Minnesota Public Radio - SHOW: Marketplace

March 14, 2002

THEFT IN THE WORKPLACE HAS A CHILLING EFFECT ON TRUST AMONG COLLEAGUES

DAVID BROWN, anchor: While modern headlines scream of billions of dollars in white-collar crime, today, we turn our attention to another issue of theft in the workplace. It's eating away at worker morale and it's having a chilling effect on trust among colleagues. MARKETPLACE's Sam Eaton reports from New York.

SAM EATON reporting: Every day, thousands of workers commute to Lower Manhattan on the Staten Island Ferry. Bankers and construction workers, executives and mail room clerks, white collar, blue collar, this under reported crime doesn't discriminate.

Ms. ANN MARIE D'AMBROSIO (Wall Street Employee): It's a horror.

EATON: Ann Marie D'Abmrosio works on Wall Street. She shares the office refrigerator with about 60 co-workers.

Ms. D'AMBROSIO: I go in there every morning and I find--I find not only with the fridge, but with countertops, the sink--the paper towels opened up, strewn about, cups--and I get, like, really nuts. And I want to say, 'Your mother left here. We don't have your mother here anymore to pick up after you.'

EATON: D'Ambrosio says not only is the office fridge almost a hazardous waste zone, but people's lunches often mysteriously disappear, leaving not even a crumb. Still, D'Ambrosio writes these crimes off as part of the package of working in a big office.

Ms. D'AMBROSIO: It's OK. You know, you--certain things you just live with, you know, like, if you were married and you had a husband, you just live with him with--even if you don't want to.

EATON: Employee theft expert John Case runs the Web site employeetheft.com. He says missing lunches is a chronic offense at workplaces.

Mr. JOHN CASE (Employeetheft.com): I've seen it happen all around the country. I don't think it's identifiable with Chicago or New York or--it can be any place where they have a lunchroom or a break room where people keep their food. It's--it's a common problem.

EATON: And while it is maddening to a hungry worker missing those tasty leftovers, it signals a larger problem for the company, too. Case says employees who steal from co-workers often steal from their employers as well.

Mr. CASE: If they have that opportunity and their perception of being caught is low, then, you know, what's the difference? They take some food and then they'll maybe take pencils or pens or--or they'll steal things off a fellow employee's desk. If it starts, it will go until it's stopped or the employee leaves. Generally, they don't--they don't stop on their own.

EATON: A recent survey by New York forensic accounting firm Kessler International reveals nearly 80 percent of all employees steal from their employers at an annual loss of more than $120 billion. Staten Island Ferry commuter Darlene Lewis isn't surprised. She says office refrigerator wars reflect today's cutthroat workplace.

Ms. DARLENE LEWIS (Staten Island Ferry Commuter): It goes right with the corporate thing, either backstabbing by stealing somebody's food or corporate structure by just, you know, leaving everything there. I own my own business now so I have my own refrigerator. Problem solved.

EATON: But just a few rows away on the ferry, high school custodian Joe Madory says lunch theft extends beyond the corporate world. He maintains that teachers are among the worst of the food filchers.

Mr. JOE MADORY (High School Custodian): I mean, you're in a classroom teaching children how to respect everybody else and how to respect people's belongings or their personal property, and you're in there munching on somebody's apple, you know. It just doesn't work, you know?

EATON: At Madory's school on Staten Island, the principal has threatened to throw out the fridge, forcing teachers to bring individual coolers. Some organizations have installed hidden cameras to stop lunch larceny, and some places have turned into war zones, with workers striking back by stuffing laxatives or hot sauce in decoy sandwiches or demanding Breathalyzer tests for missing sodas. But ferry deckhand Jerod Largo says, as firemen already know, there is a simpler solution.

Mr. JEROD LARGO (Ferry Deckhand): Eating as a community, you know, eating as a group helps a lot. Usually we all, you know, put in a couple of bucks together and have a hot meal, you know; prepare a hot meal together.

EATON: So it's kind of the--the team mentality of the vote.

Mr. LARGO: The team mentality of a vote, the whole crew thing going on, you know, that doesn't have us arguing ...(unintelligible).

EATON: That is, he says, until one of the guys decides to go on a diet and can't resist sneaking a few bites from the crew's fettuccine Alfredo when nobody's looking. In New York, I'm Sam Eaton for MARKETPLACE.