• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Walmart fires grandmother for taking dollar she found on floor

Mason66 said:
A lot of older people work because they want to.

If you sit around the house and do nothing you will die faster.
Click to expand...

I will work until I can't walk anymore. I love it. Whether it's building boats or rehabbing houses.
 
truthatallcost said:
I'd imagine that this has more to do with whoever is the store manager at this particular WalMart, and less to do with the company as a whole. Not to say that WalMart doesn't have some glaring problems with it, like allowing their parking lots to turn into the Homeless YMCA, etc.
Click to expand...

Ir sounds more like there is more to this than a dollar bill.
 
Rich123 said:
So by that theory If a shopper found a dollar on the floor of Walmart and picked up and kept it for themselves, Walmart could charged them with steeling.
Click to expand...

And if Miss Muffet was cleaning out the cash registers Christmas Eve and “loses” the money bag, it’s “finders keepers”?
 
JANFU said:
Had been thinking on your post off and on today.
Reread mine, yours as well.
We nabbed a number of thieves while I was there.
From video, to those that fessed up.
Worked with great Security Managers, and the senior Managers were easy to work with
So after reading, your post, mine, and then the article a number of times, thinking on all those caught.
Went over in my head a number of investigations we did.

So I stand corrected and will eat the associated crow that comes with that.
I do not think she was stealing.
To be fired where I was, it had to be 100%, no doubt involved.


Walmart fires grandmother for taking dollar she found on floor | New York Post
Click to expand...

True but as I said, this is only her version of events so I do leave this open to the idea there's more to it than this, again, not to **** on a 84 year old woman or anything.
 
Jetboogieman said:
True but as I said, this is only her version of events so I do leave this open to the idea there's more to it than this, again, not to **** on a 84 year old woman or anything.
Click to expand...

Well we can only go on the information provided. But IMHO, she was there for 10 years, no doubt found things before, leaving her shift, on a walker, picked it up. Called in on her next shift, and was up front when she stated i have it right here.
If those are the facts, then I find it hard to believe she was stealing.
 
truthatallcost said:
The government is not any better. Example -

Harry Reid directed millions of dollars of taxpayers money to build a bridge that happened to connect his property to a major roadway, which quadrupled the value of his property. He wasn't punished in any way.

Yet if you accidentally misfile your tax return by a few hundred dollars, you can be arrested and imprisoned.
Click to expand...

I get your point and agree with it - little guys get screwed, big guys walk, fine at worst - but that's just not true. If you're arrested and imprisoned for taxes, you've messed up BIGLY, and they can prove it was intentional, and usually over years.

IRS handles 10s of thousands of routine adjustments every year, and they're....routine. Letter or audit, proposed adjustment, pay back taxes, interest, and a few penalties, although they'll often waive the penalties for small errors and a good faith effort to fix the problem.

One case was a guy who made about $150k or so in commissions - loan originator, real estate. But he had a side job as a "photographer" and he deducted 10s of thousands in photo equipment, trips to Europe, and one year more than 100,000 miles of car travel for this "business" and in three years had sold ONE photo, to his sister, for $60 as I recall. So over those years he deducted nearly $200k in losses from this sham "business" - lots of them like that car travel totally made up. THAT kind of thing is what gets IRS CID involved, and did. He came to us, we looked it over, told him to hire a criminal defense lawyer - he had no defense tax accountants could help him with.
 
Last edited:
MSgt said:
What does your reply have to do with my question? Does "grandmother" invoke a certain emotion from you? Had the article simply stated "woman," would you have cared? This is typical media manipulation.
Click to expand...

Sure, grandmother invokes a certain emotion, but you are right that it shouldn't matter if it was a grandmother or a 22 year old. Although it's a helluva lot easier for a 22 year old to get another job than it is for a person her age.

What's unconscionable to me is if she's right that she had 10 years with no issues, then she's loyal, hard working, and almost by definition if there were no problems, has demonstrated "integrity" every day. There's no defense of brainless corporate drones following "zero tolerance" corporate directives in this case. Painfully stupid stuff.
 
JasperL said:
Sure, grandmother invokes a certain emotion, but you are right that it shouldn't matter if it was a grandmother or a 22 year old. Although it's a helluva lot easier for a 22 year old to get another job than it is for a person her age.

What's unconscionable to me is if she's right that she had 10 years with no issues, then she's loyal, hard working, and almost by definition if there were no problems, has demonstrated "integrity" every day. There's no defense of brainless corporate drones following "zero tolerance" corporate directives in this case. Painfully stupid stuff.
Click to expand...

There is no way this whole thing is simply about one hundred cents, though. There has to be more.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
That is an interesting question. Lost money found on public property generally falls under finders keepers. But on private property? Obviously if you find money on the floor of my home and keep it then it is stealing. Walmart property is so big it doesn't feel like stealing. But what if you find it in a tiny mom and pop store?
Click to expand...

IMO - "it's a dollar." Almost definitely dropped by a shopper who will never miss it because...it's a dollar. To drive to the store to retrieve your lost item will cost more than....the dollar lost. And if a mom and pop fired a 10 year employee, making low wages but showing up on time and doing a good job for 10 years, with an otherwise spotless record, then they are idiots IMO.
 
KevinKohler said:
Irrelevant. It's against company policy. The money goes to lost and found, stays there for 24 hours, then it's hers to claim.

She's being fired for theft, she's fired for violating pretty important company policy.
Click to expand...

OK, but common sense has to invade that corporate thinking at some point. What if it was a paper clip? A penny? That's "theft" too, but just brainlessly stupid to fire someone over. And it's different, too, IMO if this was an employee on probation or just there a short time. But someone there 10 years you KNOW isn't a thief - she made a MISTAKE.
 
jimbo said:
Seems to me that the line is drawn at zero. No different than stealing a candy bar. Which BTW is a good analogy. If a candy bar falls off the shelf, should you just eat it?

I see it as no different than zero drug tolerance in schools. It's easier to draw the line at zero rather than having to decide how many Midol is too many.
Click to expand...

I also see it like zero tolerance policies, which I see as people in schools too gutless to make decisions on a case by case basis, which leads to Tylenol being treated like cocaine, or Oxy. So you perhaps ruin someone's life over a simple mistake, which is what appears to have happened here.

I just don't agree. Seems to me we're given the ability to think, and should use it, which means we're allowed to operate in the gray and use our judgment.
 
Crovax said:
This will give the wal-mart haters plenty of ammo.
Click to expand...

To be fair.

"Don't drop anything at Walmart or the employees will steal it, even the sweet little old lady with the walker. And management won't do anything about it."

That could damage the entire business. It would further the narrative of Walmart as a scumbag brand, which they are already trying to avoid.
Treating it as no big deal because it's a single dollar doesn't exactly help. That would indicate casual disregard and send the wrong message.
Even the risk of loss of business could end up costing a lot of people their jobs.
 
jimbo said:
Seems to me that the line is drawn at zero. No different than stealing a candy bar. Which BTW is a good analogy. If a candy bar falls off the shelf, should you just eat it?

I see it as no different than zero drug tolerance in schools. It's easier to draw the line at zero rather than having to decide how many Midol is too many.
Click to expand...

What about if an employee stay a few minutes extra on thier break should they be fired for stealing time?
 
Groogrux said:
Where I work it's considered stealing. You may not take anything that doesn't belong to you. It has to be logged into an excel spreadsheet and placed in our fire-safe room. The room has a security camera and you have to hold the item up to the camera before placing it in the cabinet. I didn't think it's that's far-fetched that she was fired.
Click to expand...

That's crazy, I'm glad I dont work there. Sounds like PITA to manage that.
 
HK.227 said:
To be fair.

"Don't drop anything at Walmart or the employees will steal it, even the sweet little old lady with the walker. And management won't do anything about it."

That could damage the entire business. It would further the narrative of Walmart as a scumbag brand, which they are already trying to avoid.
Treating it as no big deal because it's a single dollar doesn't exactly help. That would indicate casual disregard and send the wrong message.
Even the risk of loss of business could end up costing a lot of people their jobs.
Click to expand...

Or don't drop anything because the moment it touches the floor it becomes Wal-Mart's property; which is your argument. What's the point of placing it in lost property? It's a one dollar bill, it's not going to be returned to it's owner.
 
Crovax said:
That's crazy, I'm glad I dont work there. Sounds like PITA to manage that.
Click to expand...

It is. And it's probably unnecessary since we have cameras covering ever pay inch of our building and parking lot. I think just knowing the cameras are always watching is a deterrent.

I feel for the woman (especially if she NEEDS the job), she probably didn't think she was doing anything wrong. It's hard to make a snap judgement about the manager as we don't know if others employees have been fired for the same thing and he was being consistent or he used it as a good excuse to get rid of an elderly employee.
 
JasperL said:
I also see it like zero tolerance policies, which I see as people in schools too gutless to make decisions on a case by case basis, which leads to Tylenol being treated like cocaine, or Oxy. So you perhaps ruin someone's life over a simple mistake, which is what appears to have happened here.

I just don't agree. Seems to me we're given the ability to think, and should use it, which means we're allowed to operate in the gray and use our judgment.
Click to expand...

But then you must agree with Shakespeare and kill all the lawyers. Let the dollar slide then that will be the precedent when the employer prosecutes the bag of money found on the bathroom floor and is found by the janitor.
 
Aristaeus said:
Or don't drop anything because the moment it touches the floor it becomes Wal-Mart's property; which is your argument.
Click to expand...

Are you ill or something?
 
HK.227 said:
Are you ill or something?
Click to expand...

So how long after someone drops something on the floor of a Wal-Mart store does legal ownership transfer from the person who dropped it to Wal-Mart? 5 minutes? an hour? Once the shopper has left the store? Closing time? Once ownership has transferred to Wal-Mart, are they legally allowed to refuse to return it to the (ex?)-owner if they return to the store and ask for it back? How would the person prove it was their dollar bill?

These questions need to be answered if you want to legally transfer ownership of something without the owner's consent.
 
Even as a customer, if I found money on the floor, I'd bring it to Customer Service. I consider it basic decency.

By 84, I'd expect a person to have learned some basic decency.

It's hard to feel bad for anyone in this matter except the poor soul who dropped that dollar.
 
Interesting to note
Ruffino, who has worked for 70 years, said she relies on her Walmart job to pay for her medication and the oxygen tanks she requires.
Click to expand...
and before you say it's Trump's fault
She also claimed that in her nearly 10 years of service to Walmart, she’s kept a spotless record.
Click to expand...
Why does any person need to supplement their income at that age, what's worse, while having to use a walker and oxygen?
We shouldn't ask "what's wrong with Walmart" but "what's wrong with our society".
Sorry for changing the subject just a bit, but c'mon, why sensationalize this while missing the bigger picture?
 
JMaximus said:
Even as a customer, if I found money on the floor, I'd bring it to Customer Service. I consider it basic decency.

By 84, I'd expect a person to have learned some basic decency.

It's hard to feel bad for anyone in this matter except the poor soul who dropped that dollar.
Click to expand...

That would be the logical and moral thing to do if the person that dropped the dollar was indeed going to get it back.
 
If that happens to be their policy, and I have no clue if it is or not, but if it is, then she violated company policy and deserved to get punished. Welcome to the real world.
 
JasperL said:
OK, but common sense has to invade that corporate thinking at some point. What if it was a paper clip? A penny? That's "theft" too, but just brainlessly stupid to fire someone over. And it's different, too, IMO if this was an employee on probation or just there a short time. But someone there 10 years you KNOW isn't a thief - she made a MISTAKE.
Click to expand...

I didn't say it was the "right" thing to do, on the face of it. Ultimately, it's up to the general manager to decide, and this person chose to go for the max punishment. Perhaps she was on previous corrective action, and this was the last straw. Maybe she's an under performer, and they were looking for a reason to let her go. Who knows.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom