should I nark on my workmate

LegacyUser

I work at a small shop with just 3 others and my boss. the boss is only around a couple of hours a day and not much at all on weekends and as I am the most senior member of staff I am relied on to make sure things go smoothly when the boss is away.

I have seen one of my workmates give freebies out to his mates and I have let him know before he shouldn't be doing it. Still he does it. The business is just about keeping afloat as things are.

Because I have no real authority over him I can't call him aside and 'tell him off' over it. I am just a senior shop assistant and he is a junior shop assistant.

Should I tell the boss about what he's doing? I will have to continue working with him and he will know that I've narked on him so I'm worried it'll cause a horrible atmosphere.

Kazooie

Well if the business is strugglling and he's giving stuff away then you could be out of a job if it fails. Tell him that.
Also threaten to tell the boss and if he doesn't stop you're perfectly within your rights to tell on him then.

LundiMardi

Chances are if you tell your boss, then your pal will be sacked. So, if that's the case, you won't have to work with him daily knowing you narked(wtf??).

jhegarty

Tell him if you don't see it again nothing will happen, and you will never speak of it again...

If you do see him do it again then off to the boss...

Skyuser

But yourself in your boss place. You own a shop and somebody is essentially stealing. Wouldn't you like to be told...

Gordon

This really belongs in the Work forum. Shall I move it there OP or do you want it here as you can post unreggie here?

Chucky the tree

Is it not more of a personnal issue then a work one?


If the boss isnt arsed to spend time in his shop or do proper stock taking then tough **** on his part. I wouldnt say anything.

Chinafoot

yer-man wrote:

as I am the most senior member of staff I am relied on to make sure things go smoothly when the boss is away.

This to me means that while the boss is away you are being trusted to be in charge. If one of the junior staff does something wrong you are perfectly entitled to call them out on it. You're not claiming to be anyone's boss, but if you are being left in charge chances are you are the one that will be held responsible by the boss should anything happen during the shift.

I was in this position a few years ago. I worked part-time in a busy enough shop and at weekends I was the senior member of staff and as such I was held responsible for whatever went on during the shift (within reason, of course).

One of my work mates was nicking phone credit and I had caught him once and decided to say nothing, because like yourself I was worried about creating a bad atmosphere. However, because I had kept my mouth shut he kept going and pretty soon the boss was asking me why the tills and the phone credit read-outs didn't match up at the end of the day. When I was next working with the guy in question I called him into the back room and told him that I was aware of what he was doing and that the boss was aware that stuff was going missing. I let him know in no uncertain terms that I was not going to get in trouble over his stealing and that if it happened again I would have no problem telling the boss next time he inevitably asked me what was going on. He stopped stealing the credit.

I'd advise going down the same route as you're not actually ratting him out but you're not letting him away with it either. If he chooses to continue then I personally would have no problem going to the boss as he'd been given fair warning.

Red Hand

Agree with the others here. Tell him that itscompletely unacceptable behaviour and that you will tell the boss if it continues. You are the most senior person and in charge when the boss is away. You may get the blame if the accounts don't match up.

Beruthiel

Do you not do regular stock takes?

UrbanFox

Be sure that this generous soul does not implicate you so that you end up as a suspect for shortfalls......

Kristopherus

I agree with the above. You could well end up a loser . If you inform the boss without the juniors knowledge, make sure you ask him to put proper surveillence procedures in place.Stealing is an offence for which you can be summarily dismissed. However proper procedures have to be in place for the dismissal not to be an unfair one, and thus avoid a possible (expensive) trip to the Employment Appeals Tribunal.

Kold

Chucky the tree wrote:

If the boss isnt arsed to spend time in his shop or do proper stock taking then tough **** on his part. I wouldnt say anything.

That's bollocks. Chances are the boss works hard all week and probably still manages the cash in the evenings. I know because my mother ran herself ragged, you would not believe the workload that comes with running a small business. Also, the stocktaking won't really show anything up. You just won't notice a bag of crisps or a can of coke going missing and if you do, there's no telling where it went. It's pretty ****ty seeing as the general markup is around 20% on sweets etc and you'll have to sell 5 just to make up for the one gone missing.

I think you should inform your workmate of this. Chances are he has no idea of the business end of things. I wouldn't feel as guilty stealing from someone who makes more than they really should but I'd feel bad stealing from someone who works hard for their earnings. If he doesn't feel guilty then he's a pretty sh*tty person and you should inform your boss.

LegacyUser

'Thanks for all the replies. As for the stock taking side, without going into too much detail, the nature of the business is such that it's not as simple as stuff going missing. And as the another poster said it's not the bosses fault they can't be there all the time either.

I will pull him aside and have a word with him like most have you have said, will post here as to how it went.'

Chucky the tree

Kold wrote:

That's bollocks. Chances are the boss works hard all week and probably still manages the cash in the evenings. I know because my mother ran herself ragged, you would not believe the workload that comes with running a small business. Also, the stocktaking won't really show anything up. You just won't notice a bag of crisps or a can of coke going missing and if you do, there's no telling where it went. It's pretty ****ty seeing as the general markup is around 20% on sweets etc and you'll have to sell 5 just to make up for the one gone missing.

Why would he have to do that would keep him away from the shop for the majority of the day and for him to not turn up at the weekends?

Blush_01

Another job? Family responsibilities? An ill partner? Charity work? None of anyone's business other than his own?

I'm going to go with the latter here. You can add suggestions as you please, or take the ones above, Chucky.

OP - I'd definitely go with the advice Chinafoot et al gave. You don't want to lose your job over his theft and it's obviously stressing you out too. If you do something wrong, being caught is the risk you take. He took the risk, he got caught, the consequences are for him to face, you shouldn't have to shoulder the responsibility too. If your conscience is clear, then you have nothing to worry about.

Black Swan

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote:

Agree with the others here. Tell him that itscompletely unacceptable behaviour and that you will tell the boss if it continues. You are the most senior person and in charge when the boss is away. You may get the blame if the accounts don't match up.

Agree too! Give him one chance to clean up his act.

darkflower

If he wont listen to you tell your boss. Rather than you taking the blame afterwards..