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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not expect my boss to go through my bag after a suspected theft?

62 replies

fartmeistergeneral · 31/08/2011 08:50

I work in a very small business. I've been there 5 years, one person has been there 10 years and the other 3 full time staff (including the owner) have been there since the beginning (20 years). There is also one temporary worker who none of us know that well (keeps himself to himself). Recently a 3 figure sum has gone missing. We do open to the public and it is possible (though unlikely IMO) that someone has come into the office and managed to find money, taken it and left without any member of staff seeing them. However, it's also possible that it's been mislaid and bundled away in a file somewhere to be found in a few months' time (or years!).

The staff were talking when the boss wasn't there and saying they'd be happy for him to go through their bags to check they weren't the thief and I was the only one who said that I'd be pissed off if he had so little trust in me or the others that he would actually go through our stuff. They then said it would be totally fair if he went through everyone's bags not just one person - but that would make no difference to me. I'd still feel he didn't trust me after all these years.

AIBU? (never posted in AIBU before and am bracing myself for impact!!!).

OP posts:
GalaxyWeaver · 31/08/2011 11:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ragged · 31/08/2011 11:07

yabu, even long-time employees can go "bad". You could reasonably ask for it to be searched in relative privacy, if anything embarassing is in there.

GloriaVanderbilt · 31/08/2011 11:09

I'd be offended too, however I'd let him do it.

This happened at my best friend's birthday party many years ago (we were about 21/22). Large group of friends, some had travelled from further afield. Well I had come the furthest and didn't know anyone else.

We had been camping and when we returned to her parents' house, her other best friend found something missing - some bit of her sleeping bag I think, maybe the cover? Anyway, I was asked to unpack my entire rucksack to check I hadn't got it by accident.

I didn't even know what they were looking for and of course it wasn't in there. No one else was asked. I guess because I had such a large bag.

It made me feel very, very unwelcome.

Original poster
fartmeistergeneral · 31/08/2011 15:40

Whoever said do I think it's the temporary employee who we don't really know well, the answer is no, I don't think it was stolen at all, I think it's been misplaced and will turn up eventually.

I know what you all mean about it being fair if it's done to everyone, but I would still feel very uncomfortable about him looking through our stuff.

And as for retail when they check your bag every day! I had no idea! Don't like that at all, but I do think there's a difference with a big organisation with a high turnover of staff. I think the thing that gets me is that we are so small with only 5 full timers who have all done years and years of service. It's like a family.

OP posts:
ruddynorah · 31/08/2011 15:54

Why should he trust you just because youve worked there a long time? It's a business. What measures are in place to prevent money going missing, to protect the business as well as protecting the staff from suspicion? If you've been there a long time you'll know all the ins and outs and would probably know how to cover your tracks.

mayorquimby · 31/08/2011 15:56

I wouldn't let my boss search my stuff anyway, so I'm in the yanbu camp

LineRunner · 31/08/2011 15:57

I'd be another one who would be first in the queue to prove my innocemce, so the boss could get on with the job of calling the police knowing that he/she had their facts straight.

Of course on the telly, the thief has always planted the money in somone else's bag...

whackamole · 31/08/2011 16:01

YABU. And ridiculous. It would be nice if everyone could be trusted, but as money has gone missing they have to investigate where it may have gone.

thefirstmrsrochester · 31/08/2011 16:08

I suspect that, was he allowed to root through everyones bag, the cash would not be there. The thief would have up be stupid beyond belief to leave it in their bag and invite his investigating.
Then everyone would remain under suspicion and your boss would need to call the police.
Proving ones innocence aside (the absence of cash in the searched bag does not prove this) it's pretty insulting and im pretty sure your boss does not have the right to insist he searches your bag.
It's a criminal matter so he should call the police.

DontGoCurly · 31/08/2011 16:09

YABU

Why should he trust anyone? That's not how business works.

I don't understand what the problem is. He's not looking in the bags for thrills, it's a deterrant.

I worked in plenty of shops where this was standard procedure every night and I didn't care.

I think you're being precious.

spiderpig8 · 31/08/2011 16:21

Who was the first person to volunteer their bag to be searched? I would suspect them!

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 31/08/2011 16:22

Most places that handle money have some form of regular or random staff searches, I've been on both ends of it. Whenever money's gone missing those searches have always got more stringent, it's just the way things go. Should your employers trust you? Well yes they have been, and now it appears that someone may have breeched that trust, you know it's not you, but how do they know? YANBU to not like it, but YABU to take it as a personal slight.

FWIW, I was in the position of finding someone I liked stealing money (£50 notes in their shoes) from the store I worked in. I'm sure that all the other staff members didn't like the fact that random shoe searches became part of the usual end of day staff checks but how could we ignore what had happened?

Litotes · 31/08/2011 16:30

In my younger years I worked in a restaurant where money went missing and another member of staff accused me Sad
I really, really wish that the manager had insisted on a bag check, as even though I knew that I had not done it, I felt that the finger of suspicion never really left me.

I ended up leaving the company soon after as I really could not cope with the fact that I could never prove it was not me.
I still feel sad when I think about this - 15 years later.

Litotes · 31/08/2011 16:30

Actually 20 years later [old git that I am]

Original poster
fartmeistergeneral · 31/08/2011 16:34

Of course the whole thing of checking bags is ridiculous in itself (in my situation, not necessarily a retail situation). it would be spectacularly dim to steal a 3 figure sum and sit there in a tiny office with it in your handbag!!

OP posts:
Original poster
fartmeistergeneral · 31/08/2011 16:35

I could practically put my life on it that it's been mislaid and not nicked..............

OP posts:
AnotherMumOnHere · 31/08/2011 16:50

OP what makes your circumstances different from those working in retail. If there is a chance of theft under any circumstances then if I can prove my innocence - at least by allowing my bag to be searched - then I would not have a problem.

Many years ago I worked in an office which was attached to a warehouse when a digital camera went missing. EVERYONES bag and car were searched. Someone could easily have lifted the camera from the store room and passed it to an office worker thinking it was safe and that person could have easily put it in their car assuming that it wouldnt be searched.

I believe if someone doesnt have anything to hide then having their bag searched shouldnt be a problem. I regularly have my hand luggage looked through when travelling. Nothing I can do about that. So no difference.

jennypenney · 31/08/2011 17:21

Have you checked your employment contract, OP? There may well be a section about "right of search" in there. There is one in mine. We have cash on the premises, and I'm a cash handler and a key holder, so I would expect something to be in writing about procedures to be followed in the event of missing stock or cash. The contract is careful to point out that no guilt is implied by the searching of employees' bags/coats etc.
As another poster has pointed out, if the police become involved one of the first questions they are likely to ask is whether everyone's bags have been checked, so that my boss can say "Yes, of course", and no further time is wasted. I don't have a problem with it.

Snowgirl1 · 31/08/2011 19:01

I had a Christmas job in River Island once. A member of staff's purse went missing and the female managers made us come into the changing rooms one by one and strip down to our underwear. After the mortification of that, someone looking in my handbag would seem like no big deal.

spookshowangellovesit · 31/08/2011 20:32

last job i had we had a bag check at the end of everyday regardless of length of time worked there or rank someone even had to check the managers bag, dont see your problem really.

Onemorning · 31/08/2011 21:22

YABU. As people above have said, bag (and pocket) searches are usual for retail. It's not a matter of not trusting you personally, it's trying to find the culprit.

YANBU to find the situation upsetting. When someone was stealing from purses at my shop I couldn't believe one of my colleagues - who I liked and trusted - had stolen from another.

NellieForbush · 31/08/2011 21:59

YANBU. What a waste of time. Even if someone has stolen the money its not going to be in their bag.

Will he be checking your knickers for the 'missing' wad of cash?! Who will be checking his things?

What would happen if he did find it in your bag and you honestly said "I didn't put it there I've never seen it before"?

manticlimactic · 31/08/2011 22:07

YABU. Just because you have worked there for a long time doesn't mean you won't steal (I don't mean you, I mean a person in general).

A woman where I work stole thousands over the past few years. She had been there 20 years.

If they don't search everyone I suppose the next AIBU here could be ' Is it unreasonable that everyone at work didn't get searched but I did because I have only been there a short length of time'.

Mind you, YANBU to think that if someone was nicking they wouldn't put a three figure sum in their bag.

elliejjtiny · 31/08/2011 22:16

When I worked in a shop they did the bag searching thing every night. My colleague used to tease me and call me Judas because I always had a packet of paracetamol from a rival shop in my bag.

MollieO · 31/08/2011 22:19

When I was a Saturday girl in Boots we had random bag checks. We also got told off most weeks about our tills not balancing. I always thought it odd as I knew I always gave the correct change (old fashioned push button tills pre-electronic days!). There were only four of us who managed two tills and all of us could add up. Found out after I left that our supervisor (who took our takings bag) had been dipping her hand in. She had been there years and the management always assumed it was us Saturday girls not doing our jobs properly.

I never minded about the bag checks and of course it didn't catch our thief at all.