To think it is beyond the realms of paranoia to open Employees Christmas Cards from Clients?

[VVVExcitedAboutChristmasQV]

Several cards, addressed to "VVQV & Family" and "VVQV Colleague & Family" and quite clearly Christmas cards were opened today before being handed to me by the top boss man who opens all post.

I mean, there is nothing in there to hide, but honestly????? Is it???

yeah weird - the top boss man opens ALL post? sosmething definitely wrong there, I'd be worried he was hiding something as normally that is a job delegated to the minions

The top boss man in your firm opens all the post personally? That is paranoia in itself, never mind the fact that some of the post is Christmas cards.

Weeeeeird.

Has your boss got nothing more important to do than open all the post?

Especially xmas cards, I mean they must obvioulsy look like christmas cards!

Odd man.

Weird and also really bad management. When does he get the time to do his actual job if he is busy opening the post?

Persuade him to do a 360 degree appraisal and suggest he needs training in delegation and empowering his staff. (OK, that'll never happen)

He gets in at 4am most days!!!!

Then I'll say it again VVV - Weeeeeird!!! (does he not have a life??)

I would have thought that post would be opened by the lowly minions (ie me - that's what I seem to spend most of my time at work doing!) than the big boss. It's the wrong way round.

sounds like he has a lovely home life

Our MD opens all our mail to actually (he owns the company)

He has even been known to open peoples Valentines cards!

VVV, this guy sounds like he has problems!

A wee tip - we have two people (both lowly minions) opening the post, and they have to write down each item in a mail log (audit reasons as we have cheques etc coming in).

Maybe your boss could implement a similar system and then he could spend his day reading the mail log instead of physically opening the post. Or he could open the post himself, write the mail log and then re-read it to his heart's content.

No, he is the senior partner in a practice he has been in for 40 years. He's not about to change I fear.

What makes it worse is, all the gifts that clients send in are snaffled too.

My colleague told me that once, one of her clients, a lingerie producer, sent her a gift at Christmas. After Christmas, colleague got a letter saying "did you like hte gift I sent - did they fit?". It was the first she'd heard of it. When she asked said senior partner, it turns out he'd taken the underwear home for his wife . The package had been sent Recorded Delivery, in the name of said colleague too!!!!!!!

And it's not like they are short of cash to need bottles of wine, chocolates etc that clients send in (for EVERYONE at Christmas). They could easily divide it all between staff. So petty and tight-arsed.

in any big accountancy practice all post Must be opended centrally incase it has cheques/cash in it - no exceptions made for Xmas cards. Keeping presents is just wierd and very off to give to members of his family. Risks pissing off clients which I would have thoguht would matter to him!

It's not a particularly big practice. 7 members - 35 staff.

It's largely okay here, dont get me wrong. I just cant believe christmas cards are opened, and staff arent trusted to mention cheques (particularly since my colleague and I control bought and purchase ledger, billing, payroll etc).

Surely the keeping and giving the underwear to his wife is theft?

I dont know bubble?

I mean, it was addressed to colleage at the company - would that make it company property? Mind you, then taking it home to give to his wife might make a difference?

What gets me is the 2 or 3 homes, the porsches/audis etc. They dont need it. It's just greedy. There are folk here who are just scraping through this christmas (things arent so great for myself either but i'm not a single parent, thankfully, like some of the other part time workers here), and could do with the little extras like chocs and wine to take home.

You ought to get client who sent the gift to your colleague to challenge the boss for nicking it. That'll really embarrass him!!!

Gifts can get you into trouble with the taxman - if you were feeling particularly annoyed you could report him

we aren't allowed to accept anything over a certain amount, not just cash but also gifts in kind. If you can't not accept without gicving offence, it's usually auctioned off for the benvolent fund. I work for a charity though, so different rules may apply.