I’ve recently hired an office staff. One of his tasks is to do bank runs, which means, to update our company passbooks in the different banks in the area.

We had our office staff accompany and train newbie to do this task.

Upon their return, she reported that after updating the passbooks, Newbie opened the passbooks one by one to see how much money was inside each account.

Do you know the saying, Curiosity Killed the Cat?

That seems to be an apt description on Newbie, who is an entry level staff.

I called in Newbie about this issue. Upon hearing it, he turned red and apologized profusely.

“Why did you open the company passbooks?” I asked.

“Because I wanted to hold and feel the company passbook, since I’ve never held one in my life,” he said.

“So why did you open it then?” I asked. It’s very frustrating for me when a staff cannot answer the question direct.

“Because I wanted to see how the amounts are added in and subtracted out,” he answered.

I stared at him.

“Okay, so why do you have to open all the passbooks and see all the amounts inside it?” I asked him again. “If you’re curious of one, you open one. Why did you open all?”

He looked at me and didn’t answer anymore.

“Well?” I asked.

“I opened it because I was curious about how much money was inside,” he then answered.

“As an employee, what’s in it for you to open the passbook? Why is it your business to find out something that’s confidential?” I then asked.

“It’s like a package or bag that’s given to you to hand to another person,” I said. “If someone entrusted the bag to you, and asks you to hand over the bag to someone else, would you for any reason open the bag, look through its contents and then after your curiosity is satisfied, close the bag and then return the bag to that second person?”

“No, opening the bag is wrong,” he said.

“Well, so why open the company passbooks?” I asked again.

He said nothing.

I think it’s troubling to have someone so new poke his hole in business that’s not his own. I didn’t like how he answered me where he didn’t take responsibility for his actions at first, nor did I like the fact that he is okay with doing something without worrying about getting caught.

“Okay, now that you got caught,” I asked, “How do you feel?”

“Embarrassed and ashamed,” he said.

“Well, if you are embarrassed and ashamed, why can’t you stop yourself from doing it?”

He said nothing again.

The staff is only in its first week but is now in troubled waters. It’s just his issue, not anyone else. Let’s see how he fares and if he survives the second week. We’ll just check and see.

How about you? How would you react if you were in my situation? Really annoying, right? But is such issue troubling enough to fire a staff?

Have a good Saturday everyone.