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Topic: Firing employees who steal

Daniel Boisson
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 157
From: Buffalo, NY, USA
Registered: Oct 2001

posted 12-25-2002 04:36 PM

At my theatre, EVERYTHING is counted at close, including the candy and cups. At one point a while ago, the theatre that the owner managed even weighed the bulk candy nightly. Plus, everything in the cage is counted nightly, and locked after counting, even if we didn't need to restock the counter.

Furthermore, the owner has an auditor that works for him randomly check one of the 4 theatres every few weeks.

I think the only major problem with steeling at my theatre was with a manager reselling tickets and pocketing the money, she was found out after about week...

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 12-25-2002 05:48 PM

Thanks, Ian, for the detailed input. It is quite interesting. Here in Germany, everyone is entitled to unemployment insurance if he loses his job and it is not his fault. If it is his fault (because he has given a reason to get fired, such as stealing, or if he quit himself), he has to wait for 3 months to get unemployment benefits. Every employee has to pay into the unemployment insurance from his salary.
Is that the same in the US or can you chose if you want to insure yourself against unemployment?
Another question is, on page 1 of this discussion, Jerry Chase wrote "but you open yourself wide open for a slander charge if you can't prove your theft charge." So I guess, while employment in the US is "at will", and termination of the contract does not require that specific reasons are given, an employer should always make sure that he has good provable reasons so that he might not become the target of charges from the ex-employee?

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Ian Price
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1714
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-25-2002 05:59 PM

It's exactly the same here.

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Michael Gonzalez
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 790
From: Grand Island , NE USA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 12-25-2002 06:31 PM

The most important thing that you can do is keep detailed employee records. I try to make sure that EVERY policy violation is recorded and placed in the employee's respected folder not just the major ones. So they can be written up, not just for things such as drawer variances, but violations such as showing up ten minutes late for work or running out of stock in the middle of a set. The biggest reason that I had started this policy a couple of years back is because I was tired of firing employees and then having their mommy call and wonder how I could have possiable have firied their little angel. And the problem would be that dispite the fact that little Johnny was always late and messing up, I would be able, off the top of my head over the phone, to remember just when or how often their spoiled brat kid broke the rules. Now I simply have to walk over to the file drawer, pull their employee file, and be able to name all the times (day and dates) that their kid broke the rules and why, whatever the last violation, was the last straw. That shuts the parent up real quick. It is very imporaint that you document your employees performance (both the bad and good) and that you stay consistent about it.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 12-26-2002 07:48 AM

Thought for the day: In every police station house, all the lockers have locks on them. [Eek!]

Frank

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Bob Maar
(Maar stands for Maartini)

Posts: 28608
From: New York City & Newport, RI
Registered: Feb 2001

posted 12-26-2002 09:55 AM

Frank, That is because some cops have Law Degrees.... [Smile]

and we all know lawyers are the bottom of the barrel. [Roll Eyes]

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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays

Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 12-26-2002 11:16 AM

Lawyers always get me with their attitude that they are beyond reproach; that it's a dignified profession!

That's like the truck driver who rides 36" from your bumper at 70 miles an hour, with a sign on his trailer proclaiming how safe he is!

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 12-27-2002 12:42 AM

In the US the employer pays for unemployment insurance; there is no deduction to the employee's pay. There is both state and federal to pay although the actual insurance claims and payments are made by units of state government. Insurance coverage is mandatory, at least in my state.

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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"

Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002

posted 12-27-2002 09:17 AM

Well, maybe the employer pays into the insurance, but it is effectively the same if it works like this or if the employee has to pay for it. The employer simply sees the total of costs for salary and insurance, and that is what the employee costs him.

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Steve Kraus
Film God

Posts: 4094
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: May 2000

posted 12-27-2002 06:06 PM

My own state unemployment rate was set at the maximum because I was a new business. Now that I have a track record (no claims in 2.5 years) it will drop substantially for 2003. That reduces my costs and in theory could influence my decisions regarding pay increases.

BUT if it was purely a payroll deduction paid only by the employee (like income tax withholding but unlike our Social Security pension and Medicare programs which are both deducted from employee pay AND matched by the employer) then I would be completely indifferent to a rise or fall in the rates as it would have no affect on my costs. So yes it does make a difference.

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Barry Martin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 203
From: Newington, CT USA
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 12-28-2002 08:25 PM

At my theater we had several stealing scams. One involved our coffee bar where an employee would leave tips out on the register and when taking orders would just ring the item in so the total showed, then make change for the person out of the tips, pocket the money, and delete the order after they left. There were a few people involved in that one and it was pretty easy since the coffee bar only required one person to run it at most times and was so far off in the corner nobody would ever notice. We caught on because of how little money the coffee bar was actually making, not that it was ever a great profit center.

Ticket scams were the most common. Sell them a child, charge them for an adult, sell them a stub from a previous show (you wouldn't believe how many ticket-takers were lazy enough not to check the stubs especially the auditorium number and time), and the best involved two supervisors, one at box office the other working the ticket-taking. Sell the ticket, ticket-taker pockets it, refunds it later, they split it. [Mad]

The one thing that pissed me off royally actually involved another theater stealing from mine. There is a "second-run" about 5 minutes away from the theater I worked at. When we had movies that were being broken down on Thursday night and just going over there Friday morning we made an arrangement to just clamp the film at my theater, have someone from the second-run come over and pick it up, bring back the clamps, center ring, and trailers the next day. Well, a couple times the trailer programs came back missing trailers. We noticed because when building a trailer program we actually would write up a list of the trailers on that program with the accurate running times. The movie trailers I probably wouldn't have cared about as we always had plenty unless it was a very small release. However, they stole policy trailers too which at the time we were having a hard time getting corporate to send us more (50 bucks for the corporate logo and 50 bucks for the "exit" times 20 screens and 2 formats...not cheap) to replace the ones we had had for over 2 years. We didn't know who was doing it at that theater, so we didn't accuse anyone. We did cut off the exchange program for a while though and of course the problem disappeared.

The interesting part was when the former projectionist from that theater came to work for our theater as a manager and actually told me that he had stolen the trailers and that he had at least one from every theater he worked at. I actually saw this collection once when he left it in the booth after using it to train some supervisors. If there is one thing worse than a liar in my book it's a thief, especially when that thief is supposed to be trustworthy enough to be a manager.

In my experience though, whether they are caught or not life always gets these people in some way or another, it just takes a little longer. [thumbsup]

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Rachel Carter
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 248
From: Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA
Registered: Dec 2000

posted 12-29-2002 12:39 AM

Barry,
Before you accuse people of stealing you may want to check on all the facts. The policy trailers were infact not stolen by this person you are talking about...3 trailers, from the theatres he used to work at (the theater you worked at, the discount theater across the street, and the discount theater close by) were all given to him by other managers at the time that he worked at those places. The other trailer was shipped with a print, he contacted the theater (from Ohio) and they told him to keep the trailer because they didn't want to bother with it. You really should not accuse people of stealing unless you know the facts. My discount theater and the theater that you "used" to work at work very close together, sharing items when needed and helping each other out. As far as I know, at no time did the theater you used to work at stop sharing prints.

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Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 12-29-2002 01:25 AM

Absolutely childish and pathetic...

oddly enough that managers trailer program disapeared that night he left it in the booth and was never seen again...

You know whats worse than someone who lies, or steals?

Someone who steals and lies.

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John Walsh
Film God

Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999

posted 12-29-2002 09:23 AM

At a theater I worked at, we had an older woman working the box office. (Bob Marr may remember this.) She worked there for many years. Managers would often comment how good she was, saying that the box office count was always "perfect." In fact, apparently she was "perfect" every day she worked, not a penney over or under, - for several years. Of course, she was finally found out. The little "kicker" to the story was her husband was the electrical inspector for the city.

A side note about the electrical inspector; We had installed a large power contactor to turn the booth equipment on/off with a timer. We set things up to "automatically" dress the house early for patrons who arrive very early (some like to sit and read the paper until the show starts.) This inspector looks at the contactor, then tells us we have to install a huge "Frankenstein" knife switch also.

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Barry Martin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 203
From: Newington, CT USA
Registered: Jul 2002

posted 12-29-2002 09:48 AM

quote:
Before you accuse people of stealing you may want to check on all the facts.

Kay, here goes (though it's mostly repetition since I already backed up my facts with personal knowledge).

quote:
The policy trailers were infact not stolen by this person you are talking about

I never named a person, theater, or date, so I'm not sure how you could be certain we are talking about the same person. I do know you were either not at HH at the time or at least not a manager because I knew all the managers at the time (most of them having come from my theater or the same chain at least) and I asked them about the missing trailers, of which they had no knowledge of course.

quote:
3 trailers, from the theatres he used to work at (the theater you worked at, the discount theater across the street, and the discount theater close by) were all given to him by other managers at the time that he worked at those places. The other trailer was shipped with a print, he contacted the theater (from Ohio) and they told him to keep the trailer because they didn't want to bother with it.

I only said my trailers were stolen, since I was unsure of the methods he came by the others. I simply quoted what they said to me in a conversation revolving my missing trailers, which included boasting about the other trailers.

quote:
You really should not accuse people of stealing unless you know the facts.

I agree, and I didn't accuse anyone. There was a thread listed on the topic of theft, I replied with the three stories I had from PERSONAL, not second-hand experience. There are plenty more I have heard about, but I don't know the facts in those circumstances so I didn't list them. Hell, with my work in an electronics store I could go on for PAGES on theft, it happens everyday there and statistically speaking 60-70% of the time it is internal theft.

quote:
As far as I know, at no time did the theater you used to work at stop sharing prints.

Again, personal experience and I don't think you were there at the time in question Rachel. I know this happened at that theater and that we stopped the swapping because I closed every Thursday night since May of 1999 and opened 9 out of 10 Friday mornings since that time, including the ones during the time I am referring to in my above post. As I said above, I couldn't know who had taken them once they left my theater so I didn't name names, just asked my friends who were managers at HH. It was the person in question TELLING me he had taken the trailers from us that provided the identity of the thief. Otherwise the story would have read "Trailers went missing in transit, maybe stolen, can't be sure."

As for where the trailers went after I found them in my booth, I did what any good employee should do and brought the theft to attention by turning the trailers over to upper management and telling the same story I told above. They already knew about the trailers going missing from the other theater because we told them to stop the trading when we noticed. I always assumed the manager got off the hook with a warning, but it sounds more like he never got talked to at all which doesn't surprise me considering what they needed him for.

If my word isn't good enough, there is a projectionist who used to work Friday mornings with me that could back up my story, not that it should be necessary as no one is on trial here. That's all I can think of to add for now, sorry if my first post wasn't detailed enough, but I thought I got the important stuff in.

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