our employee takes too many free snacks and sodas

A reader writes:

I own a small takeout restaurant. We have four employees, plus me and my business partner. It’s hard to hire and when we find employees who show up every day and meet our expectations, we try to keep them happy.

We’ve had one employee for about 2.5 years now. Slowly over time, she has started taking more and more liberties in regards to food and ignoring our requests for her to do a task. I’ve had conversations with her three times, and things always get better for a period and then she starts to slip again.

Recently, she’s started taking more than the $10 meal we provide per day (covers a sandwich, side, and drink). She’ll take an extra drink once or twice a month, or today she’d taken her free meal on her break and then I returned from an errand to find her eating a bag of chips while she was supposed to be working.

This all feels so petty. How do I have a conversation about $1.50? But, it makes me batty that I’ve had to talk to her about it more than once, and that it just keeps happening. When she’s taking more, it’s a couple dollars here or there. But over time it adds up. Our margins are tight, and our costs have skyrocketed this past year.

A part of me thinks if we’re too strict on these things, we’ll lose employees and hiring is one of the biggest challenges we face. But I also feel like she’s stealing from us and my ego just wants to scream. Should I address it again, or just find a way to let it go and accept that it is what it is?

I answer this question — and two others — over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

Other questions I’m answering there today include:

• My client changed my email before forwarding it, to make himself look better
• Should I tell my team I’m trying to get them raises?

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