Should I Say Something?
Subject: Should I say something?
HI. First off I would like to tell you something about myself. I am a 40 year old single father of a wonderful 12 year old son. My son was diagnosed with childhood bipolar at the age of 8 along with a little ADHD, ok a lot. I have been through some very rough and happy times. Almost like a roller coaster of emotion, but it never came to an end… but I am getting off track. So on to the topic.
Weekly I go to a local sub shop, across the street from where I work, and though their food is not so great, it’s a great business because they hire people with disabilities. The young man working there (age 25ish), who has Down syndrome, cleans tables, stocks the shelves and every now and then helps make subs. Did I mention that he is very nice and loves talking to the customers.
We talk all the time. Awesome….
Now comes the situation I witnessed. The young man, while standing in front of the cash register (cleaning slowly), reached his hand to the cookie rack and took a very large chocolate chip and slowly slid his hand down to his pocket of his khaki cargo pants. Now in my head, as soon as it happened, I wondered ‘if he goes toward the bathroom, he is going to eat it’. Well he turned left and went to the garbage can.
He pushed in the lid and acted like he was looking to see if the garbage was full, while at the same time, unwrapped the cookie. It was a slow process. But with wrapper off and now almost full body pressed to the entrance door, he jammed the entire cookie in his mouth. I was preparing myself to get ready to give him the Heimlich maneuver because the cookie was huge and he was struggling (he finished it off with out having to dial 911).
He walked over to my table to tell me about how he attended camp this summer and I wanted to tell him that I saw what he did and that he should go pay for it because it is the right thing to do, because he was probably on camera and could/maybe should lose his job just as any other employee would for stealing. I stopped myself, because hopefully it was the first time he did it, and maybe he would get mad or emotional towards me for bringing it up and I would cause a lot bigger deal than it should be. I mean it’s a cookie.
Great Question. There were a few details mentioned in this email that caught my attention. The description depicting the manner in which this young man obtained the cookie, unwrapped the cookie and ate the cookie, are all likely an indication that this behavior has occurred before. Whether or not that is the case, is inconsequential, as (most) employers maintain ZERO tolerance for theft in the work place.
Not knowing the circumstances around the descriptive cookie eating behavior, one could speculate; perhaps the young man is allowed to have one cookie per shift, but has been instructed to only eat and drink in the break room, and he chose to eat while working and outside of the break room. Or perhaps he has dietary restrictions, he is not supposed to eat cookies and his access to sweets is limited at home, which led to this behavior. What ever the motivation was, employees who are caught breaking company policy are susceptible to ‘natural consequences’, theft of course included; verbal warnings, written warnings and/or termination.
Based on the writer’s observations, this young man had intent to: eat the cookie, at a time and location he was not supposed to (i.e., he knew he was breaking a rule, policy and/or stealing based on his reported behavior), which led him to throw the ‘evidence’ (cookie wrapper) in the garbage and to hastily eat the cookie while working among dining customers.
Though I am certain a percentage of the public would not agree with my response to this writer’s inquiry “should I say something?’, it has been my professional and personal life experience that: most life lessons are learned. Natural consequences should not discriminate, and without consequences, negative behavior is then reinforced and likely to occur again.