Poor morale is not good for business.
Employee unhappiness and dissatisfaction in the workplace can have a negative impact on productivity, teamwork, and overall business success. Low morale can result in high turnover rates, decreased employee engagement, and a toxic workplace environment. To maintain a positive and productive workplace, businesses must address and improve employee morale.
And, while I believe that employers and managers should value their employees, employees should not take advantage of their boss’s kindness. We’ve seen time and time again where employees become overly comfortable with the way things are and believe they can get away with anything because their boss is nice. As we all know, one bad apple ruins the whole bunch, and that is exactly what happened in this story.
Scroll down to read the entire story for yourself.
Source: Reddit
The boss is not always a bad person, and employees can sometimes take advantage of their manager.
OP has a mechanic shop and likes to stock up the cupboard with snacks so the employees have something to munch on at times.
OP always bought a big box, but he noticed that it started to run out very quickly.
This is when the OP held a meeting and talked about the snacks with all of the employees, but they denied taking more than 2 to 3.
He let it go for the time being, but then the same thing happened next month.
Via Reddit
Everyone was adamant that they didn’t take more than necessary, so OP decided to take action, tired of all the lying.
He set some new ground rules, which meant no more free snacks for the employees.
He also took away a few more things, like free cable and good coffee.
The employees were expecting this, and people had to change some things to get used to the new rules.
While the snacks weren’t that expensive, to begin with, OP didn’t like the fact that his employees were lying to him.
Via Reddit
The lesson is that we shouldn’t take advantage of a good thing because it might end up going away.
While the original narrator of this story isn’t asking for an opinion on whether what he did was right or wrong, I believe it was a little harsh. I’m sure not everyone lied about their usage, and only one person on the team did. This one person basically ruined everything for the rest of the employees. A better solution would have been to speak directly with the person who was lying. The most effective way to catch them would have been to install a security camera.
People in the comments had differing opinions on this.
Some people think his response was too harsh.
After all, OP could have found out the single person who was lying about the snacks.
The overall morale will just go down this way.
Via Reddit
Not everyone needed to ‘learn a lesson’.
I am sure the rest of the employees aren’t too happy with him right now.
The blameless people will definitely remember this.
He should have just solved the problem.
It is petty, but this subreddit isn’t called petty revenge for no reason.
Via Reddit
What are your thoughts on how OP dealt with the situation? Do you think this stunt lowered overall morale and that the OP should not have gone to such extremes? Or do you believe he was correct to change the snacks and such? What would you have done if you had been in his position? Let me know in the comments section below, and don’t forget to share this story with your friends so they can add their thoughts as well.
