There's a worldwide pandemic of light-fingered workers
A Royal Canadian Mint employee has been fired after $110,000 worth of gold went missing from their facility in Ottawa.
Spokeswoman Alison Crawford released a statement to CTV Ottawa, detailing the event: “As a result of robust internal inventory processes employees reported a small amount of gold missing from the premises.
"Our vigorous security measures and protocols are subject to on-going scrutiny and evaluation. The Mint remains committed to managing risks to our products and facilities."
Crawford went on to claim that incidents such as this are rare; however, she refused to make any further comments considering that this is now a police matter.
Theft in the workplace is, sadly, not uncommon. And, whether it’s a bag of gold or a stolen sandwich, incidents involving thievery have the propensity to pit co-workers against each other.
According to a survey from American Express OPEN, almost one in five workers admit to having eaten someone else’s lunch at work.
A recent thread on Ask a Manager detailed an incident whereby a colleague stole an employee’s lunch, and then got sick and blamed them for it.
The employee writes that, after having had their lunch stolen, the thief complained to HR saying that the meal was too spicy – and accused the workers of trying to poison them.
“A week later, I got called up to HR for an investigation, claiming that I did in fact try to do harm to this person and this investigation is still ongoing,” writes the employee.
“My boss is on my side, but HR seem to be trying to string me up… On top of this, HR claims that it would be well within said co-worker’s rights to try and sue me. How can someone be caught stealing my lunch and then turn around and say I was in the wrong?”
How would you advise this employee to react? Tell us in the comments.