Free smoothies anyone?

I eavesdropped on my sons the other day and I have to admit it was a very proud moment for me as a father. They were discussing playing golf. Apparently one of their friends got a job as superintendent at a very prestigious golf club and one of them was telling the other that they could play on this club free now. My other son responded by saying that would be like stealing and he wanted no part of it. The other responded that his friend could allow guests to play the course as one of the perks of his job and that it was not stealing. He indicated if it was stealing he would not do it either.

Oh yeah! They are grown men now and they are honest, have integrity and character. I remember an incident during one of my son’s youth whereby a similar situation arose with a different result. One of them had a friend who worked at a smoothie type entity. This young lady was giving away free smoothies to anyone in the school who came by to see her and apparently most everyone in the school was taking advantage of this offer. I found out about it because, believe it or not one of my sons suggested we go by there and get a free smoothie. I explained to him why that would be wrong and that it was stealing. Someone had to pay for those smoothies, and they had to pay her worthless hide to work there. It is hard enough to make it in business without someone stealing you blind every day. I told him to tell her to put a stop to it, or I was going to the owner.

One third of the businesses in America fail because of employee theft. We have all kinds of features built into our software to try and prevent theft. Those features are among the main reasons that some folks purchase our system. Research reveals that a staggering sixty-eight’ per cent of the people who work in the food service industry have admitted to theft. When I was a young entrepreneur I nearly lost my business because employees stole me blind for nearly six months. It took me years to recover and a lot of good people lost their jobs because I was forced to lay them off in order to survive.

Any risk management expert will tell you that EVERY company has someone in it that steals. They may steal office equipment, inventory, or supplies, or make personal long distance calls on their employer’s dime, or play video games when they should be working, or embezzle money etc. Some steal because in their warped mentality they perceive the company as having done them wrong somewhere along the line and therefore it is somehow justified to steal from their employer as payback. I once had a guy that was being paid by me to do a job and I discovered that he had secretly started and was actively working every day on his own business instead of performing his duties for our company as he was being paid to do.

It is an expensive problem and billions probably trillions of dollars are lost from employee theft and/or spent on trying to prevent it. Just think how much money would be saved if everyone had Biblical training and refused to steal simply because it is wrong! Even if we do not see it, God sees it all and the Bible assures us that even those who think they are getting away with it will ultimately pay a price for their dishonesty. In the interim all of society pay the price for it. If you see it and it is within your power to report it or put a stop to it then please do so. At the very least don’t partake of it, even if it seems as though it is not that big of a deal and everyone else is doing it The verse below says it all as to how God feels about stealing; He ABHORS it

Proverbs 11:1
The Lord abhors dishonest scales,
But accurate scales are His delight.