Cheese With That Wine
For several years I worked at a small and local trucking company,
rating shipments and always working with the customers to get them
the best deal possible. One day, one of my customers told me that he
had given one of my drivers a few bottles of wine for me and my boss.
A couple of days pass by, and the driver tells me that the boss took
all of the wine for herself, saying that it was “her” customer and
“her” company anyway.
A couple weeks go by, and the same customer felt bad that I didn’t
get any of his tasty wine and sent the driver with wine specifically
for ME. The boss noticed the wine in the back of the truck before the
driver can get into the office and let me know of my present. When I
asked my boss why she was taking something that someone had given to
me, she reminded me “who signs the paychecks.” I kept my mouth shut.
After that incident, I began chatting with my customers more about
their products, knowing that they would likely offer me samples or
gifts, but to my surprise many of them already had mailed or sent one
of my drivers with things- specifically marked for me. I never
received anything. Eight laborious years working for this company,
building the customer base and keeping customers happy, I can’t
imagine how many gifts she intercepted and claimed for herself.
I always wondered why my boss was adamant about picking up the mail
herself, or immediately checking out a driver’s truck when they
returned to the yard. It should also come as no surprise that she
lost a lot of customers after I resigned.
I hate to say it but most employers have policies that employees are not allowed to accept gifts from clients under any circumstances. Though it is nice that they thought so highly of you, but unfortunately as greedy as she is, she is actually doing you a favour and it will be her ass on the line for accepting these gifts.
Unless of course there is no such policy in place then you have something to be pissed about.
I’m sure there’s going to be some troll who comes on here spouting, “YOUR BOSS WAS WELL WITHIN HER RIGHTS, BLAH BLAH BLAH!” Even so, that still doesn’t make it OK. I don’t know why some bosses have this sense of extreme self-entitlement. I’ve known bosses who have taken food and gifts that were meant to be shared by the whole office and thrown said gifts in the trash because they themselves didn’t like the gift. How big of a jerk can you be?
I worked for Pacer Logistics for a number of years. We had a receptionist that did the same thing. She was a real diva/queen bee who thought her poop did not stink. She got caught taking home something that was to be given to the boss by a customer. After that we asked the customers to deliver anything to our home addresses. We were all surprised at how much stuff she took.
I could be wrong, but I’m fairly certain that would count as theft, which could be reported. Especially if the parcel in question is specifically marked to be delivered to you.
At the end of that day she is the boss. Her behaviour is disgusting, but she’s still the one in charge. Good on you for leaving and taking half her clientele with you, though- she has shown herself incapable of honesty or being trustworthy, so why should you be?
I don’t get bosses like that. Ultimately, that could be argued as theft: They were items directed to be given to you, and she was taking them. Taking your property without your consent or foreknowledge. Theft.
Yeah, she signs the paycheques, but as an account manager, you’re building massive rapport with these folks. Rapport that retains customers, and puts money in the boss’ pocket.
Screw her. I hope she lost all her business.
When someone addresses something to you and someone else takes it thats mail theft and it is a crime (A Federal crime) why didn’t you report this to the police??? Was this person an owner or just your boss? if this person was just a boss get written statements from a few customers that they had addressed these items to you and go over her head with this issue if nothing was done then go to the police
someone should’ve slipped laxatives into some brownies that were meant for the ‘whole office’ *wink*wink* that woulve been enough revenge for me, plus, she may’ve been more likely to think twice about stealing food from people after that. what a selfish b!tch.
What Ed said. If it’s delivered through UPS and is addressed to you, it’s a crime to open it if you are not the addressee. Retard OP should have reported that theft to the police and not have “just dealt with it” for 8 fucking years.
You should have told your customers to send it to you home address (or even hand deliver it to your home). I’m assuming all the gift that were mailed were sent to the company address.
Sarbanes–Oxley would have a field day with you! It is because of people like you and Ralph Nader (Mr. Enron himself) that I I went through an auditing HELL with the company I work for. Thank you so much douche!
@SGwBT – First of all, why do you assume OP is retarded? Certainly, if (s)he was able to hold down a job for eight years and become well liked by the customers, helping to build up the business, there must have been *something* going on upstairs. AND, until the last minute, OP did not know this had been going of for so long. So, once the crime was discovered, it was “Hasta la vista, boss lady”.
And, is it possible you can write a simple sentence without profanity?
When the OP realized what was going on (that this had been going on for some time), they should have notified customers that the company policy was that employees could not accept gifts. They would have stopped sending them and the arrogant boss would have been cut off from the supply of goodies.
This is not theft or mail theft (where did you see any mention of mailing anything?) As the first commenter noted, a boss is entirely within their rights to prohibit employees from receiving gifts from customers – in fact, it’s a good policy because it discourages kickback fraud on the part of the employee. HOWEVER, such a policy should be clearly communicated to employees when they are hired. Sounds like this boss was trying to sneak away with the stuff without the employee ever knowing, which is sleazy. At the very least, it would be nice for the EE to know that the customer was pleased enough to want to reward them even if they weren’t allowed to keep the swag. Further, the boss should have returned the items meant for the EE to the customer, not kept them for herself. So to sum up: illegal no, un-ethical yes.
OK, there was a reference to mailing items that I missed. I suppose intercepting a mailed package is technically illegal, but the employer could have allowed the EE to open the package and still confiscated the contents.
She sounds like a thief to me-what else is she stealing? A policy pertaining to accepting gifts from customers should have been in place from the very beginning and posted conspicuously so employees and customers alike could see and understand it.
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