Of course there are. We’re not implying that all employees are dishonest. But some, unable to resist the temptations that positions of trust entail, become entangled in compromising situations. At one time or another, many people can be tempted to misuse positions of trust for personal gain. This is especially true of employees who are entrusted with easy access to cash, checks, merchandise, supplies, and other assets, or to those who are in a position to accept bribes or sell secret information.

Blind trust can be costly.

Why are so many employers unable to control employee theft? It may be because they ignore the problem completely; they simply don’t want to acknowledge how widespread and costly the problem really is. Or because they operate under the misconception that all employees are honest and would never consider misusing their positions of trust for personal gain. This misconception has predictable and expensive results.

Dishonest acts in the workplace

Employees may misuse positions of trust in many ways. Among the wrongful acts that may be committed by employees for personal gain are the following:

1. Stealing
2. Forgery (the most common form of embezzlement)
3. Embezzlement
4. Fraud (including computer fraud)
5. Creating phony invoices
6. Ringing up false refunds and keeping the money
7. Overloading expense accounts for personal use
8. Using the business phone for personal calls
9. Failing to ring up sales and pocketing the money
10. Intentionally overcharging customers and keeping the difference
11. Colluding with vendors by falsifying invoices for personal gain
12. Failing to make required bank deposits
13. Writing “good” merchandise off as “bad” and taking it home
14. Deliberately damaging merchandise or company property in order to take it home free or purchase it at a discount
15. Giving away good merchandise to family members or friends
16. Spying, espionage (selling secret or classified information)
17. Falsifying time records (milking the clock)
18. Carrying "ghost" employees on payrolls
19. Accepting bribes
20. Staging and reporting phony hold-ups

Excessive losses in the workplace

No employer expects his or her company to sustain headline-making losses, but sadly some do. The negative consequences of employee theft cannot be measured exclusively in monetary terms. Current and former employees have resorted to burglary, armed robbery, and even kidnapping and murder (against their current or former employer) to get what they want. These extreme acts invariably involve physical injury and emotional trauma.