Comments on: Employee fired over empty cartridges sues

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 05:22:34 +0000

If the employee did steal $300 worth of cartridges, I would say that would be grounds for termination, especially if the company had a recycling program in place.

It is certainly a gray area. Would you fire an employee for stealing $100 from petty cash? Probably. Would you fire an employee for taking home a $1.00 pen? Probably not. How about a pen a year? A pen a month? A pen a month for 10 years? It’s a little like the scam from the film “Office Space” where they steal fractional pennies from financial interest calculations. It’s still stealing.

As for the winning soda cap, I could see some employers claiming the prize. It would be interesting to see what would happen.

Employers routinely claim the travel miles when their employees travel on business. The company did buy the ticket, after all.

Somewhat related to the soda cap, I remember a case some years ago of a group of friends at a company participating in a lottery pool. One of them bought the tickets for the group, and also bought one or more tickets separately for him/herself. Guess which ticket won? Unless the member made a list of the ticket numbers and shared it with the other members before the drawing, how can they prove whose ticket it was? How convenient that the one ticket they bought for themselves turned out to be the winning one. So all these friends got into a bitter argument and I believe a lawsuit over who owned the winning ticket. As I recall, this was a rather large Powerball drawing. If it were me, I’d share the money with my friends to avoid bad feelings. It’s found money, after all. But that’s just me.

By: TFC

TFC — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:45:48 +0000

It seems the thrifty man found a use for discarded waste the employers didn’t want. He should have asked his superiors if he could have them even though they are trash (unless his employeer is the type that you don’t want to start thinking why). The office nark saw an opportunity to do a one point landing in the bosses lower brain case and mind meld. The employer (like the police) said narks get a free pass (though they cause the majority of office problems) and fired the “bad” employee. After a few rounds of this, the nark will rise to the top not by industry and thrift but by being a sycophant. Hey, it worked for Stalin and made the world a better place .

By: Mickey Walker

Mickey Walker — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:08:37 +0000

This is so funny I had to comment.

In this scenario, if I accepted a company soft drink that had a winning soda cap would my employer be able to claim the prize since they actually purchased the product?

If the company had a reclaimation program in place I would consider it theft. If not, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

My old company had a reclaimation program that netted about $300.00 per year. Does the crime fit the punishment?

Mic

By: Robert van den Berg

Robert van den Berg — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:55:07 +0000

From what I see is, that the Company does not have any recycling program and therefore all they do
is throw the empty cartridge away in the garbadge can. it’s part of his jealous co-worker. He beat his
co-worker to the punch.

By: Lori

Lori — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:59:18 +0000

I agree with Mike. Many companies toss cartridges in the trash, which is not only a loss of potential revenue, but also environmentally unfriendly. If these cartridges would have gone into the trash, he made a responsible decision that was certainly worth a couple of dollars for the effort. This may be the official reason, but there is more to this story than was documented, I guarantee you.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:47:21 +0000

So what’s the problem here. Even if he did it to make money for himself, unless the company had a cartridge recycling program, then he has done them a favour by getting rid of the old ones. Sounds to me like a jealous co-worker has got themselves peeved, for not beating him to the punch.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:33:08 +0000

It does seem to be both a gray area and an unclear accusation. I agree with Alex that, at least in the past, many companies haven’t wanted to bother with recycling and have casually and unofficially sanctioned employees who recycle office waste. From one perspective, the employees are saving the companies disposal fees. However, if the company was already recycling – then it is stealing and actionable. If the company isn’t doing any recycling and objects to the fact that an employee was making money off of this sideline, then telling the employee to stop and not do it again would be the appropriate action. We’ve become too much a “right or wrong” culture – very harsh and lacking in compassion and common sense.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:33:17 +0000

You mean those things are worth money?

I’ve been throwing them in the bin all this time!

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:24:19 +0000

that is not at all the same thing Alex.

The empty printer cartridges belong to the company, whether they still have ink in them or not. Getting rewards from staples is a completely different scenario.

By: Peter

Peter — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:26:36 +0000

Sounds like he (or his accuser) took a hint from a Dilbert book: Build A Better Life By Stealing Office Supplies.