Ask a Manager: My Employee Fell For A Scam

[minoanmiss]

2. My employee fell for a scam

I run a small retail business and while I was out this afternoon, someone came in and scammed one of my employees into giving him $300 in cash from the register. He told my employee that I was buying some furniture from him and we had spoken about, so she handed him the cash, then realized what she’d done and called me.

How do I proceed from here? I know that confidence tricksters are professionals, but handing over $300 without checking with the boss — I’m good at telling my team when changes are happening and would never ask anyone other than me to pay someone — seems like a big lapse in judgment. That is not an insignificant sum to the business — it’s an average day’s takings.

Any advice on how to handle this with this employee would be appreciated.

The business should cover the expense, just like you would if she made a totally different type of error in her work that cost you money. Absorbing the cost of errors is part of the cost of doing business. You shouldn’t ask an employee to pay for something that happened while they were performing their job in good faith.

But take this as impetus to train all your staff on spotting scams and handling similar situations that could come up in the future.

Comments

[tielan]

I recall an anecdote about a programmer who fucked something up in his company to the tune of $10m, couldn't fix the issue, that $10m was gone.

Management calls him in, sits him down, he already has his resignation letter. Management tears it up: "We just invested $10m into your education; you're not leaving us now."

Anecdotal, but the lesson is pertinent. This was $300 invested into an education for all the staff - and the business owner.