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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Employee stealing from a food bank

326 replies

QQWWEERRTTTYYY · 22/06/2022 14:44

NC'd for this. I run a food bank. I have a (paid) assistant Mary, along with lots of volunteers. My assistant used to be a volunteer, for context, but this is now her first proper job. She's on the autistic spectrum but very high-functioning. She is due to leave at the end of this month (travel, then uni). She's 19.

Anyway - I'm pretty sure she's stealing stock. Not donations from the public, but corporate type donations - bulk packs of biscuits, crisps etc. Always treat-y things rather than the (many) more mundane foods we have. Eg we receive two boxes of Dairy Milk at 2pm on Monday, I see them on the shelf, I head off at 3.30 and leave Mary there to finish whatever task - and when I come back in at 7 the next morning, one of the boxes is open and two large bars are missing. That sort of thing, again and again. On some of these occasions other people are in too, but the common denominator is Mary (and she'd always be the one in last/locking up). It's also extended to leaving the wrappers lying around on occasion, which is both dumb and infuriating.

Lives at home in a very well-off house, no expenses/money issues, no shortage of food - I'm quite certain. It feels, instinctively, like "teenage bottomless pit" type behaviour.

So:
Catch her out definitively?
Give her a vague but pointed chat about our stock and what it's for?
Say something before I wave her off at the end of the month?
Ignore?
Some other thing?

I don't think the value of what she's stealing is any great shakes, but a) really, who the hell steals from a food bank? b) theft is theft c) I trained her up and gave her a brilliant opportunity with this job, so I find it quite hurtful. I also would rather she learn her lesson now rather than when she's, I dunno, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

I don't have any other managers etc to bounce this off. I have trustees, who I suspect will leave it with me to make a decision as I see fit. WWYD?

OP posts:
GonnaGetGoingReturns · 30/06/2022 17:23

OneFrenchEgg · 30/06/2022 13:12

You're an employment law specialist are you? Which I highly doubt. I have enough time to come back to this thread occasionally.

Not following your logic here. You don't need to be an 'employment law specialist' to have HR knowledge - I would estimate the majority of third sector workers and line managers in any industry have HR knowledge. It's not something reserved for a tiny percentage of the population!

So you're a HR specialist then??!!

Anyway... I'm back because somehow this thread cropped up even in my watched posts even though I unwatched it.

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