Management response to petty thefts

[aTeaLeafInOurMidst]

Just mulling over recent incidents in the office and feeling a bit let down by how management are dealing with the issue. Cutting a long story short, there have been a series of petty incidents over the course of the last few months (e.g. personal property being interfered with, small items going missing, that sort of thing). It seems to be targeted at a certain group of people. We think we know who is doing it, but have no proof.

Line management's response is to compile a list of the incidents and try to build up a picture of who is in the office at the time, to narrow down the list of suspects. It transpired that our manager hasn't escalated the issue any further, either to their line manager or to security. She says that there is nothing that can be done - apparently covert cctv wouldn't be allowed (I've googled and it seems guidance on this is a bit complicated), and that the police or our security team wouldn't be interested as the incidents are pretty minor.

I'm feeling somewhat targeted by the incidents and frustrated by the crap response we've had from the manager. Does anyone know if there's any obligation for the company to take this seriously?

Line management's response is to compile a list of the incidents and try to build up a picture of who is in the office at the time, to narrow down the list of suspects

I don't understand why you're not happy with you LMs response. They are acting responsibly and trying to gather facts and data, rather than going all guns ablazing up the management chain with no tangible proof of the incidents.

What will more senior management be able to do anyway? They are even further removed from the situation than your LM and will be even more reluctant to point fingers and start a witch hunt.

If it's personal items, then suggest to your manager they issue a note to recommend people lock valuables away and don't leave purses, wallets, mobile phone unattended on desks.

If it's company items like stationery, toilet paper, kitchen items being pilfered, then they need to be locked away and issued at certain times of day according to need. If stuff is left around in large quantities, they'll be swiped, that's life I'm afraid.

Thank you for replying @daisychain01 The items going missing are personal items and work-related paperwork. The personal items are usually nothing valuable, e.g. a jar of coffee, a coaster, a photograph (the small paraphernalia that people often have on their desks). The work-related stuff is for e.g. notes that people have made about a subject, a folder of project info, that sort of thing. So again nothing of monetary value but it makes life difficult for people when it goes missing. Initially a lot of the thefts went under the radar as people just replaced their items as it never occurred to us that it was a thief. Then things ramped up and the thefts were harder to dismiss as absent-mindedly losing things - so for eg rather than a photo frame going missing, the photo would be removed and the empty frame left on the desk. Thats's when people started pooling experiences and we realised that a small group of us were being targeted. Unfortunately there's nowhere in the office for us to lock things away (we don't even have drawers under our desks!) which has maybe increased my sense of frustration at the manager advising us not to leave things out - there's nowhere else to put them!

I guess I wondered if there was anything more that could practically be done. When a similar situation occurred in my husband's office they installed a cctv camera and caught the culprit. This was a few years ago though maybe the rules have been tightened up on what's allowed now...

At the moment it just feels like the response is for us to continue to have our belongings picked off until the thief catches herself out

Thanks again for your perspective though DaisyChain, I appreciate an inpartial view on matters and accept that management maybe aren't as crap as I thought

What a frustrating situation. I’d almost be tempted to set up my own hidden camera 😅.

I’ve no advice other than to suggest that everyone targeted gets together and complain as a group. I’d complain in writing. Have you an HR dept?

@aTeaLeafInOurMidst I would be wary of the unintended consequences of CCTV, and it could be a sledgehammer to crack a nut. On the basis of what you've said, it is appropriate for management to operate a clean desk policy, whereby people don't have personal belongings at work left on desks which give the opportunity to some malicious miscreant deliberately violating those belongings.

Having CCTV is the thin end of a pointy wedge, and can become increasingly oppressive. You've only got to have a change of management to one akin to a dictatorship, and before you know it they'll be timing people's toilet breaks etc. There was a thread on here last year about just that subject.

In the absence of lockers, which I actually think is completely unreasonable and ought to be highlighted by staff as such, so management provide suitable facilities to lock away personal items) I would keep any personal belongings away from view and any paperwork kept out of sight as presumably you do have filing cabinets if your office is very much paper based.

Can you not arrange to see your manager en masse? List all the incidents and show a pattern of harassment and bullying? Because that's what this is.

Do you have a computer on your desk? Can you then your webcam on to record and just leave it running. Then at least you will know who it is and you can plan around that.

Number 1 suspect=the manager!

Sort of wondering if this is our office as we have the exact same thing going on apart from its not isolated to one group of people. What the management team have done for you is in line with what we've been advised by HR and the union on our end. We have been advised that CCTV isnt an option and tbh nobody wants to, so we are doing what your team are doing - with the added benefit of a keycard reader so we know exactly who was in what place at what time.

Sorry for not replying sooner - I hate threads where the OP disappears after everyone has taken the time to reply! No more thefts this week thank goodness, fingers crossed that the culprit has given it up for now.

In reply to some of your comments: @daisychain01, I take your point about cctv being the start of a slippery slope. I've reduced the number of things on my desk down to the bare minimum - the only thing I leave out now are some tea bags and a few pens which were from the stationery cupboard anyway. Still not happy about the lack of locking storage space but we'll see what the manager can do about that...

Re. hidden cameras and webcams, etc, I'm not getting into all that as I'm not clear on the interpretation of the rules and knowing my luck it would be me getting in trouble for flouting the law

@TDMN sorry to hear you're going through similar, and interesting to hear that the response has been similar. There's all sorts of theories going round in our office, and tbh I think it's a real shame. The team generally gets on really well, we've known each other for years and we all pull together to meet tough deadlines etc. I hate the insidious feeling of mistrust and suspicion that has crept in since this all started