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Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy?June 28, 2009 I heard from a journalist last week who was writing a follow-up story about the man fired from Whole Foods for removing a tuna sandwich from the garbage that he said he’d planned to eat. Our conversation quickly turned into one about company policies and whether they do more harm than good. And while I am a big believer in organizations making explicitly clear what is and is not acceptable behavior at work, I couldn’t help but feel that something was just not right. Apparently, Whole Foods has a “No Theft,” policy. No issues there. Understandable. But do they also have a policy that says, “Employees may not remove food from the garbage that they claim they want to eat?” because that’s what the guy was actually terminated for. See, one problem is that they failed to define the value of a sandwich in the trash. If it is no longer sellable, is it worth anything to the store? One would presume not if it ended up with refuse. So is that stealing? If it is, it should have been defined as such. That, or they needed to widen the definition of “theft” to include garbage. Then who knows, the employee may not have “stolen” it to begin with if he’d been clear about the ramifications. To me, it seems there is a nuance that needs to be looked at between the regulations that sit “on the books,” and actual behaviors as they exist in reality. Things are not always as clear as we think they are, as we see in the case of the tuna sandwich. Yet unfortunately, a lot of companies trip over themselves because they try to force a policy to fit a perceived breach, when really, it’s debatable whether there was a breach in the first place at all. Much depends on how the rule is interpreted against the violation, especially if the rule itself lacks specificity and clarity. I would imagine that there is many a situation where it’s not so easy to parse the meaning from the words, from the act, but this one is a no-brainer. In the end, it’s important that policies are not only understood by what they say, but also by how they will be enforced “live.” While structure in organization is no doubt a necessity, rules that are not well thought out are bound to get in the way and cause more trouble than they are worth. Posted by Donna Flagg on June 28, 2009 | Comments (10) Industries: Human Resources
June 29, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? ty commented: But the real question is, why is an employee eating garbage?
June 29, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? Sherm commented: Donna, how do you like your tuna sandwich? What would you drink with it? Pickle? Chips?
June 29, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? sad commented: how sad that he needed food that badly and they took away his income for it. You'd think they'd look at the bigger picture.
June 29, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? Donna commented: Remember, we don't know that guy's story and we also don't know the circumstances surrounding the sandwich in the garbage. It's more about the company and how the policy played out.
June 30, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? AlexAxe commented: Super post, Need to mark it on Digg
June 30, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? RG commented: Without this policy, all manner of items could be disposed of and then removed by employees as "garbage." It's a common policy in the food industries - you just don't take food (etc.) out of the store, even if it is legitimately "garbage."
June 30, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? BE commented: I'm with RG. Without the policy employees could throw away good food and take it from the garbage later for lunch. Also does WF become liable for food eaten from dumpster? I can see an employee eating from garbage, becoming ill and then suing WF.
June 30, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? Donna commented: Yes, but all we know is that the policy was “no theft.” And that's the point. Not that taking from the garbage should be allowed, but rather that if it's not allowed, then it should be clearly explained in the policy. Now for all we know it was, but based on the information available, there is nothing that explains to the employees, that the employer considers taking trash, "stealing." Remember, a policy can be whatever a company wants it to be. But it also has a responsibility to be explicitly clear with employees so that when they engage in a given behavior, they are crystal clear about the act and its ramifications. So the debate is not over whether a sandwich is trash or not. I was in retail for years and we were really clear that anything “damaged,” was off limits. And that was for all of the reasons you guys stated.
June 30, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? Donna commented: Also, excellent point about the liability "BE"!
October 16, 2009
In response to: Whole Foods: Bad Tuna or HR Policy? Cheap Groceries commented: Thats very good to know... thanks
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