The Nerve of Some Employees!!!

LindaS

Last Thursday, in recognitiion of reaching a set amount of days without a lost time injury, the Safety Committe treated all employees to ice cream sundaes (paid for by the company). Due to the fact that we have two shifts, I picked up enough sundaes for 1st shift then went back in the afternoon for 2nd shift's (I ordered them in advance). After all the 1st shift breaks, I put the extras in the freezer with a note on the door stating that people could "help themselves" to the extras. I took this note down after 1st shift.

The 2nd shift supervisor, wanting to make sure that the EEs that weren't at work on Thursday still got their treat, took enough sundaes (I think it was 4), put the names of the employees on the covers, placed them in a bag and tied it 3 times. She checked the freezer at the end of the shift to be sure it was still there, it was.

She came in on Friday to find that the bag, with all the sundaes, was gone!! It obviously angered her and, during her shift, she proceeded to look for the "evidence" of who ate the sundaes. She found the bag, with three of the four sundaes still in it, in the back of the company truck!!! There are a limited number of individuals who have access to the truck but how do you confirm WHO took them?!?

I know it sound petty but sometimes the little things really get to you!

Don D

About all you can do is try to isolate who used the truck at what time and question the prospects. People in any work setting, no matter where, will steal things from the refrigerator. Age old, unsolvable problem. Even stuff that's green and moves on its own will be stolen.

MS HR

>Even stuff that's green and moves on its own will be stolen.


Hey Don. Are you making fun of Louisiana food????

System

Issue a memo basically stating the facts and end with the company will not tolerate this kind of behavior. It puts people on notice at least

Crout

I think I'd be more angry with a shift supervisor using her valuable time going on a witch hunt for 4 lousy sundaes. Buy four more, hand them out, and move on. Life's too short and time is too valuable for nonsense like that.

Don D

What if it were a retail store and it was 'four lousy c-cell batteries'? They cost less than sundaes but lots of people have gone to jail for lifting them, even store employees. Stealing is stealing. It's especially egregious when you're stealing from co-workers.

San Francisco

I agree. Food stealing crops up from time to time in our stores and no one likes his/her lunch stolen. In one incident, the store manager placed a sign on the fridge basically stating that anyone stealing others' food would be terminated. The cuprit was caught and terminated. It went to unemployment and to an appeal hearing and we won. Besides, sometimes it's the small things that employees appreciate and remember.

Elizabeth

Crout

I don't see how it's stealing. Didn't Linda post a sign saying people could help themselves? Well, they helped themselves. Yes, she later took the sign down, but so what? It sounds like a non-issue to me, and doesn't seem worthy of a shift supervisor running around gathering "evidence" when she could be doing more productive things.

LindaS

Crout - while I thank you for your opinion I think that maybe I should have been a little more specific. The sign was placed on the fridge, true, and was later taken down due to all the sundaes being gone. The sundaes that were taken were in a tied bag, with the employees' names on them. I consider it stealing. In addition, while I understand your feelings regarding the supervisor's actions, I have yet to speak with that supervisor today to find out exactly what she was doing when she found the bag. I agree with you that a supervisor has more important things to do but I think it gets more to the principle of the matter.

mwild31

Whew! I'm sure you also check each person before they leave for pens, pencils, paperclips, staples and post-its. x;-)

I agree that stealing is stealing, but even in the real world there is a balance between the infraction/crime and the cost of pursuing it, i.e. fines, misdemeanors, etc. I don't want to put words into Crout's mouth, but I bet the 'search' for the culprit has cost more than the sundaes & their replacements combined. Ongoing theft issues, such as San Francisco outlined, are a different matter in my eyes than what sounds to be a one-time occurrence.

Crout

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-03-03 AT 03:56PM (CST)[/font][p]If I was one of your employees and brought a soda to work with my name on it and it turned up missing from the fridge, would you launch an investigation to find out who took my stupid soda? By the way, this has happened to me about 10,000 times in the past and while I did think about booby-trapping the fridge, I never had the expectation that my company should investigte the matter. The sundaes had names on them, right? In my opinion, they ceased to be company property when the names were attached.

marc

Was it your intent to allow ees to 'reserve' the sundaes? If any ee wanted to save them for later, could they have put their name on them so the 'first come, first served' rule would not apply. It may be that the ees who took the sundaes thought it unfair that others could have the goodies set aside for later consumption. Putting them in a triple knotted bag could have been done by any of your ees, not necessarily management. You intended them for people that were not there, did anyone else know this?

It isn't right for people to steal from others, and it some universe, size does not matter, but try a little perspective - should they have known these were special reserve sundaes? Maybe not.

LindaS

I spoke with the supervisor last night and found out that she came upon the sundaes when she was locking up the company truck for the evening, a regular part of her job. I agree with all the posters regarding the trivial nature of the situation but as I said in my original post, sometimes the trivial things get to you. Thanks for all your responses. My intent was just to vent a little while knowing that there isn't any action, or additional "investigation", that we are going to do about this issue.

rad

Hmm...interesting problem because it is a fine line to say if this is stealing. Would I spend so much time trying to find the possibly sugar OD'd culprit? No, but I would replace the sundaes for those who missed out and try to find a way to communicate to others that while probably not stealing, it was, simply put, a sh***y thing to do.