First, define "Good employee"
stealing, altering records, taking product,wasting production time, does not fit into my description of "good employee"
I have learned a lesson in this respect recently with an employee at my other store. I trusted him, we had a good working relationship, he could tell me what he thought, give me ideas, came to work on time,etc. I thought I had a "good employee" UNTIL, I started noticing descrepancies in packs of ones, and store product. Consistently, I was finding ones missing from counted packs, so I addressed it and asked the question "how many ones are supposed to be in the packs when we count them and clip them "$25" - I kept finding 24, and one day found $4 missing from a pack of $50. This employee was always buying lottery tickets - do you think I shared in the winnings of those tickets?? I think those ones paid for it! Anyway, I did a 6 month review, addressed the positive, the need improvement, and the "greater concern" areas. I stated that I was very concerned about the descrepancies in the cash and product - his reply "if you are talking about soda, I owe you for those" SO, is this theft or borrowing??? He did not have permission to take product without paying; he received an employee discount on anything he purchased. He wasn't even buying stuff, he was just taking it. What boggled my mind, was that in his mind, he didn't consider this theft. He was borrowing with no intent to pay, and told me to give him a bill! I said, "how can I give you a bill, when I don't know how much you took"
He also was a time waster - he had permission to draw (he's an artist) AFTER all his work was done and the store was in tip top shape and there were no customers. When the work was noticably not being done, I did spot checks at 10:30 in the morning and he would be drawing! To me, that is a theft of another kind.
I guess I just think that if its in someone to pad their hours, or take product, its in them - no amount of counseling will stop it. I would be willing to work harder and probably be more profitable without the losses than to have one of those "good employees" in my space.
speaking from experience, but I think that things work out for the best in situations like this.
my 2 cents
Elaine