My staff are stealing water. How do I stop them?

Dear Aunty,

My staff are filling up their water bottles before going out the door at the end of the day… as well as filling them up during the day, and immediately on arrival to the office. My bottled water bill is going through the roof!

Providing water during the day for staff is OK, but filling up before they head home is bad mannered. If they were taking tea bags or toilet rolls, then I would say something, but I feel I will be lumped in with the Chinese Government for abuses to human rights if I deny them water as they finish for the day.

Do I just fill up the water tank from the tap before they arrive? Please help me from being water boarded.

B,
Perth

Dear B,

Wow, you have a bigger problem than the Chinese Government. We all know what’s going on in China. But staff have no idea of your contribution to their human rights. Not in their wildest dreams would it occur to them that you pay for water. It is up there with the milk fairy and money in their bank account every week. It just happens!

But as you rightly suspect, cut the water and you could have a full scale revolution on your hands.

I would look at it another way. Forget the water. The vital service you are providing is the water cooler. This is where staff gather to talk about you behind your back, complain about how hard they work and how little they are paid. What is in the water cooler is irrelevant (as long as it is water.)

So go ahead. Sneak in every morning and fill the water bottles from the tap. Just watch out you don’t do your back lugging the water bottles across the floor and have to pay for surgery.

Cheers,

Your Aunty B

Comments

Fuzzy writes: We did something better, we changed our water cooler to a mains water one with filters and hot and cold water… Costs $550 per year and well worth it.