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sweetwaterfish · Guest

Serious employee question....

waxman18324 · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute Of America

Ray,

If he's responsible for the thefts he won't stop until he's caught or the well runs dry. If the well does go dry he might start stealing equipment, chemicals, clients, etc. from you. Since he's a sub contractor the liabilty is limited by severing your relationship with him now. Do you have reservations about terminating his contract for any reason?

Hank

Sep 2, 2012

share the circumstantial evidence so we can kick it around

sweetwaterfish · Guest

Here's the skinny: Long term employee ( 1.5 years)....just hooked up with a new girlfriend who I think is on the trashy side. My supervisor and he have been friends for years (10+). He actaully brought supervisor on to company. Supervisor is diabetic and carries a cooler with insulin, and keeps his wallet in there too. In the past week, he has had over $500 taken from his wallet. All evidence points to the other employee (his long term friend), but no hard core proof. The work togehter as a team. No other crew has worked with this duo this week.

Supervisor is torn up due to nature of their long term friendship.

I hate it for supervisor, and the suspect employee's parents and I are very close friends.

Has really shaken my faith in the crew. I hire only subcontractors...no set hours, no unemployment...but termination will cause serious personal repercussions due to interwoven friendships.

Sep 2, 2012

how was money taken....all at once? Over a couple day? Was cooler in truck? Can both use cooler? Was wallet in same place after money taken? Is suspect aware that money is missing? Has anyone talked about to suspect?

Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

Does that suspect, have any drug or alcohol related problems? When stealing from a friend, this is usually the case. If this is true, don't severe the connection but offer to get them some help. You can still come out of this looking like the good guy. If they did it, they most likely won't admit it, and my actually get overly angry. Also a symptom of drug or alcohol abuse. Tell your supervisor not to bring so much cash with them.

Dan

sweetwaterfish · Guest

I brought up the new trashy girlfriend scenario, because suspect employee's life has changed since she's been around. Nobody uses the cooler expect for the supervisor (he keeps his insulin in there), its not a community cooler.

He doesn't typically keep that much money on him, he just graduated from college and his grandfather gave him $1,000.

And yes, money was taken over the course of two different days.

garyw · Sep 2, 2012

Get some of that ultra-violet paste like the fire dept puts on call boxes to track false alarms. Put some on the cooler lid and also on the money. See if he glows at the end of the day. biggrin

Sep 2, 2012

I like Garys idea, and if it was just those two working those days then of course he your man and I think a BIG BOY talk is in order. " Look we know you did it, we are all friends here....friends make mistakes...so lets clear it up now without lies to show our relationship is still important. He either bites at that or don't, if he dont he gotta go. Drug use is a real problem, I'm sorry 99.9% of them go back and use it. I agree if he's stealing it's probably that.good luck.

Roof Cleaning New Jersey · Sep 2, 2012

It's probably not drugs. I says its alcohol. Cuz an addict would steal your money, then help you look for it.

Sep 2, 2012

Just be careful for yourself. Calling someone a sub-contractor, does not make him one. If he gets angry with you, he could start up a lot of trouble for you with "Workers Comp" "Unemployment Ins" "IRS" etc.

Customers have to be notified in writing, that a sub-contractor is on the job. He has to be licensed and insured and his own employees if any, have to be legally covered too and YOU have to check that out, for your jobs he is subbing. There is a lot more involved. I once thought "I'll just hire someone and have them agree that they are subcontracting from me." At that time, you just walked into the County Bldg, paid $35.00 and you had a license to pressure clean. I wondered if I could get away with that, back then [probably over 10 years ago, when I considered building my business up to be something big. I'm glad I didn't do it! ] The lawyer I talked to [ in advance ] told me, that if he was really an employee and not a true contractor, subbing from me, then if a he got hurt, fired, or just wanted unemployment $ or to get even with me, I would never win a court case. He said such things are too commonly done and any judge would know it was just "evasion" of paying taxes & insurances etc on my part. I forgot about trying that!

So, I'm just warning you to handle the matter in a way to protect yourself too!

Your half of his taxes alone through the years, would be plenty, with fines etc + Unemployment, Workers Comp etc.

-- Edited by Bergman Roof Cleaning Port Charlotte FL 941-698-1959 on Sunday 2nd of September 2012 08:06:19 PM

RCIA Founder

LOL Ed, but it is true!

zjim · Guest

I say set him up with marked money. Put 5 $20's in the cooler and mark them all with a sharpie.

gutterdog · Sep 3, 2012

sweetwaterfish wrote:
Here's the skinny: Long term employee ( 1.5 years)....just hooked up with a new girlfriend who I think is on the trashy side. My supervisor and he have been friends for years (10+). He actaully brought supervisor on to company. Supervisor is diabetic and carries a cooler with insulin, and keeps his wallet in there too. In the past week, he has had over $500 taken from his wallet. All evidence points to the other employee (his long term friend), but no hard core proof. The work togehter as a team. No other crew has worked with this duo this week.

Supervisor is torn up due to nature of their long term friendship.

I hate it for supervisor, and the suspect employee's parents and I are very close friends.

Has really shaken my faith in the crew. I hire only subcontractors...no set hours, no unemployment...but termination will cause serious personal repercussions due to interwoven friendships.

Dude You Rockin!!!!

Roof Cleaning Tallahassee · Guest

First off Ray, sorry hear about this situation. Very tough when you have interwoven friendships coupled with buisness. If the guy did steal, the new trashy girlfriend should not even be a part of the story because a thief is a thief and people should be accountable for their own actions.

It's easy for me to be an armchair quarterback but I would get rid of him ASAP. If he would steal from a friend of 10 plus years, what next? One of your pressure washers or possibly even a trailer go missing?

sweetwaterfish · Guest

Talked to the family and looks like the problem is solved from my end. Some friendships have been devastated, but in the end all of our suspicions were proven true. Drugs.

waxman18324 · Premium Member Roof Cleaning Institute Of America

Ray,

There was no easy way around this. Somewhere along the line relationships were going to be tested and possibly severed. Drugs are an illness and I pray that your former employee will recover, learn and move forward.

Hank

Sep 4, 2012

Wow thats pretty sad, how old is he? Did he admit to it or the family told you?

Apex Roof Cleaning · Guest

I'm glad you got it all straightened out. Sorry to hear it was drugs.

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"Find A Certified Roof Cleaner Directory"