Based on my experience with countless integrity interviews, I’ve created a fiction about employees who steal. It’s not an example of any one person, but rather, a compilation of all the people that I’ve spoken with over the years.
I am your employee… I’ve worked for you for some time and there’s something I need to get off my chest:
I didn’t start off stealing from you. I came in with every intention of being the best employee that I could be. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, I found myself in a bad situation. As you know, the economy is terrible right now. It’s been hard for me to make ends meet and this is causing me a lot of sleepless nights. I know that’s not an excuse, but it is what it is. I really respect you as a boss, but I’m in a rough spot and can’t pay my bills.
I know sales have been bad and I understand that’s why you cut my hours. A while back, I found myself working my shift and obsessing about how I was going to get by. I really hate myself for this, but I started thinking about how I could get cash from the register. At first, it was just a passing thought and I didn’t pay it much mind for a few days. Shortly afterwards, though, I had a terrible interaction with a customer that just ruined my day. I was feeling pretty low and to make myself feel better, I took a small amount of cash to buy lunch. I tried to justify it by the fact that a hungry employee is a bad employee… and I don’t want to be a bad employee.
Some time went by before I thought about doing it again…I didn’t have money for lunch once more. I also noticed that no one said anything about the other missing money. I figured that either no one cared, or no one noticed. It also happened that that was the day you got upset at me for some project I was assigned. So I did it again…
It’s been a few months and now I feel stuck. You haven’t brought up the fact that money is missing. Are you even keeping track? How can I work for someone who doesn’t even pay attention to what’s going on? Or, do you know about it and don’t plan on doing anything? I feel so guilty about this, but I can’t stop. Every time I do it, it gets easier and easier. I wish you would confront me about it. Now my bills are paid, but it’s getting harder for me to keep coming in to work. Sometimes I think it would be easier for me to just quit and start over somewhere else. I’ve made so many mistakes here and I don’t know how to make it right. The amount I’ve taken is really adding up and I wish there was some way to make all this stop. I know I would sleep better at night. It’s killing me because I’m always wondering when I’m going to be found out. I’m really sorry about all this…
I WISH THERE WAS SOME WAY TO MAKE THIS RIGHT
Signed,
A regretful employee
See Also:
Discussing Theft With an Employee
Discussing Theft With an Employee (part 2)
Integrity Interview Explained
AcciDENTAL Investigation
AcciDENTAL Investigation (cont.)
Employee Parade
Of the people that I have seen removed from the company for loss prevention reasons, their testimonial is somewhere in this story. It becomes an opportunity not necessarily something they set out to do. We have all at one time been in need of money…but not all of us decide to take from our employers. The question becomes, what are you doing to make the work environment such that you can decrease the likelihood of this happening? I have to wonder whether the kind of leader one is will directly impact the decision this person makes…
Excellent comment. When we think back to mistakes that we’ve made in the past, there’s always the wish that they could somehow be fixed. This is the same line of thinking that most dishonest employees are going through. They are really hoping for a way to lay down the burden of their dishonest activity. Almost all of them are willing to pay back the losses they’ve created in exchange for the opportunity to make things right. They just have to be given the chance…