I work in retail, and once my manager tried to write me up for helping an elderly lady pay for her groceries.
It was winter, she didn't have enough on her food stamps card to pay for everything, so she started to ask me to void off some of the food. She said her heating bill was higher than usual, and I knew this to be true because ours had been too.
This wasn't junk food, either. She had a couple of marked-down chickens, hamburger meat, bread, milk, canned and fresh veggies, Special K cereal (one of my favorites, lol!), 1/2 dozen eggs, some cans of soup, bologna, and cheese.
I carry a little wallet with me and told her, "No, we aren't putting anything back. Not today." I paid the balance of a little over $2.00 with my debit card. She was so grateful!
Two days later, my manager came to me and took me back to the office, where they were prepared to write me up. I refused to accept the write-up and told them it was none of their business what I did with my money, either on the clock or off, and if they were to pursue this, I'd walk out and go to every newspaper and TV station within 50 miles with this.
People are finding themselves in hard times, and there's not a dang thing wrong with showing a little kindness sometimes. I think Joe won't be out of a job for very long at all! Someone will appreciate his kindness and beg to hire him, I bet!