Employee Problem....

Ok..... Fed-Ex delivered something to my home today instead of my business.... I had my wallet and 13 dollars sitting on the passenger seat....

I sent an employee in my truck to my house to get the boxes.... and now the 13.00 is gone. I know it's not a lot of money... but a thief is a thief.... It's already knock off time here and he has already went home... How would you guys approach this on Monday? I know it is stupid of me to leave my stuff out like that.... so whatever about all that...

I'm going to go through the truck when I get home to MAKE sure it's not there....

Fire away guys...i just dont know what to say

Straight forward. Ask him for your $13 back. Tell him you know the deal. Give him chance 2 letting him know though that he's lost trust and is starting at zero. I always like the "no bullsh*t", straight forward approach. Be certain though, that the $13 is gone.

How about. There was $ 13.oo in my truck that I know was there on my way to work, and now it's gone.....What the F!!!

Taking all the money from your wallet wasn't a good move. Everyone knows you just take some, never all. Thats way to obvious! I bet thats all he took because he isn't a very good thief! Seriously though, if it happened to me I don't think I could ever really trust him again. But I would ask him if he knew anything about the missing money, you never really know till you know.

Given I have not searched the truck for the money..... here was my plan..... might change over the weekend though....

Confront him..... give him the opportunity to fess up....and if he does..... 2 weeks off no pay and has to sign a confession.... and then a dollar to dollar fifty pay cut......

If he denies it....... your fired..... boom-bam-done.... (said in a Donald Trump voice of course)

It throws me in a pickle.... were in our busy season....

Keep throwing out the ideas guys!

Set him up again with the same situation, send him out, leave some money easy for the taking.... if its gone I would hammer him.

if dude is willing to take $13, then he would have no problem taking something of more value. If I knew for certain he took it, I would fire him. People who steal usually have something going on, like drugs or gambling or stupidity.

But maybe he didnt take it. He has gotta know his chances are high he is gonna get caught. Plus stealing from the boss. Can he be that dumb?

I am going to play devil's advocate here and say give him a few hours on Monday to walk in the door and fess up. He maybe really needed it for something (plan B for his GF) or something along those lines. If he walks in the door and says, "Hey, I took $13 out of your wallet, it was really effin stupid, etc." I would give him a break. If you hear nothing by lunch time, call him out and then fry him on the spot.

Ask for your money back. He denies, walk him to the door. He gives you the money, owns up to it, have a sit down with him and discuss consequences.

I say let it go and don't ever put him in that situation again to be around the money. You screwed up. You could be mistaken. He could have taken it. I do believe in personal accountability, but, I don't trust the other guy to be me. If he typically is a good employee and has provided his service to you then so be it. Maybe you under pay him to begin with? That is a different moral issue and I am not saying it is right to steal. At the end of the day, $13 is a cheap lesson. I would just get into a neutral situation and mention that you are $13 dollars lower in funds than you used to be. See what he says or does. Body language says a lot.

At the end of the day if you still don't trust him, then the relationship is done. Before I even go there, I make sure I do everything I can do to make sure that person did not fail. There is a finding we tend to have in our organization. If the worker fails, then someone in management failed and management earned the right to take the fall. Then rules of engagement get changed so the worker does not fail again.

Was the 13 bucks in the wallet or just sitting out?

Best way to handle this is on a internet chat forum.

You should act very upset that your kid is mad at you. When he asks what's wrong, tell him you had his kids savings in your wallet to buy his mother a mother's day gift. And it was gone and your kid was very upset. Make him feel like a real piece of Sh*t.

lol Bret..... I have no kids.....

Jonathan... just getting feedback from other people... you do not have to read this nor post if you do not want to.

Sparky Jay..... It was sitting out tucked under my wallet (you could see the money easily) in the passenger seat.

Someone Else.... If anything.... he is over paid.... when someone agrees with an hourly wage, they can't say they are under paid....



I did clean out the truck and the money is not there.... I am hoping he saw it sitting out and tucked it away so that it was not just sitting out. I am going to give the man a chance. If he fesses up to it.... am I an idiot for considering keeping him on?

I have never had to face this problem with a stealing employee....

You need to be ABSOLUTELY sure that it was him before you accuse him. Was there a chance that the vehicle was left unattended while he was using it and other parties were to blame? The other issue here is employee/employer trust,. Tricky though. Are you going to be able to have this person in your employ without knowing one way or the other and not have the situation affect the way you deal with this person from now on? There will be a lot of factors that only you know about, to take into consideration on this issue. My best advice is tread very carefully.

Just ask him and see how he reacts. It doesent sound like he is the one and only possibility in my mind. If the truck was open any amount of time it could of been almost anybody, or it was him. It seems pretty petty for him to take a few bucks and risk it being a setup. We get cars in the shop all the time with money out in the open and everyone pretty much knows its a setup.

Unless the position is highly skilled and hard to replace, fire him. Should be plenty of people out there willing to work that you don't have to worry about stealing from you.

I would be worried less about the 13 bucks and more concerned about the credit card numbers he wrote down from your wallet.

Any honest employee is going to pick up your wallet, money and hand it back to you in person before they left or first thing when the got back.

Without proof that he took it. ( which you have none), I say let it go. Or like another poster said, Put him in a similar situation to see if he does it again.
You can't fire someone for something you think he did. You need proof or a witness!! Your asking for a lawsuit if you do that.

Good luck with the situation.

Employees that will steal from you are a dime a dozen -- he can be replaced with another one with ease.

You don't want to go throwing accusations around! Tell him that some money went missing from your truck the other day - did he 'borrow' it for something? gives him a chance to fess up or offer an explanation without the immediate assumption he's a criminal. he might be, but then again he might not be either...

I say let him go for somthing you can prove. DONT bring up the $13 dollars. I would use that to look for a better reason to let him go. Good luck letting people go is one of the many suck things an employer has to do.

Has he ever given you question to doubt him before? Its bit of a leap to say its him with no other proof, somebody else might have taken it when he jumped out of the truck and left it unlocked, or blown out the window when he was doing 100mph down the sidewalk racing his mate with the ricer and blow off valves or 100 other scenarios. I say set him up and see if he takes the opportunity. Otherwise let it go and keep your eyes peeled.

Check your gas tank maybe he needed to put some gas in possibly. I am with those who say be straight forward. Tell him you want to talk to him and do it away from others and straight out ask him about it, you can then make judgment after you give him the benefit of the doubt. Thirteen bucks is not really much to squawk at however it allows you to see the other side of someone or give him a chance to fess up. I find sometimes when I jump to conclusions I usually wear egg on my face so just try to find out what happened with leaving your emotions out of it.

Good Luck

You should leave money laying all around your business so you can see if all your other employees are any more trustworthy. If not you can fire them all.

set him up once a thief always a thief. put money in glove box then ask him to do an errand. if he's a thief he will look for the money.

Leave this thread open on a computer you know he'll see.

I have realized.... that all I can do is point a finger and at this point it's just an accusation. I am going to have to wait till he REALLY screws up and I can bust him.....

I agree with the set up option. If you keep waiting for him to screw up big, he might do something much more damaging that you can't repair even after you catch him.

Sure he didn't put 13 dollars worth of gas in your truck so he could make it to your house and back.

If he did still it I would say he's out of here.

Solution:
Hire me to work with him everyday.... I'll just be soooooo annoying and awful he will have no choice but to quit. My rates are very resonable.

Blair.... your right...... I live only 2 miles from work.

lol Nick

Here's how I've dealt with this in the past...

"Hey was there any cash on the seat of the truck when you had it? I thought I left it in there but maybe it's in my other pants."

Wait for his reaction. If he took it you'll know it.

Otherwise play it off. Either way you'll plant the seed that you think he might have taken it. A lot of times that's all it takes to keep them on the straight and narrow.

Set him up again and if he takes the cash then you know you've got a petty thief on your hands.

Originally Posted by TheSarge

Best way to handle this is on a internet chat forum.

Sarge - you made me spit out my beer on that one. Now I'm guilty of alcohol abuse and that's much more serious that what is going on here!

H2O Pro - any updates?

Doesn't seem like a very resonable scenario to me. He takes $13 (I mean $13 c'mon) from a vehicle he is know to be in. You'd have to be a real ratard! I guess you'd have to ask yourself if he is that stupid.

If he is that stupid, than be done with it. Otherwise if you accuse him and fire him, be prepared to accept possible lawsuit(in California anyways). You got no proof and firing someone without proof - Guaranteed loser in court.

I have 20 employees now (had 40+) and had plenty of them sketchy and caused different problems. Work is work. If he is on the clock he can only be judged by his performance and nothing else. If he stole that money on the clock and you got proof, than no sweat. if he stole it off the clock, than you call the cops, but without proof you look like an idiot.

All you can do legally do is point blank ask him. If he says no, nothing you can do. If he says yes, I would recommend instantly firing him.

There is a reason I have a 100+ page employee manual that they have to sign. It's cause 20 years of bad employees taking advantage.

So what happened?

Well.... ends up I'm going to have to let another employee go today.... and I'm working on the process of the guy and the 13 bucks...... I have to handle his a little more carefully..... In our state you can fire someone without giving them a reason. Yet.... makes it easier to draw unemployment. I feel if someone is doing something wrong, they do not deserve unemployment..... so I have to wait till I have something that I can flat out prove.

H20- Think about these few things as I have been in this situation a million times.

1. If you don't trust the dude, than why do you let him jeopardize your company or co-workers. If he is willing to steal $13 form his boss, what else is he doing. Let just say he were to fake a workers comp injury. You will spend countless dollars and time defending yourself. Please get rid of the guy. Even though it will put more pressure on you to be down a guy, TRUST me. I have kept guys I don't trust too many times and it ALWAYS ends up bad.

2. In California, even if an employee steals there is a good chance he will get unemployment. Plus the states are in HEAVY favor of the employees right now and giving unemployment for employees that truly do not deserve it. The way it is being explained to me these days is that unless the employee is purposely (with tons of documentation) trying to not do his job, than he is getting unemployment.

3. If you do not have a huge turnover problem in your company, they it will not likely affect your rates. Also depending on how long he has been there, he may not even b taxed to your account.

In the end man - This will not work out well if you do not deal with this guy.

Wait, so you're just going to fire some guy because you THINK he stole money from you? What if your wife took it or your kid took it or you spent it or it fell out of your pocket? You want to deal with unemployment, rehiring, training etc if you don't KNOW about it?

You're man enough to fire him but you're not man enough to bring him into your office and ask him if he did it or not? Dude - just ask the guy. Say "listen man - when I sent you to my place I had some cash laying around and now it's gone. What's the deal?"... you'll know RIGHT away if he's lying or not. If he is, tell him to part ways. If not, then it's no harm, no foul and apologize.

Don't just fire a guy for something you can't prove, don't know, etc.. Just ask him.

jeff..... I have asked him... he denied..... if you read several post up..... which I am assuming you did not, it says I have not fired him