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A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
191–200 of 220 posts
Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#192There's an update to the original post. What a lovely ending to the story. http://www.askamanager.org/2016/10/update-a-coworker-stole-m...
> I’d rather have not gone though the whole thing at all though. I just hope I never have to experience this kind of thing again.
For doubling your pay? Insane!
Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#193A couple of jobs ago, I had just come back from some time off. I was sitting in my cube working when a co-worker I had never met came into my cube, reached past me, and grabbed a tissue from my tissue box without asking. If you think that's bad, it's nothing compared to what he said: "Thanks, I've been stealing these!" I wish I were kidding. I've had co-workers steal my and my desk-mates' gum before, too, at the same…
Huh, it never would have occurred to me to see that as inappropriate. If my coworkers are sick, I want them using tissues rather than spreading their germs around.
Tissues cost what, $0.01 each anyway?
Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#194IANAL, but could the person file a police report for theft, then forward it to HR to ask for their assistance in a criminal case?
I don't think the police are there to intervene in petty squabbles like lunch theft, annoying as lunch theft may be. Getting the lunch owner fired, on the other hand, is a serious matter, and firing the thief and HR because of them doing this to the lunch owner is a proportionate response.
That’s exactly why they’re there. Would you say the same if the lunch was shoplifted from a business?
Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree completely. Not only does theft make their work untrustworthy, their actions have a huge impact on the morale of their coworkers. I have fired an employee for stealing lunches (with plenty of evidence, of course). I would have fired the person in this story immediately if it were within my power. Similarly, I have also fired people for other obvious character failures, such lying about bereavement leave to ta…
Can't say I blame the bereavement guy. Nearly every firm in the United States has an unacceptably stingy PTO policy.
In this instance (and most of the similar instances), if he needed the day off, he would have gotten it with fairly minimal notice. Without pay if he had used up his available PTO, yes, but so was the bereavement.
I agree, most companies don't offer enough PTO.
Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#196Kind of orthogonal to the story, but anyone who steals lunch or food from a co-worker should be fired immediately. There's a 0% chance that someone who steals others' stuff is a good, honest person in other parts of their life.
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Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#197Kind of orthogonal to the story, but anyone who steals lunch or food from a co-worker should be fired immediately. There's a 0% chance that someone who steals others' stuff is a good, honest person in other parts of their life.
Given enough time, someone who steals from coworkers will eventually steal from the company. Antisocial behavior isn't about the victims, it's about the behavior. They may say things like "I would never do that to YOU", but in the end, when it is to their advantage, they will do that to you.
Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#198A couple of jobs ago, I had just come back from some time off. I was sitting in my cube working when a co-worker I had never met came into my cube, reached past me, and grabbed a tissue from my tissue box without asking. If you think that's bad, it's nothing compared to what he said: "Thanks, I've been stealing these!" I wish I were kidding. I've had co-workers steal my and my desk-mates' gum before, too, at the same…
Huh, it never would have occurred to me to see that as inappropriate. If my coworkers are sick, I want them using tissues rather than spreading their germs around. Tissues cost what, $0.01 each anyway?
I don't want sick people in my cube. If they came in while sick last week, they've certainly had time to buy their own tissues.
Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#199Well, to me it seems plausible that the writer is not telling the whole truth. They noticed food being stolen from the fridge and he purposely put extremely hot spice in the food to harm the perpetrator. But how do you prove that. And even if you prove it, would it hold in court since the food was stolen?
What would be the goal of the writer for even sending this to Ask A Manager with false events? And more importantly: does it matter? If you come down to it, we don't even know if the writer exists at all. It's just an hypothetical event that serves as fodder for discussion.
Most fake things on the internet exist to drive traffic.
Re: A coworker stole my spicy food, got sick, and is blaming me (2016)
#200Kind of orthogonal to the story, but anyone who steals lunch or food from a co-worker should be fired immediately. There's a 0% chance that someone who steals others' stuff is a good, honest person in other parts of their life.
I generally agree with what you're saying. It's kind of hilarious to me that so many people here don't know what "stealing" means. Have they not read the article at all? News flash: the act of stealing requires intention. Accidentally swiping someone's ambiguously-labeled lunch is very different!!
I think the issue is that it can be difficult to prove/disprove intent for something like stolen lunches unless there was a camera pointed at the fridge (or some other clear indicator) if you're going to fire someone over it and be protected against a wrongful termination suit.
It's a bit over the top to have that in place to enforce the policy unless it was a known issue in that workplace. So the statement the GP made seems a bit extreme without context.