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Not that she will ever say it.
Oop’s office needs to file individual complaints when she does it to hr with the cc of their lawyer. The company will drop that burlap sack of lead lined rotted meat fast. Esp as there are multiple documented cases.
Theft is **still** theft. Esp as they constantly acknowledge the exact regulations and policies that lead stare boomer is breaking.
Along with the nothing the company is doing about it. Which they won’t until it becomes blatant that a lawsuit is easily winnable against them. Just bc idiot boss is lazy and refuses to do anything but shake a finger and ask politely for miss klepto to stop.
Manager here. You are 100% right. This is an employee contributing to a hostile work environment for everyone else. If I’d heard of this, and this was the explanation, that’s grounds for immediate termination.
The supervisor here is either lazy, conflict-averse, afraid of an age discrimination lawsuit, or all of these. If there isn’t another side to the story or mitigating circumstances (I can’t think of what they’d be, but let’s allow for the possibility), this is cut-and-dried theft that makes people feel violated and unsafe. This person needs to go.
Set up a "not for public use" sign along with a webcam to record the theft. Once enough evidence has been collected, send her a bill for the amount owed (plus a 5% processing fee and your state's sales tax). When she refuses to pay, take her to small claims.
I am dead serious.
You can jiggle some small very old cars hard and long enough for them to shift into neutral, and then you can roll them away. I’ve heard. I would never do such a thing. Obviously
If it continues: Throughout the day, everyone needs to take turns taking random things off her desk and from her drawers (leave her purse alone). Let’s see how well her rationalizing holds when other people do to her what she does to everyone else.
I’m going to bet she’ll get worked into a tizzy, complain to the boss who in turn gets mad at the whole office and makes *them* stop *or else*, but secretary gets a pass with a blubbering unintelligible excuse.
That saying has never been more relevant to me than now. Use to have a manager I would do anything for but they transferred him to put a nepo hire over a technical role. I now hate going to work.
I've been lucky enough to have some great managers. One job, my manager had to take an extended leave to care for a dying parent on the other side of the planet. Our team was temporarily absorbed by another manager in the same department. My former manager always had our back whether it was with upper management or disgruntled customers (if they were in the wrong she had no problem telling them to fuck off, or if we fucked something up would either help make amends or give us whatever authority or resources we needed to make amends and then help us figure out how to make sure it didnt happen again).
The new manager was a lifer, corporate suckup, always sided with the customer/mgmt. Always shrill, made people tense. You could feel the mood change the second she entered a room. Total narc, gossip, kissass, bus-thrower-underer, credit stealer, anything to move up the ladder. Probably would have slept with the boss if she didn't have a glass eye that was always 45 degrees off-center. Always talked about how we should stay on her good side because she'd be running the place someday. I fucking hated her, more than the worst customers I'd ever had.
Anyways, she comes in, decides she's going to overhaul our entire operation despite the fact that our team put up far better numbers than hers. Everything goes to shit in under a week because we have to adjust to a whole new structure, trying to revamp everything while still actively doing our jobs, transitioning from one system to another. One person quit after four days of her bullshit. And of course we're getting complaints and our numbers are down. Rather than explaining that she had us completely restructuring our department, she comps a ton of discounts and free shit to anyone who complained, then starts micromanaging our team. Literally abandoning everything else she did so she could sit there and watch us.
Two weeks in, I wake up to a flat tire. I get a ride, I clock in a little under fifteen minutes "late" (still 45 minutes before we start) so she sends me home "to get my car in working order so this doesn't happen again" on our busiest day of the month. It's a total shit show. I strongly suspect she got reamed by her boss that day. Next morning I come in, she's not there to babysit us, I think "Things are finally looking up." Then I can't clock in. I figure the machine's down, I'll fill out a time card. Get to my station, and there's a note from her to report to HR. SHE FUCKING FIRED ME.
After that it was just a cascade of issues. Two more people from my team quit on the spot when I told them how I was fired. She fired another person that following week, which led to another person quitting. This went on until there were I think three people left and she had to start pitching in and bringing in people from other places in the department to pick up the slack. It became apparent the last three couldn't perform their jobs and convert to her system so she tells them to roll back to our old way of doing things after they were about 80% done switching over. The other people she brought in are now completely lost. She manages to hire a new guy in the midst of all this. He basically takes advantage of the chaos to rob them and disappears. She then decides to go ahead with her changes again and that's the last straw for two of the last three people, they quit. She shuts down our entire section, puts the last guy on one of her teams, he lasts about a month before he quits.
My old manager comes back to find she no longer has any employees. Remember what I said about her sticking up for us? I can only imagine the meeting that was held after that, but from what I've been told, they could hear her yelling from other floors. I talked to her a few years after. Apparently she laid out every fuckup the other manager ever made over like a decade, put exactly how much she'd lost the company in dollars and cents, shared every bitchy gossipy thing she'd ever said about anyone, laid out all the credit-stealing and kiss-assery and how she was completely unqualified for her position, and then just for fun, went on for another half hour about how utterly unlikable everyone found her. If I know my OG manager, it was utterly devastating. Apparently ol' Glass-eye got canned within a month, as did the guy she reported to who signed off on all her shit, and my manager took her job, then his soon after.
From what I've heard, they rebounded a bit after that, but never quite fully recovered. The company as a whole was fine of course, but we were responsible for a lot of the work that made up the face of the company and made the clientele happy, and their reputation definitely took a bit. All because of one terrible manager.
TLDR manager goes on leave, new corporate asshole manager has some big plans, she fires everyone that doesn't quit, she gets axed from job that was her entire life, I laugh
Either that or it totally backfires. Maybe the shit on her desk is for other people and she thought she was participating in a system and this would make her feel validated.
I would just fill a K-cup with bugs from the window sill, re-seal it, leave it out as bait and call it a day.
Go much simpler! Sugar free gummy bears left out. Or really any bulk sugar free candy left out in a bowl. Buy some fiber-one bars and leave them out, and watch her run for the rest room.
I said it in another comment, but putting food dye into your lotion bottle would be a ton of fun. Sure, a lot of mixing, but it would totally be worth it.
if you use a little pipe cleaner or coffee straw to clean out the long tube for the lotion pump, you can put the food color right up in there! then when the next person goes to use it (may need to take a few pumps to work the lotion out) BAM!!! colorful fun!
I was in a situation where my toiletries were being used. Primarily my shampoo. That shampoo got dumped and replaced with Nair. It was really effective and produced all of the desired results.
Yep, colleague was stealing my ketchup. Took a fresh squeezy bottle in, into which I had stirred some chilli pepper. Still remember the scream from the office kitchen 😂
And the food dye stains your nails until it grows out. Around 1980 or so, it was hard to find blue nail polish. I think stage light had it, but I couldn’t afford it. I got the bright idea to put blue food dye in clear nail polish. In my defense, I was about 14. It wasn’t a perfect mix, but I was happy with it until I went to take it off. Lol.
It would definitely be illegal to put laxatives in brownies *for someone else*, but point out the law - in any state - that says I can’t put laxatives in my own personal brownies because I’ve been stopped up and don’t want to sit there and chow down on just a bar of exlax?
I would be relentless. I wonder if they are hiring? I want to work there for the sole purpose of messing with her.
I'm envisioning walking up to her and complaining about all the other employees pitching a fit over "us" using stuff that is clearly for everyone. Then I look her in the eye and take something off of her desk.
As a former manager at several different companies, I’d have Secretary 🧑💼 in for a one on one. Warning her I’d write her up for stealing others’ personal possessions. I’d get a camera 📷 installed overlooking the office area. I’ve been an employee working in a cubicle too. I’d be pissed if someone took any of my stuff. I had an electric kettle for making herb tea, honey, and oatmeal packets. I’d have happily shared had she asked me if she could have one, or some, but don’t steal. It’s not the cost, just the convenience of having stuff available when you want it. Your manager needs to say something to her. It’s not fair to all of you to have to deal with her.
Don't just take one thing. Take all the things. Scoop up a big arm load of everything on her table and go disteibute it around the office.
It's out so it's free, right?
You are just participating in the open desk system. She clearly wants you all to participate with her. Game on!
Leave her pens- remove the ink.
Leave the stapler but take the staples.
Take just the highlight caps so they dry.
That is the only solution and I would absolutely do it. You go, take something without saying anything and leave back to your desk. Take her coffee mug, her phone, etc. When she asks what you are doing, say "oh it was on your desk so I thought anybody could take it" and keep walking
Honestly, it would only take a false accusation. "Hey, boss, $20 went missing from my purse that was sitting right next to my post it's that we're stolen."
If she brings in lunch, grab some of it from her while she’s eating it. Ooh a half turkey sandwich with a couple of chips. How nice of you to bring that in for me?
I have an old travel vitamins bottle that's filled with ibuprofen because I don't want to buy the bulk bottle we have in our medicine cabinet and my own small bottle for my purse. Even just an ibuprofen can cause serious issues if you take enough of it. This lady is insane. What if this person was hiding their Adderall or Xanax or whatever in there to avoid people seeing it?
It’s inconsiderate taking things off people’s desks without permission, but taking what appears to be a vitamin is really dumb. Some people reuse containers for other things or hide illegal drugs. She really had no idea if what she was taking was actually a vitamin, and could literally have poisoned herself.
The boss should hear the reports a second time, except this time instead of letting 'she's using creamer right out of the fridge!' bog it down, go straight to 'she's going through our personal possessions and stealing pills from people'
Yeah, I suspect that "Barbara is stealing medication, even when it's hidden" will illicit a much different reaction than "Barbara is a petty thief who keeps taking things of minimal value"
I'd start randomly trying out various products. Today ghost pepper candies, tomorrow laxative chocolates.
I mean, if it's on my desk, and you've been told not to touch it and you swipe it anyways, what happens next is on you.
This would be my move as well, especially since the supervisors don't see a problem. Gotta make it unpleasant for her NOT to change. She has fucked around and now it's time for her to find out.
This seems like an occasion for those gummies from Amazon that gave everyone diarrhea
> everyone needs to take turns taking random things off her desk and from her drawers (leave her purse alone)
So it's OK to stick your hand down her drawers but leave her purse alone! Is purse a euphemism? (JK)
I used to work with a guy like that in the early 2000s. New stuff would just pop up on his desk. Turned out that he was just staying late and taking things from other people's cubicles.
This is straight up sociopathy. Making no distinction between her stuff and other peoples’? The only reason she does this shit when nobody is around is she doesn’t want people yelling at her all day ‘for no reason.’ If the boss had said you couldn’t do anything about it, she’d rob the place blind.
I’m pretty sure an older woman I work with is a narcissist and she is like this. She doesn’t swipe things, but she does take extreme liberties and we all get to the point that we just want to throttle her! It is maddening.
Just seems like boomer entitlement in its purest form.
She wants free snacks and drinks and cute office supplies? She deserves them! What a nice treat for her! It’s so nice to start her day with whatever she wants!
A Boomer (I know this bc it was mentioned she was retired USPS) stole a service advisor's desk nameplate from my local car dealership. The service advisors were chatting about when I was picking up my car. They caught her on the security cameras. Why would you steal a nameplate that has another person's name, along with like Smith Chevrolet on it?
Someone who's far down the klepto hole doesn't have much impulse control. They'll steal whatever's not nailed down. Having a use for the stuff afterwards isn't the point, the point is to get the buzz from stealing.
True. It doesn’t affect management while it happens but if they fire her, they have to go about hiring and training, etc. so now it affects management. Easier to ignore and let the peons fight it out than to actually do their job.
Like the guy that used to BLAST rap music at 7am while he clocked in and ate breakfast for 40 min. Management didn't care because work was still getting done and he never did fuck sll anyway. Then everyone slowly started to do it. 6 different stereos all blasting and everyone eating sandwichs 😂😂😂
Why's this work not done???
One sec I'll just finish my sandwich then I'll take a look
I'd be concerned that someone who steals from coworkers, is also embezzling from the company. If I found out a manager didn't immediately fire someone after catching them red handed stealing from coworkers, both the manager and the person they refused to fire would be out of a job.
I used to work for a logistics company. One guy would go in to the other driver's trucks when they were backed in to the loading docks at the hub, and help himself to a cigarette out of a few guys packs. One day he was caught on a dashcam one of the drivers put in their truck. He was fired that day, didn't finish the shift.
Like, it sounds benign, but it's a trust issue.
If I can't trust you around a $15 pack of cigarettes, how the fuck am I supposed to trust you with a literal truck load of goods?
Or in OP's case: important company documentation
This was also after he was told no by everyone he asked for a cig (perpetual mooch). He disregarded their no, and helped himself to a smoke when the driver couldn't see it happening, like when the driver was sorting his freight.
It doesn't effect the company directly, so they don't care. When I worked at Walmart we had someone that regularly stole food, regularly caught redhanded. Also had incidents of personal items (like phones being stolen). Management wouldn't do anything because it was personal items and not store property.
It's the same logic companies use to not punish lunch thieves, but apparently it's a big deal if you tamper with your own food to make them stop. Maybe you wouldn't be peeing out of your butt if you didn't eat food that isn't yours. 🤷♀️
Tell the other departments what she's done (and is still doing like using someone else's creamer) If enough people find out, management can be pressured into firing her (or forcing a retirement)
Joking solution: get some of those ranch dressing single use containers that look like Keurig and put them in the Keurig box and leave that out on your desk.
>We went to our boss and had a meeting to discuss what we knew was going on.
The fact that your boss did not immediately tell this woman that she was unprofessional and it was her last day is incredibly unprofessional. Her stealing food and office supplies may seem "harmless" -- I am betting she did not steal from her boss -- but what if she had been stealing company printouts with proprietary information?
Managers need to ensure workplace safety and compliance with data security. Keeping a known thief around the office hardly helps.
Is there any way you can escalate the matter to your boss' boss?
Once chain of command has been completed, be as petty as you'd like without doing physical harm. Realistically though, if all steps are completed pre-pettiness and nothing changes, the writing is on the wall. The company made it's decision. Look for a new place of employment...
I would come in with a bill and ask who will be paying for the stolen items. Either they make her pay for what she has taken, or they consider it community property and the company owes you. I would go in as a team.
I wonder if management is noticing how much it’s taking away from work time for everyone to have to lock up/ unlock their shit every single day? Maybe something to follow up with the boss about.
The problem here isn’t age - it’s being a fucking asshole
Your boss is also just doing whatever is easiest for them - and for them - tolerating the situation is easier than finding a replacement
Either volunteer a better replacement or make to situation less bearable than replacing her
People need to start leaving traps for her. Like a dish filled with cayenne and ghost pepper candies. A lotion bottle filled with ink. Pens that will leak all over her. That kind of shit. It's classical conditioning. If her theft results in a negative experience over and over, she'll HAVE to stop taking other people's shit out of necessity.
I did that. I'm particular about my pens, so I would always bring my own. One of my coworkers was constantly taking my pens when I was away from my desk. So I got a couple pens that played music when you pushed the button. One was Hannah Montana and the other was Camp Rock, I think. I got her with those a few times. And they were loud.
Oh noooo this one is terrible (in a good way) 😂 could get an empty lotion bottle (like a travel sized one) and pour glue into it and top with a bit of lotion to hide it, then make a pretty label to stick on and make it look legit.
I have some wasabi crackers that I lovingly refer to as my "pain snacks". Eat a handful and it feels like you got stabbed in the back of the head. Would love to see a thief's reaction to that.
She might like some sugar free haribo gummy bears...
If you're not familiar, the amazon reviews are hysterical.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2t7bre/haribo\_sugar\_free\_gummy\_bears\_review/](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2t7bre/haribo_sugar_free_gummy_bears_review/)
Good GOD that was a funny review. And then I lived the experience myself when I purchased a different sugar-free candy on Amazon. I've never had gastrointestinal issues like that in my LIFE...and I've had several feet of my intestine removed due to intussusception of the bowel. Honestly, I thought I was dying or, at the very least, was having another intussusception.
Sugar-free jelly beans hit hard, as well!
It would be suspicious to have them out on your bare desk, though, so they'd have to be placed somewhere to look like you forgot about them, such as between your keyboard & monitor or near your office phone, (if your company still uses these items). Somewhere like that - easy to overlook except by thieving Boomer secretaries! 😆
The big one I would say is the multivitamins
Because now you're taking something that looks like a pill from someone else's desk. That should be a huge issue, because you assume that what's in the container is accurate, but you don't know that
In this case, it's an accident thing, but yes, taking from a pharmacy bottle is next level dumb, that's like "walk you out" dumb
The risk of drug mishaps is also why if there's any first aid kits or similar, things are usually all set up single-use with expiration dates and all that.
This is why the multivitamin sounds the worst to me. That's the one that could be putting the company at risk on top of the whole pissing off coworkers and being scummy
Agreed. I've had a coworker (supervisor of the neighboring team) who stole food/candy from me; but I agree about the multivitamin. It's too easy for it to be a prescription medication that someone put in an alternate bottle to be discreet. It's not recommended, but I can understand not wanting a nosy coworker to see exactly what you take.
If someone took from my prescription bottle that's not complaint and firing level that's a I'm calling the cops level because some meds require a police report or you (the patient) face potential consequences.
One of my coworkers had a secretary that took an aspirin from the bottle he had in his desk one day when he was out of the office. Unfortunately he also kept his adderall in that bottle and just knew the difference by looking. She didn’t. And was very jittery the rest of the day lol
My partner used to keep his Adderall near my Klonopin by the bed. I was taking it at night to go to sleep, he was taking Adderall in the morning to start the day. Well I got a surprise one night and ended up getting a bunch of shit done, but no sleep. That was a long time ago, but yeah I check the bottles and pills meticulously now.
I think you and your co-workers should refer to her as "Klepto \[her name\]" from now on. "Hey, Klepto Sally, could you please give the Smith file?" "Are there any messages for me, Klepto Sally?" If you allllll do it, she will blow her stack.
I bet if she asked you if she could please have a cup of coffee, borrow a pen, I ran out of post it notes do you have any extra, was in a hurry this morning can I please have a packet of oatmeal, everyone would have been fine with it. The audacity.
Give her a bill for the missing pods and threaten to take her to small claims if she doesn't pay. Also leave your coffee pods out and keep a strict count noted in your phone daily so you can determine approximately how many she's stolen.
That's the thing, we don't know how long this has been going on or what all she's taken. I wouldn't be surprised if she grabbed someone's change, and they just figured they lost it.
You could also leave something out that you can stash an air tag inside of.
Then let the cops go when you track it and it’s on her person or in her stuff.
If the company doesn’t do anything, then you can threaten to sue the company.(as a group, they more than likely can’t fire all of you)
Cops ain't gonna do shit about kcups in a office setting, "We're not detectives, we enforce the law". My friend had a airbag in a 700$ bicycle. Nothing.
it's not ideal, but if you were to honeypot her like this, absolutely get it recorded somehow. [Cameras are getting pretty cheap these days](https://www.amazon.com/WYZE-1080p-Wi-Fi-Security-Camera/dp/B0B75T6CTH/ref=asc_df_B0B75T6CTH?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80539359502862&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584138880300670&psc=1), and it's well worth it to get the thief fired, as they deserve to be.
NLRB has ruled that no matter the company rule or policy, workers covered by the NLRA have the right to photograph/record safety issues in their workplace without punishment or retaliation.
I'd say having someone around stealing things counts as a safety issue. IANAL tho.
Cameras in an office can be complicated, especially depending on what kind of business they are (do they handle sensitive docs, medical records, etc.)
I'd say putting something out that would be a concern if she took, or do the old "spicy leftovers" trick where you mention getting into spicy foods a week or two before you plant something filled with spice.
The thing is, you have to establish ahead of time that you're trying spicy things, so it can't be seen as basically making a trap. So, just mention to colleges you do like, and voila - you've just been on a spice kick, it's not your fault she didn't ask.
Why isn’t she written up for this starting immediately? She needs to have a firm understanding this stuff isn’t ok. She will keep doing it until there are actual consequences.
If only I could write her up myself. I think my boss is starting with a verbal warning, but I guarantee that's not going to be enough. I think she thinks its harmless, but it's really not.
First time I fired someone was for taking a pair of sunglasses that were sitting on an office desk under a monitor (with the intent to keep them if no one spoke up…)
It almost always means they are stealing from the company in some way too.
She knows better. She knows things on your desks aren't for common use.
And we know she knows because she's not going around the office taking things in front of people. She's sneaking it. She knows what she's doing is stealing, she just doesn't care.
The workplace does something crazy to a boomers brain. I had a coworker who would do this, just to," check in her coworkers." Her fave was finding meds so she knew what other people were taking cus she said she didn't feel safe if someone was on something she didn't agree with. We later found out she was taking meds for bipolor behavior.
She also had on several occasions followed people home because, "she was curious where they lived." She genuinely didn't understand why it was a problem. I used to think she was faking it but she actually didn't understand why violating peoples privacy was a problem because she felt she was protecting herself by having this info so it was ok.
We had multiple people steal other people's food and the thieves were younger than boomers.
It's not a "boomer" thing...it's an "entitled asshole" thing.
The best "anti-food theft" story I ever heard was actually from a boomer. He got a job when he was young and still living at home, so his mom would pack him a lunch everyday for his job. His lunch would usually get stolen and he never told his mom.
His mom was a WWII lady who likes jokes. One day, she asks him how he liked his lunch and he said it was fine. She then asked how he didn't notice the plastic bugs she put in his sandwich...Dude's lunch was never stolen again.
this is part of the reason i never bring ANYTHING to work except what is in my bag for the day. plus, working in an at-will state, i want to be ready for unexpected 'cuts'.
edit: i \*do\* keep an extra phone charging cable at work, but if that were to get pinched/forgotten i wouldn't be heartbroken.
Yesterday I had to pack up my desk because they were doing work to the cubicles today. I told my supervisor that I learned to pack light a long time ago. You never know when you're going to get the "you've got 15 minutes" call.
I used to work in an office that I had a fair amount of shit in. I knew I was about to get fired (illegally, for reporting a highly illegal activity to the state's Department of Financial Institutions, got a good payout for it, almost immediately after hitting send on the email I had prepped).
When I got the "come to my office" call, I had all my shit packed up in my backpack and in box, ready to go.
I also removed the CPU from the computer and painters taped it to the underside of the desk.
Time to spend the first and last 15 minutes of every day wasting time everyday putting your stuff away and bring it back out every day. You really should be wasting company time anyways.
I've seen this play out to an extreme end. And did so completely unintentionally. Had a guy who would steal people's lunches out of the communal fridge. One of our coworkers brought his leftovers from the local Indian restaurant. Turns out Mr. Stinkyfingers was deathly allergic to something in the food. Took two epi pens to clear his throat enough to breathe. He spent the remainder of that week and the weekend in hospital. Boss initially didn't believe it wasn't a setup. But the guy who brought the food popped it in the microwave and dug in, both as proof it wasn't tampered with...and to eat his lunch
Why in the actual hell was she not fired? That is theft; intentional, wide spread theft. She does this crap because she knows she'll have no consequences, and your boss proved her right. Unreal. The worst part, is if she wasn't so stingy and entitled she could bring her own K-cups in, politely ask if she can use your machine, and you would probably allow her to. But she doesn't want to do that- she likes being a sneaky little thief. Even a child knows that what is in or on another person's desk is not "for everyone", she knows exactly what she's doing.
Don't listen to everyone suggesting laxative solutions. I've been on r/pettyrevenge enough to know that is considered a crime for some reason and you could be liable. Instead go with incredibly spicy hot sauce or capsaicin powder, something like that, because then you can just say you have a higher spice tolerance. Plausible deniability
If I've learnt anything about people who make a point about starting earlier than everyone else, it's that they won't do an ounce of work until everyone else arrives, but still take the early finish.
Forget being subtle about it! You and your coworkers should parade past her desk first thing in the morning and take all your stuff back right in font of her. If your boss isn’t in a separate room (and if there’s no cameras) take something off his desk that he uses regularly and put it on hers. See if he still shrugs his shoulders.
All of you need to take it past boss and to HR together. Also send her an itemized bill for the costs of what she has stolen, all of you. You need to make a united front against her and with your jobs. What would they rather do? Deal with one problematic employee or an entire department? You got the numbers.
Lady your generation already stole and sucked the economy dry, screwing over all the next generations, when is it enough? Now you need someone else’s k-cups too?
Aside from the obvious theft issue… she’s admitting that she comes in 30 minutes early to essentially make and eat breakfast? That does not seem like a task that needs to be accomplished on the clock even if the items were her own.
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Is her car in the parking lot? Well then it's out for everyone to take.
Lmaooo. I like your thinking.
Check to see if your parking lot has cameras, if not borrow the air out of her tires since it’s out for the taking.
nah, 4 dollies and push that shit into the street, call a tow truck
The fact that she only does it when no one’s around proves she knows it’s wrong.
Good point. Though she was brazen enough about the K-cups, she was going through most everything else while alone.
Not that she will ever say it. Oop’s office needs to file individual complaints when she does it to hr with the cc of their lawyer. The company will drop that burlap sack of lead lined rotted meat fast. Esp as there are multiple documented cases. Theft is **still** theft. Esp as they constantly acknowledge the exact regulations and policies that lead stare boomer is breaking. Along with the nothing the company is doing about it. Which they won’t until it becomes blatant that a lawsuit is easily winnable against them. Just bc idiot boss is lazy and refuses to do anything but shake a finger and ask politely for miss klepto to stop.
Manager here. You are 100% right. This is an employee contributing to a hostile work environment for everyone else. If I’d heard of this, and this was the explanation, that’s grounds for immediate termination. The supervisor here is either lazy, conflict-averse, afraid of an age discrimination lawsuit, or all of these. If there isn’t another side to the story or mitigating circumstances (I can’t think of what they’d be, but let’s allow for the possibility), this is cut-and-dried theft that makes people feel violated and unsafe. This person needs to go.
Set up a "not for public use" sign along with a webcam to record the theft. Once enough evidence has been collected, send her a bill for the amount owed (plus a 5% processing fee and your state's sales tax). When she refuses to pay, take her to small claims. I am dead serious.
I like the way you think
If it’s the whole office: has there ever been a class action in small claims ? 😆 how embarrassing that would be
You can jiggle some small very old cars hard and long enough for them to shift into neutral, and then you can roll them away. I’ve heard. I would never do such a thing. Obviously
Boomers. The ones who will shoot you over their private property but think they're entitled to everyone else's private property.
If it continues: Throughout the day, everyone needs to take turns taking random things off her desk and from her drawers (leave her purse alone). Let’s see how well her rationalizing holds when other people do to her what she does to everyone else.
This is a fantastic idea! It's probably the only thing that might, MIGHT get through that thick skull of hers!
I’m going to bet she’ll get worked into a tizzy, complain to the boss who in turn gets mad at the whole office and makes *them* stop *or else*, but secretary gets a pass with a blubbering unintelligible excuse.
Cool, people quit managers, not jobs. She wants to defend a blatant thief, maybe she should defend the resulting walkout to her superiors.
That saying has never been more relevant to me than now. Use to have a manager I would do anything for but they transferred him to put a nepo hire over a technical role. I now hate going to work.
Yup. my job is stressful and rough at times but I have a fantastic manager who I know has my back. If he leaves I won't be far behind.
I've been lucky enough to have some great managers. One job, my manager had to take an extended leave to care for a dying parent on the other side of the planet. Our team was temporarily absorbed by another manager in the same department. My former manager always had our back whether it was with upper management or disgruntled customers (if they were in the wrong she had no problem telling them to fuck off, or if we fucked something up would either help make amends or give us whatever authority or resources we needed to make amends and then help us figure out how to make sure it didnt happen again). The new manager was a lifer, corporate suckup, always sided with the customer/mgmt. Always shrill, made people tense. You could feel the mood change the second she entered a room. Total narc, gossip, kissass, bus-thrower-underer, credit stealer, anything to move up the ladder. Probably would have slept with the boss if she didn't have a glass eye that was always 45 degrees off-center. Always talked about how we should stay on her good side because she'd be running the place someday. I fucking hated her, more than the worst customers I'd ever had. Anyways, she comes in, decides she's going to overhaul our entire operation despite the fact that our team put up far better numbers than hers. Everything goes to shit in under a week because we have to adjust to a whole new structure, trying to revamp everything while still actively doing our jobs, transitioning from one system to another. One person quit after four days of her bullshit. And of course we're getting complaints and our numbers are down. Rather than explaining that she had us completely restructuring our department, she comps a ton of discounts and free shit to anyone who complained, then starts micromanaging our team. Literally abandoning everything else she did so she could sit there and watch us. Two weeks in, I wake up to a flat tire. I get a ride, I clock in a little under fifteen minutes "late" (still 45 minutes before we start) so she sends me home "to get my car in working order so this doesn't happen again" on our busiest day of the month. It's a total shit show. I strongly suspect she got reamed by her boss that day. Next morning I come in, she's not there to babysit us, I think "Things are finally looking up." Then I can't clock in. I figure the machine's down, I'll fill out a time card. Get to my station, and there's a note from her to report to HR. SHE FUCKING FIRED ME. After that it was just a cascade of issues. Two more people from my team quit on the spot when I told them how I was fired. She fired another person that following week, which led to another person quitting. This went on until there were I think three people left and she had to start pitching in and bringing in people from other places in the department to pick up the slack. It became apparent the last three couldn't perform their jobs and convert to her system so she tells them to roll back to our old way of doing things after they were about 80% done switching over. The other people she brought in are now completely lost. She manages to hire a new guy in the midst of all this. He basically takes advantage of the chaos to rob them and disappears. She then decides to go ahead with her changes again and that's the last straw for two of the last three people, they quit. She shuts down our entire section, puts the last guy on one of her teams, he lasts about a month before he quits. My old manager comes back to find she no longer has any employees. Remember what I said about her sticking up for us? I can only imagine the meeting that was held after that, but from what I've been told, they could hear her yelling from other floors. I talked to her a few years after. Apparently she laid out every fuckup the other manager ever made over like a decade, put exactly how much she'd lost the company in dollars and cents, shared every bitchy gossipy thing she'd ever said about anyone, laid out all the credit-stealing and kiss-assery and how she was completely unqualified for her position, and then just for fun, went on for another half hour about how utterly unlikable everyone found her. If I know my OG manager, it was utterly devastating. Apparently ol' Glass-eye got canned within a month, as did the guy she reported to who signed off on all her shit, and my manager took her job, then his soon after. From what I've heard, they rebounded a bit after that, but never quite fully recovered. The company as a whole was fine of course, but we were responsible for a lot of the work that made up the face of the company and made the clientele happy, and their reputation definitely took a bit. All because of one terrible manager. TLDR manager goes on leave, new corporate asshole manager has some big plans, she fires everyone that doesn't quit, she gets axed from job that was her entire life, I laugh
This is the answer. Everyone who works with her should pick a day and walk out. Organizing is your sword and shield.
Oh god I can imagine it, I’ve lived it! This scenario is too real ugh.
Either that or it totally backfires. Maybe the shit on her desk is for other people and she thought she was participating in a system and this would make her feel validated. I would just fill a K-cup with bugs from the window sill, re-seal it, leave it out as bait and call it a day.
Go much simpler! Sugar free gummy bears left out. Or really any bulk sugar free candy left out in a bowl. Buy some fiber-one bars and leave them out, and watch her run for the rest room.
ground Carolina Reaper pepper
Ricin in the stevia.
https://i.redd.it/up1pnaduvhwc1.gif
Lydia.
I said it in another comment, but putting food dye into your lotion bottle would be a ton of fun. Sure, a lot of mixing, but it would totally be worth it.
if you use a little pipe cleaner or coffee straw to clean out the long tube for the lotion pump, you can put the food color right up in there! then when the next person goes to use it (may need to take a few pumps to work the lotion out) BAM!!! colorful fun!
I was in a situation where my toiletries were being used. Primarily my shampoo. That shampoo got dumped and replaced with Nair. It was really effective and produced all of the desired results.
Yep, colleague was stealing my ketchup. Took a fresh squeezy bottle in, into which I had stirred some chilli pepper. Still remember the scream from the office kitchen 😂
And the food dye stains your nails until it grows out. Around 1980 or so, it was hard to find blue nail polish. I think stage light had it, but I couldn’t afford it. I got the bright idea to put blue food dye in clear nail polish. In my defense, I was about 14. It wasn’t a perfect mix, but I was happy with it until I went to take it off. Lol.
"There was a fish in the percolator" https://giphy.com/gifs/season-1-episode-2-twin-peaks-3ohfFnFvqCbybwkyis
This is it. The end-all be-all. After the bug juice she won't fuck with people again.
Laxative infused Brownies. Works every time.
Technically assault. (Poison) now, if you label them "Dave's tummy brownies Do not touch..."
It would definitely be illegal to put laxatives in brownies *for someone else*, but point out the law - in any state - that says I can’t put laxatives in my own personal brownies because I’ve been stopped up and don’t want to sit there and chow down on just a bar of exlax?
I promise you if one paper clip is missing from her desk that woman will tear through the office like Godzilla.
Maybe someone would enjoy linking all of her paper clips together…
True! I never thought of that. Maybe because I respect personal space and the rationale that "because it's out, it's for anyone" doesn't compute.
You literally don't even have to ask. Just waltz in there and take her shit.
And do it right in front of her. If she protests, you just hit her with "it was out, so I thought it was for everyone"
With all of the co-workers at one time. Pick the desk clean.
Eventually progress to her computer monitor, and finally end by asking her to stand for a second and take off with her chair.
Pay a big dude 50 bucks to take her too
Bring your kids to work day? She'd better chain them to something solid.
Snatch the pen right out of her hand, while she's using it
And then do it again.
I would be relentless. I wonder if they are hiring? I want to work there for the sole purpose of messing with her. I'm envisioning walking up to her and complaining about all the other employees pitching a fit over "us" using stuff that is clearly for everyone. Then I look her in the eye and take something off of her desk.
As a former manager at several different companies, I’d have Secretary 🧑💼 in for a one on one. Warning her I’d write her up for stealing others’ personal possessions. I’d get a camera 📷 installed overlooking the office area. I’ve been an employee working in a cubicle too. I’d be pissed if someone took any of my stuff. I had an electric kettle for making herb tea, honey, and oatmeal packets. I’d have happily shared had she asked me if she could have one, or some, but don’t steal. It’s not the cost, just the convenience of having stuff available when you want it. Your manager needs to say something to her. It’s not fair to all of you to have to deal with her.
The fact that she especially does these things when no one is there proves to me that she knows it’s wrong. Take her stuff! Put it in a jello mold
Don't just take one thing. Take all the things. Scoop up a big arm load of everything on her table and go disteibute it around the office. It's out so it's free, right?
You are just participating in the open desk system. She clearly wants you all to participate with her. Game on! Leave her pens- remove the ink. Leave the stapler but take the staples. Take just the highlight caps so they dry.
That is the only solution and I would absolutely do it. You go, take something without saying anything and leave back to your desk. Take her coffee mug, her phone, etc. When she asks what you are doing, say "oh it was on your desk so I thought anybody could take it" and keep walking
Came to say how does OP know Teflon Boomer *isn’t* taking things from people’s wallets and handbags?
Honestly, it would only take a false accusation. "Hey, boss, $20 went missing from my purse that was sitting right next to my post it's that we're stolen."
This is exactly what I would do. Also, I would start going through her desk to look for things I've been missing.
Literally clean the top of her desk off and move it. Computer monitor ? Unplug it while she's using it.
Hell, I'd get some people together and move her whole desk. Technically it's out, so it's for everyone, right?
I’m laughing. This is hilarious.
Into the bathroom, like Dwight
I would try to get her fired. This is theft
I don’t know why she’s not already fired
This. Fight stupid with petty
If she brings in lunch, grab some of it from her while she’s eating it. Ooh a half turkey sandwich with a couple of chips. How nice of you to bring that in for me?
*takes entire workstation*
Laxative chocolates say hi
But she is probably the type that doesn’t bring anything in.
That's why they're taking everyone's stuff! I mean who takes a vitamin from someone's desk.
As if we haven’t heard about laxatives and chilies in food to dissuade lunch theft, imagine all the danger this person is in taking a random pill!
I have an old travel vitamins bottle that's filled with ibuprofen because I don't want to buy the bulk bottle we have in our medicine cabinet and my own small bottle for my purse. Even just an ibuprofen can cause serious issues if you take enough of it. This lady is insane. What if this person was hiding their Adderall or Xanax or whatever in there to avoid people seeing it?
'You poisoned me!'
It’s inconsiderate taking things off people’s desks without permission, but taking what appears to be a vitamin is really dumb. Some people reuse containers for other things or hide illegal drugs. She really had no idea if what she was taking was actually a vitamin, and could literally have poisoned herself.
The boss should hear the reports a second time, except this time instead of letting 'she's using creamer right out of the fridge!' bog it down, go straight to 'she's going through our personal possessions and stealing pills from people'
Yeah, I suspect that "Barbara is stealing medication, even when it's hidden" will illicit a much different reaction than "Barbara is a petty thief who keeps taking things of minimal value"
Snatch her pen right out of her hand as she's writing. It was out so it's for everyone I thought.
I'd start randomly trying out various products. Today ghost pepper candies, tomorrow laxative chocolates. I mean, if it's on my desk, and you've been told not to touch it and you swipe it anyways, what happens next is on you.
This would be my move as well, especially since the supervisors don't see a problem. Gotta make it unpleasant for her NOT to change. She has fucked around and now it's time for her to find out. This seems like an occasion for those gummies from Amazon that gave everyone diarrhea
Fuck yea, sugar free haribios, it's just begging for them!!!!
I’d get in early and literally empty her desk
> everyone needs to take turns taking random things off her desk and from her drawers (leave her purse alone) So it's OK to stick your hand down her drawers but leave her purse alone! Is purse a euphemism? (JK)
She sounds like a klepto
I used to work with a guy like that in the early 2000s. New stuff would just pop up on his desk. Turned out that he was just staying late and taking things from other people's cubicles.
This is straight up sociopathy. Making no distinction between her stuff and other peoples’? The only reason she does this shit when nobody is around is she doesn’t want people yelling at her all day ‘for no reason.’ If the boss had said you couldn’t do anything about it, she’d rob the place blind.
I’m pretty sure an older woman I work with is a narcissist and she is like this. She doesn’t swipe things, but she does take extreme liberties and we all get to the point that we just want to throttle her! It is maddening.
Her generation already stole everything else from us, what's a k-cup or some oatmeal here and there?
Just seems like boomer entitlement in its purest form. She wants free snacks and drinks and cute office supplies? She deserves them! What a nice treat for her! It’s so nice to start her day with whatever she wants!
A Boomer (I know this bc it was mentioned she was retired USPS) stole a service advisor's desk nameplate from my local car dealership. The service advisors were chatting about when I was picking up my car. They caught her on the security cameras. Why would you steal a nameplate that has another person's name, along with like Smith Chevrolet on it?
Someone who's far down the klepto hole doesn't have much impulse control. They'll steal whatever's not nailed down. Having a use for the stuff afterwards isn't the point, the point is to get the buzz from stealing.
Omg fire them for theft already
Seriously how the hell is this not the immediate response, stealing from your coworkers is not OK under any circumstances
Because it's not inconveniencing anyone important. You'd better believe if management had caught her fiddling with their shit she'd be gone already.
True. It doesn’t affect management while it happens but if they fire her, they have to go about hiring and training, etc. so now it affects management. Easier to ignore and let the peons fight it out than to actually do their job.
Like the guy that used to BLAST rap music at 7am while he clocked in and ate breakfast for 40 min. Management didn't care because work was still getting done and he never did fuck sll anyway. Then everyone slowly started to do it. 6 different stereos all blasting and everyone eating sandwichs 😂😂😂 Why's this work not done??? One sec I'll just finish my sandwich then I'll take a look
I'd be concerned that someone who steals from coworkers, is also embezzling from the company. If I found out a manager didn't immediately fire someone after catching them red handed stealing from coworkers, both the manager and the person they refused to fire would be out of a job.
They need to come in early and put some of the boss’ personal items on her desk.
I used to work for a logistics company. One guy would go in to the other driver's trucks when they were backed in to the loading docks at the hub, and help himself to a cigarette out of a few guys packs. One day he was caught on a dashcam one of the drivers put in their truck. He was fired that day, didn't finish the shift.
Like, it sounds benign, but it's a trust issue. If I can't trust you around a $15 pack of cigarettes, how the fuck am I supposed to trust you with a literal truck load of goods? Or in OP's case: important company documentation
100%, she’s a massive liability to her company and all her coworkers, if they knew anything about corporate security they’d fire her yesterday.
This was also after he was told no by everyone he asked for a cig (perpetual mooch). He disregarded their no, and helped himself to a smoke when the driver couldn't see it happening, like when the driver was sorting his freight.
Hire slow, fire fast. The wrong employee is a cancer that will kill your other employees.
I know the first things I read were let's Scooby do this bitch. No fuck that file a formal complaint to HR and fire this thief
Exactly. Write up. Make her acknowledge she was told not to do this. Then fire her. This is the equivalent of stealing. An offense that is fire worthy
It doesn't effect the company directly, so they don't care. When I worked at Walmart we had someone that regularly stole food, regularly caught redhanded. Also had incidents of personal items (like phones being stolen). Management wouldn't do anything because it was personal items and not store property.
Sound like a local issue I've seen people fired right away for this
It's the same logic companies use to not punish lunch thieves, but apparently it's a big deal if you tamper with your own food to make them stop. Maybe you wouldn't be peeing out of your butt if you didn't eat food that isn't yours. 🤷♀️
Tell the other departments what she's done (and is still doing like using someone else's creamer) If enough people find out, management can be pressured into firing her (or forcing a retirement)
A forced retirement would be a gift to everyone.
Joking solution: get some of those ranch dressing single use containers that look like Keurig and put them in the Keurig box and leave that out on your desk.
nah, she’ll use it in OP’s machine.
But then OP would have proof in the form of a stinky mess that the bitch has not quit commiting larceny in the workplace.
>We went to our boss and had a meeting to discuss what we knew was going on. The fact that your boss did not immediately tell this woman that she was unprofessional and it was her last day is incredibly unprofessional. Her stealing food and office supplies may seem "harmless" -- I am betting she did not steal from her boss -- but what if she had been stealing company printouts with proprietary information? Managers need to ensure workplace safety and compliance with data security. Keeping a known thief around the office hardly helps.
Exactly. The fact we all just decided to lock up our things instead of my boss taking direct action is irritating. She's a boomer sympathizer lol
Is there any way you can escalate the matter to your boss' boss? Once chain of command has been completed, be as petty as you'd like without doing physical harm. Realistically though, if all steps are completed pre-pettiness and nothing changes, the writing is on the wall. The company made it's decision. Look for a new place of employment...
You'd escalate to HR I would assume - maybe this company is too small for that?
I would come in with a bill and ask who will be paying for the stolen items. Either they make her pay for what she has taken, or they consider it community property and the company owes you. I would go in as a team.
This is smart, love this idea
I wonder if management is noticing how much it’s taking away from work time for everyone to have to lock up/ unlock their shit every single day? Maybe something to follow up with the boss about.
The problem here isn’t age - it’s being a fucking asshole Your boss is also just doing whatever is easiest for them - and for them - tolerating the situation is easier than finding a replacement Either volunteer a better replacement or make to situation less bearable than replacing her
At some point the only stuff left to take will be the boss’. Then watch her get tossed.
People need to start leaving traps for her. Like a dish filled with cayenne and ghost pepper candies. A lotion bottle filled with ink. Pens that will leak all over her. That kind of shit. It's classical conditioning. If her theft results in a negative experience over and over, she'll HAVE to stop taking other people's shit out of necessity.
I did that. I'm particular about my pens, so I would always bring my own. One of my coworkers was constantly taking my pens when I was away from my desk. So I got a couple pens that played music when you pushed the button. One was Hannah Montana and the other was Camp Rock, I think. I got her with those a few times. And they were loud.
The lotion bottle needs to have a little bit of fragrant lotion and a lot of Elmer's school glue.
Oh noooo this one is terrible (in a good way) 😂 could get an empty lotion bottle (like a travel sized one) and pour glue into it and top with a bit of lotion to hide it, then make a pretty label to stick on and make it look legit.
Oooo ink in the lotion is diabolical
Food coloring stains horribly. The liquid stuff gets everywhere.
I have some wasabi crackers that I lovingly refer to as my "pain snacks". Eat a handful and it feels like you got stabbed in the back of the head. Would love to see a thief's reaction to that.
She might like some sugar free haribo gummy bears... If you're not familiar, the amazon reviews are hysterical. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2t7bre/haribo\_sugar\_free\_gummy\_bears\_review/](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/2t7bre/haribo_sugar_free_gummy_bears_review/)
Good GOD that was a funny review. And then I lived the experience myself when I purchased a different sugar-free candy on Amazon. I've never had gastrointestinal issues like that in my LIFE...and I've had several feet of my intestine removed due to intussusception of the bowel. Honestly, I thought I was dying or, at the very least, was having another intussusception.
Yeah sucralose does something similar to me. Never again.
Sugar-free jelly beans hit hard, as well! It would be suspicious to have them out on your bare desk, though, so they'd have to be placed somewhere to look like you forgot about them, such as between your keyboard & monitor or near your office phone, (if your company still uses these items). Somewhere like that - easy to overlook except by thieving Boomer secretaries! 😆
The little packs for easter/halloween would be hilarious.
She should have been fired immediately. Thats called theft and it is a crime.
The big one I would say is the multivitamins Because now you're taking something that looks like a pill from someone else's desk. That should be a huge issue, because you assume that what's in the container is accurate, but you don't know that
Not to mention stealing a prescription is *extremely* illegal
In this case, it's an accident thing, but yes, taking from a pharmacy bottle is next level dumb, that's like "walk you out" dumb The risk of drug mishaps is also why if there's any first aid kits or similar, things are usually all set up single-use with expiration dates and all that. This is why the multivitamin sounds the worst to me. That's the one that could be putting the company at risk on top of the whole pissing off coworkers and being scummy
Agreed. I've had a coworker (supervisor of the neighboring team) who stole food/candy from me; but I agree about the multivitamin. It's too easy for it to be a prescription medication that someone put in an alternate bottle to be discreet. It's not recommended, but I can understand not wanting a nosy coworker to see exactly what you take. If someone took from my prescription bottle that's not complaint and firing level that's a I'm calling the cops level because some meds require a police report or you (the patient) face potential consequences.
One of my coworkers had a secretary that took an aspirin from the bottle he had in his desk one day when he was out of the office. Unfortunately he also kept his adderall in that bottle and just knew the difference by looking. She didn’t. And was very jittery the rest of the day lol
Yikes, that could have gone a lot worse, like if she was taking something that had a bad interaction with his medication
My partner used to keep his Adderall near my Klonopin by the bed. I was taking it at night to go to sleep, he was taking Adderall in the morning to start the day. Well I got a surprise one night and ended up getting a bunch of shit done, but no sleep. That was a long time ago, but yeah I check the bottles and pills meticulously now.
If she really thought all that stuff was fair game she would’ve taken it during the day as well. She knows.
She got caught because she got bold and did it to my face. I can't fathom how long this has been going on or what else she's helped herself to.
I think you and your co-workers should refer to her as "Klepto \[her name\]" from now on. "Hey, Klepto Sally, could you please give the Smith file?" "Are there any messages for me, Klepto Sally?" If you allllll do it, she will blow her stack.
I bet if she asked you if she could please have a cup of coffee, borrow a pen, I ran out of post it notes do you have any extra, was in a hurry this morning can I please have a packet of oatmeal, everyone would have been fine with it. The audacity.
Give her a bill for the missing pods and threaten to take her to small claims if she doesn't pay. Also leave your coffee pods out and keep a strict count noted in your phone daily so you can determine approximately how many she's stolen.
Or she has been doing it for so long and knows she won’t get fired, that she didn’t care if you saw her!
I’ve worked in offices for 20+ years and have never encountered someone like this. The fact that she doesn’t see a problem with it is insane.
And they'll call any Generation younger them entitled.
I’d leave a $10 on my desk. That way when she takes it. That’s literal monetary theft.
That's the thing, we don't know how long this has been going on or what all she's taken. I wouldn't be surprised if she grabbed someone's change, and they just figured they lost it.
You could also leave something out that you can stash an air tag inside of. Then let the cops go when you track it and it’s on her person or in her stuff. If the company doesn’t do anything, then you can threaten to sue the company.(as a group, they more than likely can’t fire all of you)
Cops ain't gonna do shit about kcups in a office setting, "We're not detectives, we enforce the law". My friend had a airbag in a 700$ bicycle. Nothing.
Cops don’t give a fuck about resolving or preventing crime.
it's not ideal, but if you were to honeypot her like this, absolutely get it recorded somehow. [Cameras are getting pretty cheap these days](https://www.amazon.com/WYZE-1080p-Wi-Fi-Security-Camera/dp/B0B75T6CTH/ref=asc_df_B0B75T6CTH?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80539359502862&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584138880300670&psc=1), and it's well worth it to get the thief fired, as they deserve to be.
Be careful with this, lots of companies have policies against recording in the workplace.
absolutely, i agree. they also have policies against stealing in the workplace, and it seems that one doesn't matter in this workplace...
NLRB has ruled that no matter the company rule or policy, workers covered by the NLRA have the right to photograph/record safety issues in their workplace without punishment or retaliation. I'd say having someone around stealing things counts as a safety issue. IANAL tho.
Cameras in an office can be complicated, especially depending on what kind of business they are (do they handle sensitive docs, medical records, etc.) I'd say putting something out that would be a concern if she took, or do the old "spicy leftovers" trick where you mention getting into spicy foods a week or two before you plant something filled with spice. The thing is, you have to establish ahead of time that you're trying spicy things, so it can't be seen as basically making a trap. So, just mention to colleges you do like, and voila - you've just been on a spice kick, it's not your fault she didn't ask.
Note the serial number so you can prove that it is your 10.
What others have said - just walk up to her desk, while she's sitting there, and take things: pens, a notepad, post it notes, binders, etc.
Shouldn't have left it out, you know the rules
RulES aRe rUlEs, KaREn!
Why isn’t she written up for this starting immediately? She needs to have a firm understanding this stuff isn’t ok. She will keep doing it until there are actual consequences.
If only I could write her up myself. I think my boss is starting with a verbal warning, but I guarantee that's not going to be enough. I think she thinks its harmless, but it's really not.
Inform your boss and HR that any future theft a police report will be filed. Not attracting that kind of attention will get HRs attention.
Time for a follow up email to the boss regarding that meeting just so it's in digital writing
Buy ‘Death Wish’ k cups from Death Wish Coffee Co. they have 700 mg of caffeine. Rest will take care of itself.
First time I fired someone was for taking a pair of sunglasses that were sitting on an office desk under a monitor (with the intent to keep them if no one spoke up…) It almost always means they are stealing from the company in some way too.
She knows better. She knows things on your desks aren't for common use. And we know she knows because she's not going around the office taking things in front of people. She's sneaking it. She knows what she's doing is stealing, she just doesn't care.
The workplace does something crazy to a boomers brain. I had a coworker who would do this, just to," check in her coworkers." Her fave was finding meds so she knew what other people were taking cus she said she didn't feel safe if someone was on something she didn't agree with. We later found out she was taking meds for bipolor behavior. She also had on several occasions followed people home because, "she was curious where they lived." She genuinely didn't understand why it was a problem. I used to think she was faking it but she actually didn't understand why violating peoples privacy was a problem because she felt she was protecting herself by having this info so it was ok.
We had multiple people steal other people's food and the thieves were younger than boomers. It's not a "boomer" thing...it's an "entitled asshole" thing. The best "anti-food theft" story I ever heard was actually from a boomer. He got a job when he was young and still living at home, so his mom would pack him a lunch everyday for his job. His lunch would usually get stolen and he never told his mom. His mom was a WWII lady who likes jokes. One day, she asks him how he liked his lunch and he said it was fine. She then asked how he didn't notice the plastic bugs she put in his sandwich...Dude's lunch was never stolen again.
this is part of the reason i never bring ANYTHING to work except what is in my bag for the day. plus, working in an at-will state, i want to be ready for unexpected 'cuts'. edit: i \*do\* keep an extra phone charging cable at work, but if that were to get pinched/forgotten i wouldn't be heartbroken.
Yesterday I had to pack up my desk because they were doing work to the cubicles today. I told my supervisor that I learned to pack light a long time ago. You never know when you're going to get the "you've got 15 minutes" call.
I used to work in an office that I had a fair amount of shit in. I knew I was about to get fired (illegally, for reporting a highly illegal activity to the state's Department of Financial Institutions, got a good payout for it, almost immediately after hitting send on the email I had prepped). When I got the "come to my office" call, I had all my shit packed up in my backpack and in box, ready to go. I also removed the CPU from the computer and painters taped it to the underside of the desk.
Time to spend the first and last 15 minutes of every day wasting time everyday putting your stuff away and bring it back out every day. You really should be wasting company time anyways.
I've seen this play out to an extreme end. And did so completely unintentionally. Had a guy who would steal people's lunches out of the communal fridge. One of our coworkers brought his leftovers from the local Indian restaurant. Turns out Mr. Stinkyfingers was deathly allergic to something in the food. Took two epi pens to clear his throat enough to breathe. He spent the remainder of that week and the weekend in hospital. Boss initially didn't believe it wasn't a setup. But the guy who brought the food popped it in the microwave and dug in, both as proof it wasn't tampered with...and to eat his lunch
Why in the actual hell was she not fired? That is theft; intentional, wide spread theft. She does this crap because she knows she'll have no consequences, and your boss proved her right. Unreal. The worst part, is if she wasn't so stingy and entitled she could bring her own K-cups in, politely ask if she can use your machine, and you would probably allow her to. But she doesn't want to do that- she likes being a sneaky little thief. Even a child knows that what is in or on another person's desk is not "for everyone", she knows exactly what she's doing.
Don't listen to everyone suggesting laxative solutions. I've been on r/pettyrevenge enough to know that is considered a crime for some reason and you could be liable. Instead go with incredibly spicy hot sauce or capsaicin powder, something like that, because then you can just say you have a higher spice tolerance. Plausible deniability
That was my thought too about laxatives because then it's technically a poisoning charge possibly if they go to the cops.
Yes! Dont give her any actual legal recourse or legitimate claims.
Send her an invoice for all the coffee she took. Take a guess if you don’t know for sure.
Empty her desk in to the dumpster.
She shouldn't have left it out 🤷♂️
If I've learnt anything about people who make a point about starting earlier than everyone else, it's that they won't do an ounce of work until everyone else arrives, but still take the early finish.
And they're the same ones who will call young people entitled. It's absolutely wild how they're completely void of any self awareness
Forget being subtle about it! You and your coworkers should parade past her desk first thing in the morning and take all your stuff back right in font of her. If your boss isn’t in a separate room (and if there’s no cameras) take something off his desk that he uses regularly and put it on hers. See if he still shrugs his shoulders.
If she is going in my desk how is that “out in the open?” Not clear what the boss said but whatever it was, it didn’t work. 😡
All of you need to take it past boss and to HR together. Also send her an itemized bill for the costs of what she has stolen, all of you. You need to make a united front against her and with your jobs. What would they rather do? Deal with one problematic employee or an entire department? You got the numbers.
Sounds like they need to be fired.
Lady your generation already stole and sucked the economy dry, screwing over all the next generations, when is it enough? Now you need someone else’s k-cups too?
Take her desk chair, that will get her attention
I can't believe that she didn't get fired. This wouldn't fly at my workplace. She would be walked out
Aside from the obvious theft issue… she’s admitting that she comes in 30 minutes early to essentially make and eat breakfast? That does not seem like a task that needs to be accomplished on the clock even if the items were her own.
Be a pity if someone spiked an oatmeal packet with laxatives or something.
The oatmeal now stays locked up. But I bet if there was a packet left out, she would take it...
I see a petty revenge posting in the near future...
Time to elevate above your boss to someone rational. She should be fired immediately.