So i fired this girl today for lying to me about the dumbest thing ever!!
We were talking when making pizzas, and she says to me " I took a pizza home last night for a friend and she loved it"
I was thinking in my head, " Hmm, i did not work last night so there is no way in hell that she paid for this pizza"
So i asked her if she paid for it, she got all weird and said yes i did. I asked how much she paid for it, she says " i dont remember i think i gave will ( the manager) 4 dollars or something…"
I knew right away that she was totally full of it. So i called my manager up and asked him how much she paid for the pizza. He says “oh she did not, it was a mistake pizza that i made and told her she could have it for free”
I go back to her and ask her why she lied to me and she says " i didnt lie, i did pay for it" I tell her what i just learned from the manager, She says “yea i just put 5 bucks in the till today for it”
So she lies again, she thought it was a good idea to try and slip 5 bucks in the till after i called her out on lying to make up for it, after she told me she paid for it the night before
The point is, i would not have even made her pay for this pizza, since it was a mistake!!! all she had to say was “oh it was a mistake pizza and i took it home” OR " NO did you want some money for that pizza, i forgot"
But she totally lied about the whole thing and if i cant trust someone over a stupid mistake pizza that would be free anyways then there is not way i can have her work for me at all.
Correct response in my book. I often let employees take home leftovers on the weekend from our after bar crowd, but I had to squash a tendency to “over cook” for the bar rush. Basically, so they could be sure to have some extra food to take home. The actual dollar amount is negligible, but it’s a reflection of a mind set that I don’t want in my shop. I think you made the correct move. If it was a legit situation, then there would have been no reason to lie.
Wow I could have thought of 101 and one better ways to handle that situation. Apparently hiring workers is easier where your at. Let me guess she was a young person perhaps one of her first jobs?..you put her on the spot and she didn’t have the experience in life to properly respond and she didn’t want to get the shift manager in trouble that gave her the pizza…she even bent over backwards to actually pay for it. I mean you fired someone who was paying you a compliment, then made them feel like S#%T so they tried making good, and she was further marketing your brand, with a throw away pizza something you say yourself you would have given away free. I’m now sure her friend, her friends friends and all their family’s will never buy from you. So you not only look like an ass clown but lost a whole mess of customers. Imagine the teaching moment you could have had on her life if you had shown a bit more restraint.
I understand being mad about having an employee lie to you, but she gave a messed up pizza to a friend and you fired her, wow talk about overreacting. Personally, my employees while working are always welcome to take home a free large 1-topping pizza at the end of their shift. I give away about 10 large pizzas a week away to my employees at a cost of $20. My employees can also come in on their days off and slap out 15 large pizzas and get a free pizza. Its a small cost to pay for great employee relations. I have been in business for almost three years and 13 out of 16 employees have been with me since day 1, and my newest employee has been with me for 6 months.
There’s a lot more that occurred during that exchange. Body language and background information. Joker responded based on his assessment of the entire event. While its true that this could have been a learning event, Joker saw something else. Some kids may not know how to respond, and for those, you may take the time to teach. For others, I’d say the majority, their response is like a rat caught in the trap. They will say or do anything to get out of the trap. I don’t think our society does well at instilling core values - it almost seems like we do the opposite. My business is to sell pizza not to fix the youth. Be harsh with Joker if you like, but he’s running a business, not a camp. He made a decision to hire and made one to fire, that’s his job.
Wow you guys are not very business oriented at all
Your gonna trust someone with your till and business if you can’t even trust them with telling you the truth, I alwas give people way way to many chances and i also have workers that have
Been with me for years
But trust is the biggest issue in the work place. It’s like credit when you have it your great and if you mess it up it’s almost impossible to
Fix
The point had nothing to do with the money it’s all about principle and trust 100%
Deceitfulness is neither the result of immaturity nor inexperience but rather a character flaw.
As a parent and business owner, I can think of no other character deficiency more detrimental to the development of trust so crucial to any relationship, business or otherwise.
You did the right thing for your business and taught her an important life lesson in the process.
I think all sides are in the right and in the wrong here. You did the right business thing but could have taught her a little bit more than was done also. She lied…that is wrong… 100% and should not be tolerated…but this is not an excuse…but kids these days just either do not know any better or just do not care. It sounds like she was more scared than anything… and the fact that she then tried to pay for it… that shows a little something. Was she a good employee otherwise? Like someone posted above… the bad word of mouth advertising you just got yourself is going to add up. If she is a highschool girl… you probably just lost a lot of potential future employees. Why not talk it over with your manager…but how about sitting her down and talking to her and offering her the job back…if she was good…that is. Makes you look really good and teaches her and all the employees a little something. Just a thought.
I agree with pizza2007 that joker knows the entire history of this employee and it is hard to relate to it 100% in a post. The bottom line is the girl DID learn the lesson…don’t lie. Period that is the bottom line. We lie because we are fearful and she was fearful that somehow what they did was wrong perhaps didn’t think twice about it last night cuz it was no big deal…and should have stayed that way. But she choose to lie.
I imagine if she would have said “ohhh there was a mistake last night and manager bob told me I could have it.” That would have been the end of the convo…no trouble.
Joker I think it was a good call…but I also agree with the others that along the way there are a few worth teaching the lessons…or at least I hope…
Thats my point, if she said that she would still have a job and i would not have thought twice about it, she could have lied about that and made up the story about a mistake pizza and i would not have even asked my manager about it
I actually came off that story on a different angle. It appears to me there is a little lack of control or “clearly” stated policy in place. The manager gave her a free pizza and then when you questioned her about it the next day she figured he should not have done that and tried to cover up (for herself and/or the manager). As she originally thought, there was not a problem with the free pizza but your questioning scared her.
Should she have tried to cover up? Of course not, but its not like she was trying to cover up for something she did wrong. She got intimidated/scared and covered up. Teaching/learning experience to me.
Personally, I always look to myself for blame first when things like this happen. Are my policies clear? Or, is it just a whimsical thing for me or the manager at the time? To me, this would just have been a time for me to reinforce and make clear to everyone exactly what the policy is – if there is one.
Head this once an always govern by it:
25% of people will always be honest no matter what
25% of people will always be dishonest no matter what
50% of people will stay honest if you keep them that way
Joker I understand what you did. I’ve done things that people think were irrational. Some were. Some weren’t. I’m gonna say that this girl has done other things…or maybe you in some way set out to prove a point. I don’t believe your wrong. If its your place you are the one who goes to sleep at night thinking about it. If this was your favorite delivery guy, would you have even looked into it?..she probably was not in your future. I have a couple of employees I’d like to get rid of…need the help though
I was unaware we needed a company policy of not telling lies…i thought it was rather self explanitory that lieing to your boss was ok, regardless of what it was over.
Unlike some of you, i dont let my workers walk all over me, at all.
If you work for me, and are a good worker and honest and a good person, i will go out of my way to make sure they are taken care of. I have even bought a inside person a car so he could deliver and have a car to get around and he paid me back 100 bucks a pay check until it was paid off.
I agree with pizzapirate. He was not saying that a policy of honesty was needed. He was saying a policy of taking home mistakes should be known.
I learned a great deal my first three years in business. The one thing I learned the most was that there should be a clear policy in writing about almost everything. And I as an owner (or a manager) should hand out this policy to any new employee and go through it with them.
Either way you did what you felt was necessary and I would be surprised if any employee would be stupid enough to lie to you again.
Love this site, but I don’t believe I would have reacted in that manner.
I’m new to the pizza business, but being a rather successful owner of an escort agency in the early 1990’s (yes, that kind of escort) I had to deal with a lot of young women, and their response to questioning. Believe me, if all my problems were as mundane as a girl lying about paying for a pizza she didn’t have to pay for, I would be the Sigmund Freid of The Jerry Springer Show.
I agree with the other people in this thread saying you should have taken the time to teach this “life lesson”, and not use it as a power trip to let your other workers know you’re the man. The title of the thread says alot to me…“Lost another worker”. Does this happen often? I’m pretty lucky right now since my business is real small, and I’m just employing family right now, so my only experience dealing with employees is from back in the escortin’ days.
I can appreciate the entire “honesty” trip you went with, but it’s not like she was stealing from you, she lied about paying for something that was free.
Taking this to the next level, if you left her alone with the cash drawer, she would be soooooo dishonest, you would have found an extra hundred dollars in the cash drawer at the end of the evening. Shoot, an employee that can create that kind of money for me, with the expense of a throwaway pizza, is always welcome at my shop! :lol:
If you can’t trust an employee that paid for something that was given to them for free by their manager then who can you trust these days…Sheesh people back off she is as dishonest as they come…rfol…
She for a lack of a clearly stated policy felt cornered by the un-needed questioning and that someone was going to get in trouble (if you question everyone so harshly for doing things properly you will see them act weird at some point). So she clearly tried making everything right (maybe in the wrong way but not fire-able offense). Her only fault was trying to be a team player and look out for her coworkers. Lest you forget she didn’t lie about stealing from you she lied about when you got more money in the cash drawer. In her eyes she got fired for paying for a free pizza…lol
I was unaware we needed a company policy of not telling lies
that reminds me of my favorite Seinfeld episode…George got caught having sex with the cleaning woman…his boss was questioning him before he fired him…“Was that wrong?” he asks his boss. “Should I have not done that? I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing, because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon . . .”