Got an interesting one for you business/legal guys. One of my employees stayed out of town for a job for me last night. They stay out of town a night or two a week due to the distances we cover. We of course pay for his meals, hotel, travel, etc.. We also provide him a truck with locking truck boxes. Last night he leaves his bag of tools ($1500 worth) on the floor board of the truck because it was a nice hotel and he felt it to be safe. Of course burglar sees work truck, checks all boxes which are locked, seems a bag of tools on the floor board and smashes the window. We have it on video from the hotel and filed a police report. Now I am really torn on how to handle. He goes into home depot and drops $1500 on my home depot account and expects me to fix the window. He thinks it should just go to my insurance. He is a long time very good employee so this is not standard procedure for him. He works 70-80 hours per week going on 3 years straight.
So... His negligence is going to cost me $1800ish. Do I hold him accountable for the tools since we provide him the ability to lock them and he chose not too? Do I write him up even though there is not a protocol for this in our employee handbook, or am I just SOL. I have dealt with these things on a mild scale previously, but not from one of my top guys in one of my best trucks with locking box. Maybe we force him to use his auto insurance for the recovery?
This concerns me at a deeper level as to how he is handling other things, but that's for a different day.
Your thoughts?
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