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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  • identicon
    alternatives(), 25 Sep 2001 @ 5:53am

    company theft

    As opposed to the CEO who does the same, or takes that 'golden parachute'?

    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?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 25 Sep 2001 @ 9:13am

      Re: company theft

      Hey, Techdirt has always pointed out the stupidity of CEOs and their severance packages. Trust me, I'm sympathetic to employees stealing laptops. I know plenty of people who did that when their dot com shut down and I have no problem with it.

      However, the big difference is that the severance package, while idiotic, is legal. Stealing stuff is not.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 25 Sep 2001 @ 9:24am

        also on /.

        This story is also on slashdot today, where the discussion can be summarized as

        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.

        link to this | view in chronology ]


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