Laid Off Techies Stealing Assets
from the from-dot-com-wonderkid-to-thief-in-30-seconds dept
It seems that many laid off dot commers are "getting back" at their companies by stealing stuff on their way out the door. Many employees decide to take handhelds or laptops with them, though occasionally they end up stealing much more expensive stuff - like servers, or couches (yes, couches). I'm sure quite a few Aeron chairs disappeared as well. Of course, the people getting screwed aren't the dot coms (which are mostly out of business anyway), but the insurance and asset management companies. Of course, the employees don't really care about that. They just feel the company owes them something.
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company theft
The trade rag for the loss prevention idustry ran a story that claimed 5% of your staff will steal no matter what, and 11% will steal if "they think they can get away with it".
Yet, most of the thiefs have the answer 'they owe me'. And, when the CEO still walks out with $$$ and 'that laptop that has no book value', what are the digital surfs expected to do?
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Re: company theft
However, the big difference is that the severance package, while idiotic, is legal. Stealing stuff is not.
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also on /.
A. "companies screw employees all the time"
B. "but that doesn't make stealing right"
But one informative comment points out that the six-figure thefts that get a lot of coverage in the article are just that -- major thefts that just happen to have been committed by ex employees, and the companies affected (Motorola for one) aren't exactly dot-coms. It's still wrong, but there's a big difference between forgetting to return a laptop and breaking into a warehouse and stealing $100K of stuff.
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