Work Place Theft: Gremlins? Trolls? Witches?

[displacedtexan]

i know that most people don't have time to worry about work place theft (personal use of equipment, supplies, resources), but most small non-profit orgs, especially during this scary * economy, depend on every penny donated to function.

the org i work for has historically operated under the blanche dubois employment policy paradigm: we rely on the kindness of strangers (professional hirees) as well as volunteers to safeguard our resources and avoid waste of materials whenever possible.

most of us donate our salaries back to the org, but the office secretary (an 'outside' professional hiree) doesn't. she is also the only person with keys to the workroom and access to the supply cabinets.

last month, a newly elected board of directors began an audit of all expenditures and found that the office budget spending/inventory numbers didn't add up.

upon closer examination, the board's tech guru found many personal files (coven work) on the secretary's office computer, and windows explorer showed many office hours date and time stamps, which means that she has been receiving pay for doing her personal work. they also found several home biz work files on her computer, and learned (from phone co. records) that she has been using the office phone for more personal calls than biz calls. the copy machine usage numbers don't add up, either. someone is also making hundreds of copies after hours and not taking responsibility.

so, my question is this:
will the board (all very nice liberals) actually confront the secretary with their findings, or will they behave like most liberals and just hope the situation will go away because they don't want to be accused of being anti-witch?

what would you do? keep in mind that there is currently no specific personnel policy in place.

[meegbear]

1. How many people are in the office?

I ask because if it's a small group, have a company meeting and bring the facts up, but make it sound like it's more than one person doing this. You can save face and drive the point home to everyone about expenses.

Else, dump her and hire someone else.

[displacedtexan]

3. six full-time employees

the witch is the only one with keys.

i'm really curious as to how the board will address this situation.
it's like reading a good novel: several possible endings, but you can't predict which one the author has chosen.

[markbark]

2. Since when

is being against stealing "anti-witch"?

Plain and simple, this person is stealing from your company.

Can 'em!


--MAB

[phgnome]

4. depends

Maybe she doesn't donate her salary back to the org because she really needs the money (family member is sick, bills to pay?). What is an outside professional hiree -- how is she different from other people who do work in the organization? Why does the organization pay out a salary if it's expected that you donate your salary back to the organization? Doesn't that just increase administrative costs?

It's hard to say without hearing both sides. I'd like to believe that maybe she took the money because it meant life or death for her kid or something and not to buy frivilous things. But I know what you mean -- it's not that the money was taken that's so troublesome -- it's that you were mislead by someone you entrusted keys and responsibility to.

I say confront her with it and see what she has to say. If it means life or death for someone, then work out a way for her to pay it back. At first I was thinking that you should just fire her but, on the other hand, it's a good opportunity to maybe lend a hand if it's something unusually important -- it's an opportunity to change someone for the better (in helping them out of a bad jam) and restore some faith in their fellow humans. But, if you find out that she was just dipping into the cash for lame reasons like buying new clothes or going to the movies and she already lives comfortably. I had a roommate in college that did that -- stole money from her work to buy expen$ive purses, shoes, smokes, and pot. I suspected she was taking money here and there because 10's and 20's I'd leave out would mysteriously go missing. It went on for a while before I caught her dipping into stuff. She took a whole bunch of shit and the worse part was that she bragged about her "impeccable" credit rating on her gold card. Turns out she was taking from a lot of other people, too.

[Raven]

5. Unfortunately, non-profits are infamous

for not having personnel policies. Perhaps this woman is doing personal work during her lunch hour or after hours. Using the office computer for personal stuff is pretty common...look at all the DU'ers who post from their places of work...and losing track of copying costs is pretty common too. You obviously don't like this woman since you have called her a witch and you seem to resent that she is taking a salary. If your Board of Directors is smart, they'll get a personnel policy in place before they fire anyone unless they can prove theft or fraud.