ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2007 > October > 22
Monday, October 22, 2007
Ever stolen anything from your employer?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Everyone sees employee theft differently. Some people believe that if they use company postage for personal mail they aren’t stealing. Others believe if they use company long distance phone lines to talk to their sick mom, they aren’t stealing.
Many believe that if they do freelance work on company hours, they aren’t stealing. Lot’s of people feel as if they use company computers (emails and internet) to look for another job, they aren’t stealing.
On the other hand, if you were in your own business and you were paying for the postage, long distance, and employees’ salaries, you might look at it differently. Because corporations are frequently owned by individuals who aren’t known personally, or even owned by the public at large if it is publicly-held, many feel that a company’s resources can be looked upon in an abstract way. People say to themselves, ‘everyone does it.’
Many times, individuals rationalize their behavior by reminding themselves that they put in an extreme number of hours so they deserve to spend a few minutes on the phone talking to family. Or maybe, because they travel for business and give up personal time with their family, who cares if you ‘pad your expenses with a few personal items.’
Wait and reconsider. If you get caught for doing something that you think is fine and the company considers ‘theft,’ you can scar your career for years to come. Taking what you believe you deserve that isn’t yours can result in being fired ‘for cause’ which is something that you will have to explain to every future employer on applications and in interviews repeatedly.
Companies and recruiters won’t tell you they aren’t going to hire you because you were fired, but it happens every day.
Think of it this way. What if your babysitter turned in a receipt for a movie you didn’t approve? What if your landscaper made a long distance phone call on your dime? What if a general contractor working in your house, took stamps off your kitchen table to mail his bills?
Would you think these people had stolen from you in some way, no matter how small? When you take what isn’t yours, trust is broken. When trust is gone, relationships fail, professionally or otherwise.
