Is it normal for staff to have their bag searched when leaving work these days?

[nicenewone1]

Dd just started working in a posh clothing store. She says that they all have their bags searched when leaving. Well that might be a slight exaggeration, the manager looks into them as they leave

She was also questioned as to why she was taking her coat to the toilet draped over her arm

Is this normal practice these days? I would be very offended if it were me, but she doesn't seem to mind up to now.

Maybe I am being over sensitive?

I suppose it depends on how much stuff goes missing. Never happened to me when temping at Harrods though!

I can totally understand why companies do this. I was on maternity leave and a series of relief managers were brought in who didn't really care less about security and sat in the office doing not very much and one of my staff members was caught allowing friends to buy more expensive items for a pound or two, this was back in the old days when prices had to be manually inputted into the till so she could do this and losses didn't show up until a stock take was done. She passed hundreds of pounds worth of stock over the counter. The staff member and friends were prosecuted. A stock take was done a week before my leave started and it was spot on so I knew it hadn't been done on my watch.

I'm amazed at how many people are shocked at this and saying that the company should trust their workers. That would be a bit of a silly attitude for a business to have, when they can potentially be losing a lot of money. It's like shops that don't put security tags on stuff, just setting themselves up to be targeted. Also, it's not like recruitment in retail is subject to the highest security checks is it 

I used to work with someone who managed to get around this by leaving through the store we had to walk through to get to our back of house (usually on a busy Saturday afternoon so no one really noticed) and it came to light that she had stolen thousands of pounds worth of stock and had also been committing refund fraud when left alone on the shop floor for a short period of time. This story was told to a member of management when they move from another store and she also did the exact same thing . Again, thousands lost. Hard for a company to keep writing that off.

I also worked at a place where you couldn't put your coat on until you had left the shop, as a pp mentioned about someone stealing clothes by putting them under what they were wearing etc. Everything was checked every time you leave the store so even on break times so you don't go and stash stuff in your car or meet someone to pass it onto etc.

I know it's a case of nothing to worry about if nothing to hide, but it's not the point is it

So it's the principle of the thing for you?

Well, I work in retail. You can have your principles, or you can have your job, but you can't have both. While you're working, you have to do as you're told, as is laid out in your contract. If you don't like that, then you shouldn't have signed it.

I mean you can gasp and tut and clutch your pearls if you need to, but enough people are dishonest that this is NECESSARY.

And actually, the whole knock-on thing about shoplifting hiking up the prices for everyone else is crap, did you know that? When businesses lose money to theft, they don't recoup it by jacking up their prices. They recoup it by cutting hours. So it's the staff that lose out, not the customers. And if showing my LP guy what's in my bag means I have a shift to come to next Saturday, then hell, I'll do it.

Years ago, my DM worked for a while in a big hospital. The office she was in was responsible for ordering cleaning supplies and equipment. She said a phenomenal amount of stuff went missing. They continually had to replace loo brushes, for example. The manager was quite resigned to it.

Ooh they've been searching staff for eons! Well before your DD was even thought of maybe.

Usually they randomise it with a button that lets you through or gets you stopped.

I had to pass through that area as a manager multiple times a day, so for sure you'd be searched once a day. But I had nothing to hide and the guy with the wand thing was quite good looking so he could frisk me all he wanted too. Was the best thrill I was getting that day. (Sarcasm)

As for bag searches, I was on morphine and diazepam to name a few things you wouldn't want shouting about. Tampons/towels, doesn't bother me. I can't think of anything I wouldn't want to make public knowledge. Obviously don't pack your vibrator in there as you'll get a few funny looks. I doubt you could do that discretely in a toilet cubicle anyway, all that buzzing. Ooh thought of something and it's slipped my mind, oh ye more recently I travel differently so with my radar key there's catheters, catheter bags, disinfectant spray, wipes.

That was a fun visit through security somewhere, plus a fun phonecall trying to source some more of this special spray. On the continent they're super into that bidet stuff so have a whole section of washes, sprays and stuff. So I'm there with my language dictionary deciphering it.

Given zero hours contracts, not surprising. If you did not know if you would ever be given work again, for some people it might be very tempting to steal, wrong as it is.

It is said that NCR salesmen, in the early days of cash registers, used to put notes through shop doors, beginning (something like)

"What would you think of a man who taught your boy to steal?

Leaving cash in a drawer with no idea of how much should be there puts temptation in your assistant's way. A cash register...."

Agree that it's not just retail. This story hit the headlines in Glasgow a few years ago:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8599093.stm

Medical professional stealing to order from Glasgow hospitals and flogging the stuff on Ebay.

I was involved in sacking someone once for something similar - I worked in an accounts receivable department and we picked up an unusual pattern of credits into a residential account - someone was getting goods every month, then their account was being refunded with the same amount within days, so in effect they were getting their goods free. Turned out it was a supervisor in another depot who was providing their mum with goods and fraudulently providing her with refunds. It had been going on for months/years and she had fraudulently refunded over £1000. She was dimissed on the spot but I don't think it was handed over to the police.

I used to work at Center Parcs years ago and our cars were searched on the way out x

I think it was normal to be searched post shift in my day as why would you leave and get your stuff before you're finished work? It's a bit crazy if you're on till close of shop, do they add on 5 minutes to your contract as you won't be in the staff room before close surely? Like in warehouses, you wouldn't down tools 10 minutes before shifts end on the off chance you'd get stopped!

As a teenager I worked electrical retail. We had bags checked at the end of the day when we had a spate of thefts, which was ridiculous, as the things going missing were tvs, microwaves and consoles.

It turned out that one or two staff members were taking things from the warehouse, then immediately going out the back 'for a smoke' and putting the nicked items in the skips. Later, either they or one of their names would drive round and collect the items. We found out when a new manager started and got an extra CCTV camera installed to point to three smoking area as well as the back door. I think this must be quite a common method- I had a school friend who used to hang around at the back of retail stores and go through the skips after he saw someone putting something valuable in one. He scavenged loads of stuff over the years - the thieves couldn't exactly complain that they were being stolen from!

At the same job, someone was a bit light fingered with the till. I was responsible for cashing up, and always alerted a manager when the tills didn't balance, so I was eliminated from the investigation quite quickly, especially as it happened when I wasn't on shift. I don't think we caught that person. I think it was a temp who left after a few weeks.

The best one was when I worked in an office and a few people had money and items stolen from their bags when they left their desks. I worked in a smaller self contained and lockable office so we weren't concerned. Management got extra security in. The thefts stopped for a short time, then suddenly started back up with a vengeance. Eventually CCTV caught the culprit - one of the contracted extra security guards! The original thief had left and a guard with means and opportunity decided to copycat them. No one would have suspected the security staff.

When I did my security training at a major high street department store, they told us that the majority of theft is not from shoplifters but from staff. There were so may ways to steal; getting others to use your discount card when they weren't allowed, taking money out of the till, stealing merchandise, discounting items for family / friends, redirecting deliveries or orders to friends / family and not the actual customers etc.

If you ever read threads on here about shoplifting you will see that stealing from big shops is seen as fair game by a surprising number of posters

Yes, this

Years ago our credit control manager opened a separate bank account and managed to defraud the company by tens of thousands of £££ by creaming off customer payments into her account. It was discovered when she was away on holiday, and when she came back the finance director and the police were waiting for her. She received a custodial sentence.

I would never have thought her capable of doing this. We were all very shocked.

I worked in New Look in the 90's/early 00's and we had bag checks. I thought it was standard at the time. The manager was always nice about it though.

I worked in a pub where a couple of people were sacked for stealing from the tills. And giving free beer. Just how thick do you have to be too do that though? Everyone was given their own till to use and everything was computerised so it could be shown immediately if something was amiss.

Sadly stealing from employers is really common. When DM ran a care home a member of staff who very popular, well liked and good at their job, was caught stealing money from petty cash. This money that was used to buy treats for the residents.

I know of someone who was sacked from one of the main supermarket chains for pocketing money off vouchers when working on the tills.

I also know of someone who was sacked for stealing alcohol while working at another large supermarket chain. They'd been watching her on CCTV for a while, and when they had enough evidence the police were called and she was arrested in store and taken from the premises in front of colleagues. This person was teetotal so god knows why they were stealing bottles of whiskey? But they were.

For some people the temptation is just way too much. It's always the last people you'd expect in my experience.

I think it is allowed that your bag is searched outside your paid hours as long as the extra time does not take you below minimum wage.

We used to get our bags searched at Lidl

Bag checks are a matter of course.

My previous employer had a case a few years back of fraudulent refunds- this staff member had transferred and it was only spotted because we had so few supervisors for cash office work that they were able to work out what she had done because they were noticing lots of small issues.

A customer would return one of two/ more items bought for cash and if they didn't want to keep the receipt for the other items, it would be attached to our copy. Later, when alone on the shop floor she would put the remaining items through for a refund, if it was a note value and would hide the cash on her person. Got away with over £800 over 4 months. More at her previous store.

One of her parents worked for the local constabulary.

Argos got fined for this recently.

Doing security checks that took pay below minimum wage that is.

I don't think that she should have been treated differently because she had tampons in her hand. I don't think her manager should have been embarrassed either.

I assume that this is legal simply as it seems to be so common and big companies like to make sure they're on the right side of legislation.

Out of interest, what happens if an employee simply says 'no'. Can they be fired?

You can't hold them on suspicion of anything until the police come without making a citizen's arrest. If you make a citizen's arrest and it is false, then you are open to being sued.

Years ago a store detective in M&S made a citizens arrest as I left the shop. I made sure there was a witness and stayed in front of CCTV until the police arrived. I ended up with £1,000 free shopping from their food hall and an apology.

I used to work at a bank and staff taking their coat to the toilet with them was a red flag for cashier theft. People put cash into the pockets of their coats (usually hung at the back of their chairs), then take it to the loo to count the cash band it & then take it out of the building at lunch to give it to someone else. It used to happen so often it was part of our procedures to check coats at the end of the day.

I don't work in retail but my work is in a shopping mall so I have to show inside my bag at the end of every shift. I never thought anything of it really. I have a work bag so it has nothing personal in it.