Your Part in Holiday Work Crime
I know, we don’t think taking a few pencils at work is a crime. In fact, we may find any number of smaller acts of taking what doesn’t belong to us as justifiable. It’s not. It’s theft, and it causes an estimated 50 billion a year loss to U.S. companies. Dan Cosgrove of Mercantile Systems that provides such research data to a variety of industries, says they notice a five-fold increase in employee stealing at holiday time.
For further clarity on what is considered “theft” and, if you’re an employer, how you can screen employees to better safeguard your company, is discussed in this article by Dianne Shaddock.
This blog is written to all the other employees who witness such behavior and aren’t sure what to do about it. I’ve had a few clients who have been concerned about such behaviors and asked me how they should address this. Their reactions range from getting caught in the middle of a firestorm they don’t want to be part of, feeling they’re not perfect and don’t want to come off as holier than though, to worry about losing a friendship over something “so insignificant.”
If this happens to you and you don’t say anything, you’re taking part in the crime too. So here’s a few ways you can handle this:
1. Be sure you saw what you saw. You would not want to cause a problem for someone who is innocent. (See the movie Doubt, with actress, Meryl Streep, and you’ll experience what it’s like to be falsely accused). Sure, none of us are perfect, but that doesn’t excuse allowing unethical and illegal actions because we don’t want to be called on our own behaviors.
2. You can’t allow your own frustrations about company politics or work inequalities to taint your exposing the truth or give you justification for not taking positive action. Treat a matter of theft or wrongdoing that you witness as unacceptable and be courageous to deal with it. And true friendships are also about helping each other to make wise, safe and ethical choices.3. If it’s someone you’re friendly with and the item taken is “small,” talk with the person directly first and ask them to return it by saying something light like, “c’mon, what would your Mom say if she knew? Leave it and let me buy you a coffee.” (avoid prolonging any further discussion about it so they don’t have to be embarrassed and defensive and neither do you).
4. If you witness someone you work with stealing on the job and you don’t know them well, report it to Human Resources and ask to remain anonymous in their dealings with this person, since you work together. If it’s at your company, you have to be the one to talk with them. Don’t wait to gather more evidence, address it before it becomes a bigger problem.
5. If you are ever mistakenly accused of taking something, you would want others to treat you with dignity and an “innocent until proven guilty,” approach. So be sure you use words to HR such as, “It appeared to me that so and so may have done X,” or “I believe I saw and think you’ll need to confirm, that so and so did X.” Until you’re sure, be sensitive in your word choices and don’t attack them, but deal with them professional to professional.
It’s a lot easier to get involved when you think of yourself as living in one big community. You don’t want to be on the lookout for wrongdoers, but if you’ve witnessed a crime big or small, your part in it is to tell the truth.
Tags: crime at work, holiday theft, reporting job theft, stealing on the job
