catapult magazine

well, i need some advice and where else would i turn than to my friends at *cino?

[for background: I manage a non-profit, volunteer-run retail store selling products made by disadvantaged people]

in counting up the cash at the end of the day on Tuesday of this week, we came up $25 short. the volunteers in the morning had counted the starting cash and came up with $79.60. it was a cold, rainy, slow day and we only sold a candy bar all day—$1.06 sale. however, when we counted at the end of the day, we were exactly $25 short of what we should have had. according to the notes that the morning volunteers had made, the $25 that had disappeared was in singles.

i’m positive the cash didn’t “walk away” in the afternoon. we only had a few customers and the (trusted and fairly well-off) volunteer was by the cash register whenever there was someone in the store. i was also at the store in the afternoon.

in the morning, however, i was not at the store. the volunteers were Louise and Linda (names changed to protect the innocent, of course). Louise is someone i’ve gotten to know well at church. she has a lot of the same interests i do when it comes to being involved in ministries of the church, she and her husband loaned us tools in the renovation process and i trust her very much. Linda is someone from the community who signed up on our volunteer list in the store. when i first called her about volunteering, i was a bit suspicious because she said she was unemployed, could work as much as i wanted her to, and “just loved being around the products.” however, as i got to know her, i grew to like her. she talked about being on a journey to live a simpler life, borrowed a lot of the social justice books from our little store library and was a very warm, friendly person. when i arrived at the store on Tuesday afternoon, both Linda and Louise were here, along with Louise’s boyfriend, whom i don’t know at all.

after we discovered the cash was missing, i called Louise to see if she knew what had happened. she had no idea—said there were customers in, but none of them had purchased anything or gotten near the cash register. as much as i was trying not to, i was still beginning to suspect Linda and/or her boyfriend. i held out for the idea that maybe Linda had walked to the bank to exchange the singles for larger bills, but when i got ahold of her the next day, she had no idea what had happened. i asked her if she or Louise had gone to the bank with the money. she said no. then she said she knew what i must be thinking—that she took it. and she said she would think she took it if she were in my place. she asked if i thought she took it and i said the first think i could think of—“No, we trust our volunteers.” probably because that’s how i really wanted to feel.

anyway (this keeps getting longer, doesn’t it?), i still didn’t know what to think, even though all signs (vague and inconclusive though they were) pointed to Linda having taken the money (the boyfriend would not have been able to take it without Linda’s help).

so i was prepared to let it go and take action if it happened again, since i had no conclusive evidence and still wanted to believe that Linda hadn’t taken it. i put up a note for volunteers to always be near the cash register when customers were in the store and to let people know that we’re non-profit and what our mission is (in the hope that guilt might deter any theft). then, today i got a note from Linda.

Kirstin, I hope you have solved the problem of the missing money. I’m very uncomfortable by this. I have chosen a life of simpler living, not to take to make things easier for me. I feel accused. To me, this is a very awful feeling. I cannot help up there anymore. I feel eyes will be on me. Good luck to you and your great pursuit. Linda

when i talked to her on the phone, i didn’t ask her any questions that i did not ask Louise, simply if she knew what had happend to the money (how else are you supposed to broach a subject like that?).

what do i make of this? what should i do next? i want to do what’s wise, but i’m not sure what that is at the moment.

Kirstin, when I worked around cash registers, only one person was responsible for the register. I realize (or think) you’re just a wee shop and sometimes that’s not very feasible (sp?), but if you make one person responsible for the register (they count the money and sign for how much there is when they get it – only they can use that register – and they must be responsible to watch it around customers, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc – then when they hand the register over to someone else, they count the money with the next employee and sign for it – at night they put it in the safe having signed for how much $$ there is and the first person in the morning counts it as well. Sorry for the runon. I think you get the picture – only one person responsible for the register – if money is missing, it comes out of their check, or if they’re volunteers, then they can’t work the register anymore. This also makes them a little more responsible when giving change that it is the exact change.

Could it be possible that when the money was originally counted in the morning, that count was off? (I’m just trying to hold out hope here that no one is stealing)

You didn’t accuse anyone of stealing. Linda readily filled in those blanks … a bit too quickly for my tastes. I’d say she’s either hyper-defensive because that’s the way she is or she’s hyper-defensive because she’s got a guilty conscience. Either way, I wouldn’t pander to her. Chalk it up as a lesson learned and work out a way for people to be more accountable for the register.

both Linda and Louise told me they counted the money several times. they also wrote down what they counted, so i could easily see that there were 42 ones at the beginning of the day—which somehow dwindled to 13 (figuring in the cash for the one sale, that leaves 25 missing).

i know that i have to contact her in some way, but i’m unsure what to say and not ready for the surprising questions she’s bound to ask (like, “Do you think I took it?” which she asked the other day). one part of me wants to call her and assure her that we don’t think she took it and we still would like her to volunteer (is that maybe what she’s expecting?), but the other part of me wants to let her go because we can’t risk not being able to trust volunteers.

i feel so bad about not trusting her in the first place—and even worse about it now that i have a reason. this stinks.

Kirstin, I think you can respond simply and directly with “Thank you for your note. We understand your decision.” I’m not sure it’s necessary to try and make nice or ease your conscience about this. Trust your instincts and don’t feel the need to ‘care’ for her. Her words from beginning to end all seem a bit too smooth and practiced and she chose this…don’t take it on yourself. Chalk it up to experience and move on.

my gut is with mrsanniep. sounds like she was expecting your call and had been agonizing about how to respond. could be wrong though. i don’t envy you kirstin! this kind of thing is bound to happen once in a while whether by accident or by theft, and it’s better to have some kind of system like Dave is talking about to deal with it. That kind of accountability itself is a major deterrent and makes people more careful in general.

Just wait a while. If you see her driving a new car around town, you’ll know the truth.

I didn’t mean that. Obviously I don’t know the whole situation, but I think I would offer her the job back if she wants it. I would certainly talk it out with her. Tell her that I hate that this happened and I don’t want things to be weird between anyone at work or when we see each other around. If she’d like to keep volunteering that would be great. If not, that’s also okay. If she says she didn’t take it, I’d believe her. And if she does or doesn’t take the job back, some sort of system of responsibility should be put in place.

No, that’s a bad idea. I just re-read everything (especially her note) and it would be best to just let it go. She wouldn’t take the job back anyway. Alice’s suggestion seems wisest to me.

I also agree with Alice. Linda has done a sort of strange thing here by making herself the victim (“I feel accused”) and turning the blame on you, for being the one to accuse her. It puts you on the defensive, as though you should apologize and beg her to come back and stuff.

If she really is uncomfortable and doesn’t want to come back, then that’s her choice and that’s what she asked for in the note. If she’s trying to manipulate you into begging her forgiveness and welcoming her back, then I don’t think you should cater to such dishonest communication. I would write her a simple note, saying that you are sorry that she feels uncomfortable about the situation but that you respect her decision to leave.

I may be running the risk of sounding too idealistic or soft-hearted here, but what would be best for Linda? I understand that in a business you definitely need to be able to trust employees or volunteers, and stealing is unacceptable, but it sounds like maybe Linda has some issues. I’ve never met Linda and therefore have no idea, but it sounds like she may be in a transitional period of her life, she’s unemployed, she possibly stole, and then followed it with some strange responses. I don’t know what sort of response to this incident would make a positive impact on Linda’s life, but I think it’s worth thinking about.