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The original was posted on /r/amitheasshole by /u/Maximum_Kangaroo_194 on 2023-12-29 14:40:35+00:00.
For background: I am a full time employee at a well known online retailer. The employees at my site range from warehouse workers up to senior leadership. We also work with external vendors/contractors, who are in our building daily.
We have seen an increase in employee thefts within the building (nearly all of these thefts involve the warehouse workers). Usually it's taking from another worker (food, jackets, headphones, etc.) or it can involve taking from the company's assets (food/drinks from our vending area, company swag, etc.). I work in HR, so it's my job to investigate these incidents with our security team, and take disciplinary action, as warranted.
That said: one of our contractors brought a giant box of chocolate Christmas candies (something like 5 lbs.) into the office for the employees to share. Said contractor approached many of us to let us know that they brought the candy in, where they left it, and to help ourselves.
I went over to the location where the contractor left the box, and it wasn't there. I started asking around, and no one else had seen it.
After asking everyone in the office, my next step was to consider that, perhaps, a warehouse worker had taken the candy. This isn't only an issue of taking the candy, but would also imply that a warehouse worker entered a restricted area that contains sensitive data, a terminable offense.
I got with our security team to review camera footage to determine if we could pin down where this candy went, and who may have gained access to the office.
We found out the culprit: it was the most senior leader of the building, who makes more than twice what I do, and 5x as much as most of our employees. Not only did this person walk out with the box, they made an effort to conceal it in their backpack.
When approached, they said they, "took the box home to split the candy up into individual baggies to hand out to the employees."
So, wait, you took a gift from someone else, and decided you were going to regift it? Doesn't even make sense, and was an obvious lie.
They took it and thought no one would notice, and morale in the office has kind of been affected, because who does that? It's not because they took candy, but because they took the gift of a much lower-paid contractor before it could be shared with anyone else, and then lied about it.
The other employees in our office are pissed at the sense of entitlement and disrespect, but are largely urging me to let it go, especially since this person is more senior.
I disagree - I think this person needs to know that their selfish action affected a lot of people, is unbecoming of a leader, and took time out of our day to "investigate."
I'm not trying to get them fired, or even receive some type of official discipline, but I want them to know that we all know they took it, and that they're setting a bad example.
WIBTA?
TL;DR
Senior leader took office Christmas gift home, then lied about it. I want to confront them, but coworkers think I should let it go.