Home Depot fires employee who stopped a thief

[Beanbag]

The point is, if you have a company policy, it does no good unless the policy has been clearly communicated to all employees. I get stuff like this at my present job: Materials department is now closed, you can't just go in and get parts. We made it new policy two weeks ago.

Well, criminy, there's only a dozen of us in one room. How hard would it have been to take 30 seconds to make an announcement in the morning?

Beanbag

 

[Modified]

I think that is exactly the concern.

If the Home Depot guy had been killed in the struggle with the crook, who would be responsible?

Home Depot would. They would likely be sued by the guys family, in addition to what ever payments they were already obligated to pay in case of a work related death.

It only makes sense to forbid such action, from a business stand point. They lost what? Less than $200 if memory serves. But the potential loss from lawsuits would be in the millions.

A reputation for being tough on shoplifters might save millions though.

 

[tkingdoll]

This is no different to flouting any other company policy. If it was the company policy that you couldn't look at the internet on company computers, and this guy was fired for doing that, would we have any sympathy?

However, what is odd in this case is that he claims he wasn't aware of the company policy. He was a general manager. It's his job to be familiar with company policy.

So either:

1) He is guilty of incompetence in not being familiar with company policy despite being a manager and employee of the store for seven years, and therefore the firing was justified. Ignorance is no defence if the policy was available at any time. It's his job to be up to speed with company procedure, particularly when it comes to physically accosting the public. I mean, if you manage a store, surely you would be expected to know what the company line is when it comes to apprehending thieves? I find it very odd that he was the manager and never stopped to ask what the official policy on this was.

2) The policy was not ever available for viewing, he was never furnished with a copy (for example when he joined the company), the company made no effort to ensure its staff had read and received copies of this policy. In which case, the company is negligent and he should sue for unfair dismissal. A company policy written in Klingon and tied to a stone which is thrown to the bottom of a chasm somewhere east of Mount Etna is not enforceable, and certainly not grounds for firing.

But given that he doesn't plan to sue, I do wonder if the company policies were on the intranet/pin board/induction pack and he simply failed to read it.

I mean, who reads company policies? They're dull. But that doesn't mean you're not in trouble if you flout one.

ETA: I've just noticed that the main guy is a dept. manager and that the general manager was the second person who was fired. All of the above still stands though.

 

[Modified]

Anyhow, we had a written company policy concerning theft and robbery. Basically, it said roll over and play dead, let'em take anything they want, put up no resistance. Personally, I supported it whole-heartedly. My only suggestion was that they post it on the front door so as to reassure any nervous, trigger-happy robbers that we'd even gift-wrap the loot for them if they wanted.

Beanbag

My former bank had such a policy and a list of rules posted at each tellers station, unintentionally viewable by the customers. The funniest rule was "If the robber asks for a specific amount of money, give them only that amount."

 

[TragicMonkey]

My former bank had such a policy and a list of rules posted at each tellers station, unintentionally viewable by the customers. The funniest rule was "If the robber asks for a specific amount of money, give them only that amount."

"I have a gun! Fill this bag with $301, 423.39! Don't make any sudden moves!"

 

[rjh01]

I have been told that making a citizens arrest is a legal minefield. Use excessive force and you can be sued for assault. Detain a person too long and you can be sued for that too.

But this may depend on where you live in the world.

 

[Temporal Renegade]

I wonder if this means that we (as customers) shouldn't even bother to report if someone's stuffing merchandise into their jackets. I mean, what's the point?

 

[pgwenthold]

Anyhow, we had a written company policy concerning theft and robbery. Basically, it said roll over and play dead, let'em take anything they want, put up no resistance.

Assuming they have theft insurance, they could recover a large chunk of the loss, no?

 

[Loss Leader]

I remember a similar story about an employee of a 7-11 who was fired for stopping a robbery. The 7-11 management guy was quoted in the article as saying that there was nothing in their store that was worth one of their employee's lives.


Also, vote for me in the Pith Poll.

 

[Modified]

I remember a similar story about an employee of a 7-11 who was fired for stopping a robbery. The 7-11 management guy was quoted in the article as saying that there was nothing in their store that was worth one of their employee's lives.

Who cares about the store or what's in it? Stopping a robbery is good for society, and to some people that's worth a certain amount of risk to their lives.

 

[Mason]

What if the crowbar had been the guy's purchase at Home Depot (a hardware store), and the wad of cash was his wadded up handful of bills that he had recieved in change for his twenty, which he was now sifting through for a single to buy a coke from the machine he was standing in front of? Startled when this aggressive employee darts up and confronts him with "What do you think you're doing?", he quickly backs off, and finds his aggressor chasing him across the parking lot...

Would you want an unstable employee chasing and tackling people in the parking lot? Even if he didn't know company policy was to avoid chasing people and tackling them in the parking lot? Especially if his reason was "instinct just took over". I doubt any hardware store wants employees who instinctively tackle people who are carrying hardware.

Sure, this time things may have worked out, but the guy apparently is confused about why he was wrong, which makes it difficult to trust his judgement in the future.

 

[CptColumbo]

In the few retail chains I've been involved in, the policy was usually that you had to witness them take the item from the shelf and not lose sight of them, until they left the store. This was to ensure that they didn't dump the item somewhere in an attempt to provoke a false arrest, and lawsuit.