Trust Those You Hire

At a company where I once found myself employed as the HR Manager, the bossman didn’t trust his employees. And in case you need me to spell it out for you, this is not a good thing.

I had decided to take advantage of those PTO days that I was told were unlimited (but really weren’t) and went abroad to some random corner of the earth. I had a company credit card and decided that it wasn’t worth risking losing it abroad so I put it in a safe little corner of one of the drawers next to my desk.

I thought I was doing something right (responsible even?) but when I told my boss that I was leaving it, I was doing a bad, bad, irresponsible thing. Because he didn’t trust his own employees.

I came back a while later after my trip , looked for my card and couldn’t find it. I nervously told my boss the news and he said he had taken it because he didn’t think it was a good idea to have it sitting in my (closed!) drawer when I’d told him I’d left the card in there.

He meant that I’d told him out loud. But by “out loud,” I mean indoor voice in the truest sense of the word. I sat right next to him, so it wasn’t as though I was screaming across the office. Most people wore their headphones anyways. Jesus fucking christ, are you serious? I thought.

And who was he afraid was going to take it? One of his employees, duh. Which is downright fucking insulting to the people who were working hard to make his machine work. We had a couple of temps, but they’d been with us for a few months and were looking to be hired full time, so they sure as hell wouldn’t go and take the company credit card out of my drawer. In plain site. Next to where he sat.

At first, I let myself feel really bad for this. I beat myself up and told myself I was stupid. But then I realized that I wasn’t the stupid one. I’d done something reasonable and it wasn’t my fault that the bossman didn’t trust his own employees. If he was going to let himself be consumed with thoughts of his staff robbing him, he wasn’t going to have much time to focus on his business.

So, please, if you’re hiring someone, make sure you trust them.