I think that an employee is stealing from me. Advice sought.

In My Humble Opinion
21

:confused:

I’m willing to admit that there might be some system i’m not familiar with, but to my knowledge even the most sophisticated POS systems cannot distinguish between theft and error.

Unless the system monitors and records—independently of any human input—the quantity and denomination of every single banknote deposited in or removed from the till, and the time at which each deposit or removal occurs, then its accuracy is still restricted by the frequency of reconciliations, and it cannot determine the motivation behind the missing money.

If it did monitor each individual banknote, and knew exactly when the extra money was removed, that might help you to narrow down the time of the problem, and the person responsible for it. But it still wouldn’t tell you whether that missing $40 had been handed over inadvertently to a customer, or had been slipped into an employee’s pocket.

22

Polygraphs don’t work anyway… so definitely not option b. Plus, wouldn’t it cost a lot more than $40? :confused:

Talk to your lawyer. And if you’ve got a business, “she’s a good person even if she lies the whole time and causes us business losses” is not the right way to make decissions.

23

Buzz wrong answer. $40 might not seem like a big deal, but if she was stealing, she may be testing the waters. If nothing happens, it’ll be more next time. I promise. At the very least, you need to go to each employee and say “Hey, $40 was missing from the register, do you know anything about that” Most likely everyone will deny knowledge of it, but OTOH, you might get lucky and find out it was something legit. Either way, if someone did take it, you need to make sure they know that you noticed it missing, otherwise it will continue.

As for unemployment, you have a few options. First, assume whatever you pay out in enemployment (which will be reflected in your rates going up) will be less then what she would have taken if you kept her. And second, is there anything she does wrong on a regular basis? Is she ever late (that’s the easiest)? Does she not do things you ask her to do? Is she rude to customers? etc…
Let’s say she’s late today, you make her sign something that says she understands what she did was wrong and that she understands that if she does it again she may lose her job. Next time she walks in late, tell her she’s fired. That’ll keep you covered for unemployment.
The thing about UC is that the person has to be warned for doing something wrong, and in the warning they have to be told that they can lose their job for doing it again. It’s stupid I know, but it’s how you CYA. (This form works nicely http://www.officemax.com/max/solutions/product/prodBlock.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&prodBlockOID=537368814&expansionOID=-536879730)
Two quick side stories, feel free to ignore
A few years ago, we had an employee who had a habit of not showing up to work at all. We’d call her, no answer etc… One day she didn’t show up, so we left a message on her maching. “Leah, you are on the schedule for 11:00 today, it’s not 11:45, if we don’t hear from you by noon, consider yourself out of a job because this is happening way to often”
Next week I wind up in an UC battle with her. Turns out since I never made her sign something saying that she understands that she has to work on the days that she’s on the schedule for, she therefore wasn’t being willfully malicious and she got UC.

Second story. I notice $200 missing one day, through some bizarre circumstances I could easily pin it on one of my very best most loyal employees, but it just woulnd’t be like him, so I asked him about it, he didn’t know anything and I trusted him and moved on. A few days later another $100 was missing, the same guy wasn’t working, but I still asked everyone about it*. Nothing. So I started paying attention, once it happened enough times that I could narrow it done to only one employee working on those days we got rid of her. The reason we gave her was that her drawers weren’t working out and that we were coming into the busiest time of the year. We told her she had been here a few months and she still wasn’t doing well with the register so we were letting her go (never used the word stealing, just to stay out of that mess, I can prove that her drawers came out wrong, but I can’t prove she was stealing). All in all about $800 went missing, all in nice even chunks. A few months later she bumped into a current employee at the mall and admitted she was stealing. I was so furious, I was ready to call the police about it.
*$200 is a sizeable chunk, but normally when it’s $5 here and $10 there, just asking everyone about it makes it stop. Or what I’ll do is when I could the drawers, and I start noticing a pattern, I’ll put how short the drawer was at the top of the schedule for that day. No dollar sign, just a number. For all the innocent people, the number means nothing to them, they’ll just ignore it, or if they ask me, I’ll just telling them I’m tracking something or other. But the idea is that that whoever is taking the money will recognize the numbers as the amount they take. It almost always stops as soon as I put those numbers up.
Oh, and as for the guy that I was worried about that day. It was like the planets aligned and pointed right at him that day, but I have to assume he most have dropped the money between the store and the safe and she grabbed it.

24

I was forced to take a polygraph when I was a wee tot working at Micky D’s. Evidently, buns were disappearing at a rate twice that of the meat. I didn’t take serious offense to it, but I was only 16.

I would sit her down and talk to her. Tell her that $40 was missing from her shift (incidently, you didn’t say if anyone else had access to the register at the time she was working…if that’s the case, you need to set ALL possible suspects down for the talk).

Tell her that more care must be taken with the handling of money and that everyone is going to be watched closely for “training purposes.” I seriously doubt she will attempt it again (if, indeed, this was a willful act of theft). From where I sit, the problem lies more with you and your partner, who obviously have different levels of comfort with this girl. As others have said, you don’t need a reason to let her go. But if it’s your partner who’s pushing for that, let him/her do the dirty work.

25

You sound like an easy person to take advantage of.
Is this reminding anyone else of the Kortney plotline from “For Better Or For Worse”?

26

Don’t be so sure you or your partner are absolutely in the right about her taking the money. If any other employee is aware of your distrust for her it would be almost too easy for them to dip into the till confident in the knowledge that your first thought will be to blame her.

I’ve seen in happen just that way before. Proceed with caution.

27

Have you asked her about it?

If she’s at heart a good person as you believe, perhaps when confronted she will prove your instincts right about her.

28

[QUOTE=Marconi & Schmeese]

I feel like we have a few options:

[li]Fire the employee outright citing other reasons, not the theft, for her firing.[/li][/QUOTE]

Since you said you are in an “at will” state, you may do this.

[QUOTE]

[li]Hire a polygrapher and test each employee. I think this will destroy our relationships with the innocent employees.[/li][/QUOTE]

You would be an absolute fool to even think about this. Unreliable and bound to cause resentment.

[QUOTE]

[li]I happen to know that there is a warrant out for her arrest for an unrelated incident. Would it be wrong to call in an anonymous tip to the police and tell them when she is working next? Then I could fire her with cause for being arrested at work and not have to deal with the stealing issue.[/li][/QUOTE]
If you’re in an “at will” state, why fool around with something this dangerous? And I mean legal danger, not physical danger. Being arrested is usually NOT cause for termination - private lives and all that.

If you are convinced that she is a thief, or if you are convinced that your partner thinks she is a thief, she’s got to go. Whether she is a thief is immaterial, the necessary sense of trust is gone.

29

Yes, I think the two of you need to come to a consensus on this, surely your employees will see you as a single unit when it come to a firing. If your partner fires her and you are quiet, then if effect you are supporting her firing and any justification behind it, even if you (quite reasonably) escaped the dirty work.

It seems like you (both, together) need to decide if (a) you suspect her of stealing or (b) you are certain she is stealing, and then decide if you will proceed based on (a) or (b).

ETA: again, I have minimal retail experiece, so my $.02 is only worth so much here.

30

Thirding the point that the real issue is how going to bat for this girl is going to affect your relationship with your business partner. Frankly, if a business partner came to me and said “I want to let this person go, I have no confidence in her and I don’t want her working here anymore” – and assuming that POV was not completely irrational, or malicious, which it doesn’t appear to be here – I would say “Fine. She’s gone.”

This employee has “demonstrated deceptive behavior” in other matters, so it’s not like you’re risking firing a completely innocent person. But a deceptive employee is not a good fit for your store – for any store. I would not mention stealing, I would not cause an uproar amongst the other employees, but I definitely would let her go.

31

The OP stated that his partner “knows for a fact” that it was her that took the $40. If he’s that certain then he must have, you know, facts to back it up.
What are these facts…and why can’t he use them against her?

32

Here’s some info on the Employee Polygraph Protection Act http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/eppa.htm

State law might be even more restrictive. IMHO, any info you get would not be reliable enough to be worth demonstrating you obtained it and used it in accordance with the law.

I think this is a reasonable time to exercise at will employment, terminate her without a reason given, and if she collects unemployment, causing your UI rates to go up, that expense covers the hassle you would go through trying to prove the theft, or dragging out a bad employment relationship, or getting robbed of some real money. Remember, most people need to work, and there are plenty of retail jobs out there, so she might not even collect unemployment.

33

No, the partner is 100% sure the money is missing, but is only 99% sure who stole it. That’s not enough for me to believe she did it. Thanks everyone for the advice so far. I’m glad that you guys are here to make me more rational and less vindictive. The pieces will keep coming together.

34

… particularly if there’s a warrant out on her.

35

I worked for awhile at a job where I was one of several people who handled the money. Twice in the years I was there, the daily receipts (a few hundred dollars each time–we didn’t handle that much cash) disappeared; both times, the boss started off by having me call the cops. Even though I obviously knew I wasn’t guilty of anything, I was terrified both times: there’s just a sickening feeling when the boss makes you call the cops for a “crime” for which you’d be a suspect.

One time it turned out that the daily receipts had been left in someone’s work vehicle (almost certainly an error). The other time, we found those receipts a couple of weeks later, in a tiny and hitherto unnoticed slot in our safe into which they’d fallen.

I guess my point is that 100% certainty of theft still doesn’t mean anything was stolen.

Daniel

36

If you have not already done so, begin rigorous cash control policies.

Somebody should be counted onto a register, in their presence. You both agree how much money is in the till. Nobody else is allowed to touch that register during that time, not even you. If you must access the register — for instance, to make change for a $100 bill — do it in the operator’s presence and count it together.

If they go on break, count the money again and put someone else on the register. Don’t “cover” a register that belongs to someone else; it makes it hard to pin down accountability.

When they leave the register, count the money together, down to the penny. Record it and have the person sign it. Make a note (if you have an electronic register) of what the till ought to have in it.

Yes, it takes time, and you can’t do this half-assed. But this will make it much, much easier to hold someone accountable for their cash-handling skills. It will also scare off potential thieves.

37

[QUOTE=Marconi & Schmeese]

[li]I happen to know that there is a warrant out for her arrest for an unrelated incident. Would it be wrong to call in an anonymous tip to the police and tell them when she is working next?[/li][/QUOTE]

Some would say it is your civic duty.

38

And many hookers have a heart of gold. If you really like her, don’t turn her in on her outstanding warrant. But fire her. After you’ve had a talk with your attorney.

39

Fish beat me to he money-control suggestions. Listen to that.

Also, stop being the friend of the employees. You are their boss. You can be polite, but you can’t be effective as the one in charge otherwise. I’m surprised your business partner hasn’t reamed you a new one over this before.

40

Once (can be) an accident, two is a trend. Granted, the second time might be 400 bucks instead of 40.

And ditto that polygraphs are bullshit, and would cost many times more than the 40 bucks to administer anyway.

And agree, making one employee only allowed to handle each register would make it clear to a thief that they will be caught if it happens again.