My fellow friends,

I have a little problem here in my place of work. It happened today. There is this department, Catering department which is under the supervision of my office. They have a boss but the whole department is right under my supervision.

Theft is a serious offense offshore, it's a sack-able offense. These guys in catering department have been engaging in this act, that is taking provisions, can drinks, can food and many assorted food items and fish.

In April this year one of my co-workers called my attention to some items which were kept somewhere by an unknown individual. Those food items if sold will fetch about fifteen thousands naira. I carried out my investigation, ready to take the matter up, but the guys in this department begged not to report the matter. They were postrating and come to think of it some of them are older than I. So I let the matter go.

But now today, a bigger one was found, kept in another place entirely, now it's inside a cabin. This time the items are thrice the former. The items are right in my office. These guys are here begging again. If I report them to the management of which I am one, they would not be called to defend themselves before a decision is taken against them which is outright dismissal.

I have tasted suffering before; I know what it means to be jobless. What shall I do? The last time, I returned the items back to the store without letting anyone knew except these guys and I. Now, they have done it again. It's annoying me but I won't want them laid off. Please, advise me on what to do now.

I am standing by.

This is a very serious issue and you should mind the way you attack it.I'll suggest you tell someone in your office cos if those guys are caught then you might be in trouble and you knw what that means in a court of law..it will be concluded that u supported them..and at the same time if you just go ahead and report they see you as a bad boss..so you are at the middle,just tell someome in your office cos the guys will still repeat the same cos theft is a spirit and they might put you into trouble.

Sade thank you.
If I tell them now that theft is demonic they will jump at me and call me demonologist.

Yes theft is demonic and its a spirit.But dont worry yourself on it, all you need to do is to be careful and dont be the only witness cos those guys you are trying to protect might turn around to implicate you cos you already know about it..so take your time!

Man mi..

Is it worth the risk to your name and position trying to cover up for people who obviously haven't learnt their lesson??

You need to ask yourself what is important.. being seen to be good in people's eyes?? or having a clear conscience..

You say you've tasted unemployment before.. believe me, if u do not act decisively, you may be positioning yourself to taste it again... at your own expense..

my only advice here is to try and identify the actual curlprit, lest any innocent victim be affected..



my two kobo..

Saint.

The next time it happens I would inform my boss about the items. I would not give a name I would just make him aware so that they may tighten up their security in the area where you work inorder to put the pressure on the people who's doing this. Hopefully they will stop. Another option is talking with the person yourself. Letting them know that you are aware of what's going on and that you do not want to be apart of it so you would appreciate if he would not put things in your office or anywhere near you. Just give him the benefit of the doubt.

Kenya..

It's already happened before... So, there's no need in talking to the person.. the person's already been spoken to.. [GP shey ]..

Greatpeter, am just seeing this. Now if I was your boss and I heard this, how would you convince me that they are not giving you a cut out of the proceeds?

Its not worth it for you to loose your own income becos of this pple. There is such a thing called CYA in office environment. It means COVER YOUR ASS. I think the best thing you can do is to let your boss be aware of it. Let him take any decisions. But once u have notified someone above you, the buck has been passed from your table.

Since you warned them b4, they will certainly do it again. If the stuff are being taken from your stockroom, am assuming the stockroom is under your care. If there is a random stock audit, how would you account for the discrepancies?

Hope this makes sense

If stock is taken it doesn't concern me in any way because I don't have the key to the stores.
They have an immediate boss who holds the key but he does give the key to these boys especially those attached to store work. I've no business with store or the items there.

But the entire dept. is under the supervision of my office.
Even with this if the authority get to know about it, it might affect their immediate boss and not me.
I don't hold the key to the place.

I quote you..."it might affect their immediate boss and not me"

what is their immediate boss saying about this?

Their immediate boss isn't around now.

And even if I tell him, he will beg me not to take it up.

He doesn't want to be seen as if he's not doing his job well.

He protects his people. He has once told me he didn't like sacking people.

And since he's a white guy his people will always rally round for him.

They have a clique. I've had confrntations with this guy and I would have sent him out of this location but even the overall boss pleads on his behalf.

and I still say CYA. Cover Ya ASS. Document it. If he wont do anything, send him an email or something. If like you say there is a clique, then it is possible, that you might lose out if u aint in the clique.

And dont fool urself that discovery would not affect you, since you are the overall boss, you are responsible for the security of the company's assets. You dont need to hold the keys b4 being responsible for it. Just be careful and do the best to ensure you aint in any precarious position

I feel this people might put you in trouble very soon if you do not make it open.

(Put this behind your mind till that day) Wait til you have a personal problem known to them all and you are afraid to leak it out to the authority in charge

You caught them the first time and now they have done it again. Who knows the next could be catering away with the entire items in the establishment and no matter how the evidence points at you as innocence you will be in for it for you, a supervisor is aware of the act. In fact, the same people you have protected will personally accuse you to save their heads

So, do something and quickly too to eradicate them from that ground forever. If you do not want them to know you engineered their sack you can as well do that.

C'on use your head and uproot them for criminals are unrepentant and will be criminals whenever the urge arises.

I'm treating the matter right now.
I've told them to produce ths culprit within 24hrs.
If they are not able then they will all face the music.

But it's weeping galore here right now.

Though there is a suspect already.

Both the innocents and the culprit are yelling!

Now they wont see you as a spineless "oga" and wont try any mess again. Once they know the repercussions is trouble, I doubt if it'd happen again.

Better still, you will have been to be taking an action by your superiors

Thanks you, my friends, for reminding me of the reason why I'm determined to be an entrepreneur and not an employee. What a story! Why should I have to be weeping because one of my colleagues stole some food items worth about 15,000 naira?

To me, that is not dignified at all. What I'd do as a manager is to implement sufficient security to deter crime and make it easier to single out the culprit. Anyway, Greatpeter, I hope this situation ends well!

Greatpeter: I'm treating the matter right now. I've told them to produce ths culprit within 24hrs. If they are not able then they will all face the music ...

Just go ahead with this.

well Great peter,you've solved this mystery you know,first of all those involved have been warned the first time so i don't think you should take any chances you know that in this country now we are trying to fish out bad eggs and employ the people that really want and deserve to work those that will value this job they have been given to do and this can only be possible with the likes of you and I actively participating the Government can not do this alone.

Secondly,you do not hold the keys to the store so the person responsible for the store you say is your direct boss, I think that you should let him know what is going on so that he can take precaution maybe he won't even dismiss them from work but he will collect the keys from them so they would not have access to the wares again but if you do not let your superiors know only God knows who will find the things next time and what the culprits will say to be able to go scout free they might end up implicating you just to keep their jobs.

My brother even the bible those not support you hiding evil, finally I'll say to obey is better than sacrifice.Think about it and I pray you take the right decision.

Dorcas.

Thank you Dorcas.
The person holding the key to the store is not my boss.

He's the head of the dept. but the dept. is under my supervision.
So both the guys and their boss are subordinates.

@Seun, I suggest the reason they were weeping was not because of the Job but because of their names being tarnished since they claimed they were innocents.

Those food items if sold will fetch about fifteen thousands naira.

Funny sha, i taught offshore workers, earned in dollars daily. Wonders shall never end.

GP...

All said and done.. the buck stops at ur table... since it appears that u are the one in charge at the end of the day.. this is, u're the final authority.. the curlprits may not report to you directly, but their 'Oga's do.. meaning that at the end of the day, the onus falls to you..

Do what u think is right, and what will keep your conscience clear.. but don't make urself the fall guy..

well said cimonjarr, my sentiments exactly

Great Peter, please just make sure that what ever you do will not point other fingers at you. I dont think it will be worth while if your sacrifice your job for them, you caught them once yet they wont stop, bros cover your ass!

first rule of any office CYA!!!!!!

never forget that!!

especially a office with cliques!

members outside the clique will always get shafted first!

you warned these guys once, why bother again?

I once sacked a nigerian woman in similar circumstances but I did not feel bad about it becuase I warned several times but she thought because we are both nigerians I would let it slide.

No way, no one is endangering my job just because you happen to speak my language!

So what's up ? over 24hrs i think

Vieira, well in my company middle-level managers will not be at liberty to pardon, hire or fire as they please (to cover their asses - CYA). I'll be an absolute control freak in the two areas that matter the most to the success of the business:
- Hiring / Employee management.
- Customer Relations / Marketing.

Ok, back to the topic at hand. Greatpeter, what action have you taken so far?

Seun, if the middle management bring to you a documented case of theft I presume you would fire that person anyway.

But if you do not he has still CYA by reporting them to you, if he had not and you found out via other means and also learnt that he knew but kept quiet then you will probably have him fired as well!

so always CYA! In England that is such a rule that if you do not follow it you'll find yourselve suffering for other people's mistake.

I have returned those items back to the store and I've not been able to identify the culprit but there is suspect.

I have directed their case to their immediate boss.

He will give his findings and verdict tomorrow.

I directed him to handle it and then feed me back.

Seun, you don't have to be a control freak - institute a policy where people can anonymously report misbehavior - at all levels, that way, someone can report a bad boss without too much conflict and then you or someone higher up than the boss can start your own investigation if there is credence to the report.

sack them, they did it again they are only sorry you caught them. if they can beg you again and get away they will do it again and again. 1 must learn a lesson

Greatpeter:

[b]I have returned those items back to the store [/b]and I've not been able to identify the culprit but there is suspect.

I have directed their case to their immediate boss.

He will give his findings and verdict tomorrow.

I directed him to handle it and then feed me back.

Great peter, in management ,sometimes you have to apply the ferrule , if you understand what i mean, these guys are criminals they r just testing you,u caught them the first time ,they begged and pleaded and u let it go,and they did the same thing again bigger than the first and again u let it go, worse still u returned the items back to the store.
This is theft!!, you should not have RETURNED BACK those items,it makes u an accomplice since u already have knowledge that those items are stolen!!

those guys are testing you to see what will happen,do not be surprised that they will still do the same thing again but on a bigger scale or worse still get you implicated!!
like someone rightly says here cover your ass!!.your position is at stake here, you never know someone is trying to use this plot to unsit you!!

Look at it this way, your dept oversees what happen in the catering dept and a theft is been carried out and u r aware(the final authority) and what happens, NOTHING!! and why? because u don't like sacking pple, (emotions involved)
Your silence has given them a signal to hatch a bigger plot, u can bet your lunch that their boss is behind this or is even aware of it and approves it.

theft in a company is not something that senior management treats with kid gloves ,no matter who is involved.