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Aggrevated....

K

Kris

New member
I am so frustrated. Our “trusted” manager who has been with us for 5 plus years is stealing…of all things…STAMPS. She is in charge of our coloring contest, b day club and business card drawing. Each week she sends out some mail and so she has cash paid out for stamps. Usually no big deal. Well I began to notice the redemption of these things were low…then I began to notice we were paying double almost triple what we usually pay for postage. Also, my niece and nephew came in last night and should have had a b-day coupon. So this morning just looked at her binder where she keeps her supplies…less than 20 stamps when she just bought about 150. What else was odd is they were “LOVE” stamps.

Kinda funny since she is getting married next month. Sent out save the dates a few weeks ago and shower invites.

Ohhh and I found a PILE of coloring contest sheets which did not get sent out in over a month.

Makes me wonder what else is leaving my store!

Kris
 
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While this is technically stealing, it is entirely possible she doesn’t see it that way. If the unauthorized use of “office supplies” is the biggest pilferage problem you have, count your blessings.
 
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If she is confused about stamps being money and whether it is OK to use them for her own use, there is every likelyhood that there are other things she is confused about too. Keep a close watch!
 
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I like to give folks that long edge of a possibility, but I’m with Bodega here. If she’s crossed that line and is using you for her private postage meter, it’s my experience that it’s only the tip of that blasted iceberg. Time for a heart to heart…and not the one on the stolen stamps!
 
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It must be terrible to feel that someone is stealing from you at work. I hope it is just a misunderstanding and not something worse. Best of luck resolving the issue.
 
Stealing is stealing. She is well aware of the expected usage of stamps and any other supplies I trust her to get on a regular basis…that is why she was given the responsibility. Like one poster said this, I am sure, is the tip of the iceburg. I don’t steal from my employees and they wouldn’t work from me if I did…I feel the same about them…if your are gonna take something of mine without permission I don’t want you to work form me.

I also realize we are innocent until PROVEN guilty. Ya can’t just go around firing people. So it is an eye opener.

She knows I know cuz I called her (on her day off) and asked where the heck are all the stamps! :shock:
 
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“Ya can’t just go around firing people”

Yes, you can.

I am not suggesting that firing is the answer here, I don’t have nearly enough information for that, but don’t let yourself think that you can not fire someone you do not want around any more whatever the reason.

You may be on the hook for the unemployment being charged to your account, but if you have not been letting people go without cause that will not be a big deal.
 
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I have found in my experience in these type of cases that if you have plenty of evidence and you lay it out in front of them when you fire them, they generally don’t file for unemployment. Often they don’t want the truth of what they did made public or made known to their family.

The key is having enough incriminating evidence, but if you can’t and you are in an “At Will” state, just fire them and tell them their services are no longer needed and just take the hit on unemployment.
 
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It has been my experience that even “trusted employees” if given enough rope will hang themselves. Unfortunately, the way employees would view stealing and what we (owners) view stealing are two different things. She would probably never consider taking $50.00 out of the till for her own use, but didn’t think taking a roll of stamps would be an issue.
But it looks like you have two issues here. Stamps missing and advertising not being sent. Like the cash drawer has control and balances, I would be putting one on this too. Maybe rather than one person doing it all, have 2 or 3 people doing it. one writing up the envelopes (and counting how many they did), one affixing postage (and counting and recording how many they did) and one actually taking the mail to the post office (and counting how many pieces and recording).
Not knowing the history of this employee, this may just be the tip of the iceburg or it just may be the start of what she can get away with. but I would take a look around and see if you need to put anymore controls in place, sometimes we get comfortable with one person handling things for us, that we get blindsided when we find things like this happening because we never thought we needed to control it.
Good luck with this issue, and I hope, having some one with 5 years experience, that it was just bad judgement in this area and no where else.
 
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smeagol8:
While this is technically stealing, it is entirely possible she doesn’t see it that way. If the unauthorized use of “office supplies” is the biggest pilferage problem you have, count your blessings.
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I’m not sure how she “perceives” stealing is relevant. “technically” ???

Imo, if someone is stealing from you there is nothing to “work-out”. Are you going to sit down with her and tell her that she is doing really well in the areas of A and B but she needs to improve in the area of stealing??? There are a lot of areas where you can work with people but stealing is not one of them.

I know how it is though. You think you have this great employee and just don’t want to think its possible. Usually my wife has to kick me to just for me to see it for what it is; but we can do that here on the boards too 😛
 
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Are you going to sit down with her and tell her that she is doing really well in the areas of A and B but she needs to improve in the area of stealing???
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That is so friggin funny but true. Makes the point…totally. I will laugh at that quote for years to come, really puts things into perspective. Thanks
 
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