Employee Being Caught Stealing at

¶ … employee being caught stealing at a manufacturing company, from the perspective of the organization's General Manager. A general background is given. and, the disciplinary action that was taken is discussed, as well as what the results were and what other options the company had at its disposal. An Employee Has Been Caught Stealing It was Monday morning, as Joe Smith, General Manager of Fab Manufacturing pulled into the company parking lot. The sun was shining merrily; it's warmth lulling Joe into a positive mood.

Certainly, it was a beautiful beginning to what would become a fantastic week, or was it? Joe had been with Fab Manufacturing for seven years. In that time, the company had grown from a 50-employee organization serving the weather stripping needs of a few domestic window manufacturers, to a 400 plus employee facility that had not only expanded internationally, with manufacturing partnerships in Japan and Europe, but also had become the industry leader in the United States. This phenomenal growth had changed the organizational culture significantly.

Seven years ago, Fab Manufacturing ran all of its manufacturing employees on four 10-hour shifts. They were a close knit organization, where it was common to see the President of the company, Fred Nichols, in the employee break room, enjoying his lunch and chatting with the manufacturing staff that was the lifeblood of his company. Today, three shifts ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and Nichols was rarely seen by a majority of the organization. For Joe Smith, this had been part of his challenge when he came onboard.

To keep the personal feeling of a small company, while growing larger and faster than any had initially anticipated. Although events like Employee Appreciation Days, the company picnic, and the annual awards banquet had helped in some respects, the fact of the matter was that with such a large organization, it was inevitable that not everyone would consider themselves loyal to the organization, and when this happened, unethical behavior was bound to occur. Recently Fab had been plagued with a series of thefts.

When the company expanded its facility a few years ago, they added a test area, where their customers could send window units to be tested against all sorts of elemental extremes. It was one of the many benefits of doing business with Fab that had lead to its exponential growth. In many instances, the customer did not want the window unit back and, twice a year, Fab would have a company sale, which would include these window units, along with other company items, such as outdated computer hardware.

However, over the last three months, the test lab manager notified Joe that three of the tested window units, that were in storage for the company sale, had gone missing. Employee theft "is rampant in business today" (Biddick, 2004). So, upon being notified of the theft, Joe had had their security company install closed circuit cameras at the entrances of the building, with a tape backup.

As there were no completely secure areas for storage of these windows, he felt this would be his best bet in capturing the culprit, should he strike again. It had been a month, and so far, all test windows were accounted for. As Joe walked into the reception area, he greeted Connie, the receptionist. Good morning, Joe," Connie said brightly. "Fred would like to see you first thing. He's in his office." This was odd.

Usually Nichols was so busy the only way to speak with him was to set an appointment. Joe knew it must be important and instead of heading to his office to put his briefcase and coat down, he went straight to the President's office. Joe knocked lightly on the slightly opened door. Good morning, Joe. Come in," Nichols said as he set aside a report he was looking at. Morning, Fred.

Connie said you wanted to see me." Joe said as he sat down in a chair across the desk from his boss. We've found out who's been stealing our windows from the test lab," Nichols said simply. "Now, we just need to determine what to do about it." Nichols showed Joe the video from one of the closed circuit cameras. Sure enough, there was one of their manufacturing lead persons walking nonchalantly out the door, carrying the window.

According to the time stamp on the video it was about a half an hour before the employee's shift was to start. I've been down to the parking lot," Nichols continued. "There's a large rectangular something in the back of his car, covered with a blanket. I'm guessing it's our window." just can't believe Dan would do that," Joe said incredulously. "He's been with Fab longer than I have." know," Nichols said, "that's what's so disheartening." The two men considered their options.

First, they could call the police and have Dan arrested. Second, they could call Dan up to the office and find out why he felt that stealing was appropriate, and give him a warning. or, third, they could fire Dan. Let's call him up here," Nichols instructed. Dan arrived a few minutes later in Nichols' office and was confronted with the theft.

He offered no excuse other than the fact that he was building a house, needed windows, and they usually went really cheap at the sale, but couldn't wait until then. He continued aggressively stating, "They're not really Fab's windows anyways! They were free to you guys, and it's pretty cheap that you make the employees pay for them!" Although Dan had been a longtime employee and a.