Sunday, February 10, 2013

What can go wrong? Part 2



Last week we talked about a thief.
He was exposed on a reality TV show.
It’s Mystery Diners on the Food Network.
The thieving employee lost his job.
He could have gone to jail.
He stole hundreds of dollars.
I recommend you watch this show.
You will see how employees can steal from your business.

Here’s an example from a recent show.
A popular bar owner’s nightly take was falling.
She suspected the night bartender was doing it.
But she couldn’t prove anything.
The guy was resourceful and she liked him.
She also liked being able to go home at night.
She trusted him to run the bar after dark.

Revenue kept falling so she made a call.
Mystery Diners came in and set up cameras.
She watched her bartender bring in his own booze.
He wasn’t selling hers and ringing it up.
He was pouring his and pocketing the money.
No wonder her revenues were falling.
The guy was using her place to run his own bar.

To make matters worse, he had a friend helping.
The guy wasn’t an employee but he was working.
They were both drinking booze themselves.
You can see where this was headed.
Her bartender had a part-time limo driving job.
So he left his friend in charge of the bar.
He had to go pick up someone in the limo.

The owner stopped him and brought him back.
She took him to the secret screening room.
He saw himself on the monitors stealing from her.
He was a big guy and gave her a hard time.
She fired him and told him not to come back.
If he did, she would call the police.

This is the kind of thing that could happen to you.
You don’t need to run a restaurant.
Just about any business will do.
Trusted employees may take advantage of you.
What do you do?
More about that next week.

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