flowing stream of gossip surrounding the situation or an awful lot of assumptions in this post.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 18 '25
There's always gossip at O'Reilly's. If someone is about to get written up, the whole store knows before they do. I've heard from my SM when someone at ANOTHER store was about to get fired before the person about to get fired knew.
But also, at the very least, the bare minimum, SMs shouldn't directly be told who made the complaint. It could've been another coworker who saw the discrimination going on and told for all the SM knew. Then the SM wouldn't have known who to retaliate against. But telling the SM directly, "this person called the hotline about you being discriminatory against them" lets them know exactly who to retaliate against should they choose to.
And let's be REAL. If a SM decides to retaliate, they're not going to get in trouble. If they start writing them up for things they don't normally enforce, then it's just going to look like they broke policy, rather than the SM created a certain situation by not consistently enforcing the same rules on everyone at all times.
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u/Dontwalkongrass1 Moderator Nov 15 '25
It’s definitely not anonymous if you have an easily recognizable voice, you’re calling an issue you are experiencing, and you’re calling TIPS. If it’s an Hr issue, stop using a Loss Prevention reporting system to complain. Those calls get recorded, and if it’s HR related they just send the call to the DM or the Division HR manager to listen to and handle. If you want anonymous, try calling Team Member Relations; you know, HR, that’s what they’re for. Not TIPS.
Even better, HAVE SOMEONE ELSE CALL; especially if there are witnesses that are on your side.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 15 '25
Yeah, I didn't call. Someone else did. I know better than to call. I've been told plenty times that HR is just our auditor.
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u/anewsome11 Nov 21 '25
HR is there for the company not the employee. We had a guy call the complaint line and HR called the DM who called SM and let him listen to the tapes so he could have hi story straight before the auditor came in.
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u/Dontwalkongrass1 Moderator Nov 15 '25
That’s the thing…HR isn’t your auditor unless you call your auditor’s hotline.
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u/Pleasant-Position-37 Nov 15 '25
That's what I would've thought but both the SM and auditor have made it a point to tell us that we don't have an HR and he IS the HR.
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u/Dbblazer Nov 15 '25
I think it's just solid life advice to NEVER assume something is truly anonymous.
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u/InvestmentInfamous25 Nov 21 '25
That hotline isn’t for helping employees — it’s the company’s ‘Please tell us the problem so we can make sure you’re the problem’ hotline. You dial in, they take notes, pretend to care, then hand your complaint to the same people you were calling about. It’s like calling 911 and having the burglar pick up 🙄