June 30, 2008
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Breaking Your Employer’s Stuff
Stewie and I are planning a xanga gathering on July 10th in Houston at 7:30 p.m. If you would like to attend, message me or her for details.
Here we go:
I mentioned in my pulse tonight that I broke $4000 worth of product at work today. A few people wondered whether I had to pay for it or if I got fired for it.
Do you think your employer would fire you if you broke $4000 worth of product?
Comments (86)
Unlikely.
Wait. I thought the meetup will be on the 11th??
Wholesale or retail price?
No – but I’d be paying
yeah, most probably.
Depends if you did it on purpose. An accident, I would hope not….unless you do it all the time, then you become a liability
if it was accidental, no.
@pumpkinbreath - very good point that could make a huge difference
I guess it depends on the size of the business… if you would for a huge company… maybe not
but if I broke $4000 that would be like 20% of our stock!
hells yeah
that or I’d have to pay with interest
I guess it would depend on the circumstances, and the size of the company.
Depends.
A lot of stuff like that can be a write-off or they have back-ups. It’s a company after all, and while that’s a lot of cash for an individual it’s rather minuscule in a large business’s budget.
So I guess it depends on what the item in question was, how replaceable it is, and whether it was broken through carelessness or neglect or simply an unforeseeable accident.
it would probably come out of my paycheck.
I would love to attend the Xanga gathering but Houston is way too far from where I live (New York). As for your question, it depends on your boss. Most of the time when employee break something it get will deduct from their pay check however, $4,000 is a lot.
Me? Absolutely. I suppose it is situational though.
I’m unemployed at the moment… -_-
She may not fire me…I’m not sure. That would be a saddle. I’d hope to not get fired for breaking a saddle…but you never know.
I’m with ChrisRusso, it would depend on how hard it hit the business.
my employer would make me pay for it and fire me…damn
If an investigation proves it really was an accident, you’re scott free. If not, your screwed.
I’d go to the gathering since I live right here in Katy, but I’d be too nervous >_<
Based off of my last job…if I broke anything worth that much, oh yes I’m sure I’d get fired quick.
I think that if that was me and I broke 4,000 dollars of stuff I would most defintly get fired. That’s why I don’t touch nothing when am at my job that I don’t know how to work, for the simple reason that I don’t have the mony to replace anything expensive piece of equipment!
~Alexx
I’d be gone. People my age are expendable and a dime a dozen
The worst I ever did was blow out two brand new tires on the greenhouse van….the same day that we got them. My husband did not fire me…I have to try harder next time.
id say it depends on the nature of the product and if 4000 is a big deal where you work…
seeing as how i work at barnes and noble
i’m going to say yes.
That’s what INSURANCE is for, Dan.
Not unless it was intentional!
Well the cost to them was probably less than $4k, and training and hiring someone else to do your job would probably cost them more than that… so it can be written off.
come to california. the west is the best!
and wowsas…. $4000?! wow.. that’s uh.. a lot..
the first time i broke a whole case of dishes, i freaked out and thought they were gonna fire me or take money out of my paycheck. but they just laughed it off and move on. i am guessing i broke at least 250 dollars worth of dishes, maybe more. Lord have mercy!
and dude, what is your HIGHEST and LOWEST comments you ever recieved??? i am just curious.
Yes.
My former employer would have forgiven me for that. They found it much less forgivable that I was grieving.
Eh. I don’t know. I drive a mini van for my work, and really….even if I broke it, they’d probably give me another chance. Heh.
Yes. We need almost three days to earn that much revenue- that would kill the business.
No they would just shake their heads and tell me to stay way from the forklifts
Nope. I can’t get fired.
Well, I have two jobs, and in one of them I’m reasonably expendable, so maybe in one job I’d be fired.
Of course, my boss at the other job would be far more upset, because he’s running a small business that I work for.
Man, I’m going to make sure to stay far, far away from his external hard drives now…
I think they would suggest I pay for it…
i’ve broken the shredder multiple times and i’m still getting paid…i also run with scissors so they designated me to a corner space in the suite….also, the letter opener is great for unjamming the shredder..just make sure it’s unplugged first….it has teeth.
Possibly, but I work in a veterinary hospital, so me breaking $4000 equipment…yea, that’d probably be grounds for termination (especially since I’m still in the ‘training’ mode).
I am right now working at a church during a one year internship. I would have to break an aweful lot of stuff to equal $4,000 worth of stuff. To put it in perspective, I would have to break 2,000 hymnals. or 1,000 bibles. I would have to break 4 times as many projectors than the church actually owns. I would have to break 8 computers. Once you start talking of numbers like that it is hard to call it an accident. I mean how does one accidently damage 8 computers? or 400 printers? So yeah I would most likely get fired. They can’t dock my pay as I am working there for college credit.
…good job
It depends, if it were on purpose yeah I think it is reasonable that they employee will have to fork out for it, however if it was a mistake, then the company should pay for it – maybe see what went wrong and arrange training for said employee if they are in need of it?
If it was a smaller company, yes.
During my last job, I was held responsible for the loss of $650 worth of merchandise, and I guess the only thing that kept me employed with the company was that I was new. Funny thing was, the reason it even happened was that I was trained improperly. Haaaa.
How on earth did you do that?
Depends if your company is corporate or not? When the Dr was independent; yes. Now corporate; no.
I don’t think so.
Or you “broke” it because they wanted the payoff of the inflated insurance deal they had just put on the product. By breaking $4,000 dollars worth, you gained tens of thousands back to the company via insurance.
It’s ok Dan, you can tell us.
Without a doubt I would be canned.
They have insurance, that will cover it
My boss is afraid that I’m going to break that much stuff and ditch town.
She’s going to be pissed next Tuesday.
were you by any chance running tests on the stuff to actually see when/if it would break? that would definitely make it easier for you to keep from getting fired.
i am self employed, so it would depend entirely on me, but i would pretty much have to trash my entire inventory to do that kind of damage…
i don’t think so..
Probably….
I hope it didn’t happen to you during a try to photocopy certain body parts.
Seeing as my job right now has nothing worth $4,000 where staff (only managers) can get to, no. I wouldn’t have access to the pool stuff. But last year when I was manager and if I had broke something that expensive, I think I’d be demoted or something.
I broke a 2700 dollar xserve out of the box once. Thank God for applecare. They were so curious how I did it, they sent a new one. Now xserves ship with the front panel lock in the open position.
Not if it was an accident…unless it happened all the time.
what on earth could it have been? i’d say no, you’d just be more careful next time.
I wish I can be there! Damn.
I also thought the meet-up was the 11th?
My husband’s company has this one jackass that has made more than one multi-MILLION dollar mistake.. and has neither been fired (or obviously made to pay).
Probably, but because my company is cheap.
Certainly not!
a) It’s insured
b) It’s a tax loss
c) They have to follow a lengthy procedure before they can sack you for anything
(Here anyway…)
I do not know, All the jobs I have it was impossible to be break things, the only thing which as important was the coffins/caskets for the funeral director and this was a placement.
They probably give me a final written warning if it was a paid job.
I worked for a door company and ordered the wrong size door for someone. I ruined their hardwood foor because of water damage. I remember looking up from my cubicle and seeing it was surrounded by management. No, you shouldn’t get fired for the 4000 or have to pay for it.
It would depend if it was accidental or not.
I wish it was going to be sooner when Im in town. How cool would that be to meet Dan in real life.
Guess i will just have to watch the movie.
Destroying $4000 worth of pizza is something I’d have to work at.
Nice that you are getting together with other Xangans.
$400 doesn’t have to be much anymore. The cost is way up on everything though so some bosses are trying everything they can to cut their costs and would definitely make an employee pay for that waste. Since I am basically self employed every nickel counts. I’m trying to get all I can out of all I have.
But if you look at it from an eternal perspective it looks less important than the person.
hell yeah
I dont know… maybe. I once cost my job $250 when a belt fell of the lawnmover and got messed up with the blades. They joked it would get taken out of my check but they were cool with it. We had to wait about a month or two before we could get the new part and mow again.
Probably…
And what in the world did you do?????
The company I worked for was TINY – $4,000 would be a month’s revenue! We didn’t really have anything that cost that much that I could break on accident.
perhaps if you were on a $3000 budget. or if you totally sucked. repeatedly. over time. but if you were working with millions and/or competent — different story.
Maybe…I’d have to pay for it, at the very least, since $4000 is way more than the little store I work at makes in a week, maybe a month…
If it was on purpose, sure.
If it was accidental, I would hope not.
My employer would fire a person for a whole lot less…
Depends on who was investigating it. If it was my dept. manager, she’s a nice person and if it was an accident probably wouldn’t. The store manager might, or either of the owners might. Heh.
Heck ya you would be fired unless there was really ,really unforeseen circumstances that caused you to break it.
Yes.
Probably, considering I work with children and pastries.
I think it would depend on what kind of business. $4000 in a big company compared to $4000 in a small maybe independent means different things. A bunch of things would probably need to be considered. You will definitely get in trouble but you might not get fired.
aww wish I was in Houston.
But how exactly do you break 4000 dollars worth of stuff?
You must just have taken a bat to it all
it would depend on the circumstances.
I can see how it would depend on your job. Since I work in the oil field business, $4000 is small change, and I’m sure we break stuff that costs WAY more on a regular basis. No one gets fired.
I would rather be fired, cos I don’t make enough money to off that….
Probably not the first time but if something happened again-yup.
YES!!!