Housekeepers kid stole medication from us-terminate or not

[Anonymous]

I would not fire her. I would not let the son back in the house though. And he needs to reimburse you for the cost of the pills.

[Anonymous]

why did she feel the need to bring her grown son with her into your home? Part of me thinks she might be in on it at some level. I'd have to fire her. Trust has been destroyed.

[Anonymous]

I would not terminate, but don not allowed in my house. I’m shocked by all the posters on this board with no empathy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would terminate effective immidiatelu, pay severance, and change the locks. No way would I feel comfortable with her having ongoing access to the house—either the son may convince her to let him in or he could make a key copy.

This, plus call the cops with the tape. It’s not the mom’s fault, but you have to keep your family safe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would not terminate, but don not allowed in my house. I’m shocked by all the posters on this board with no empathy!

I would terminate and pay severance.

A friend of mine from high school was raped and murdered by a semi-homeless man who her mom was nice enough to give handyman work to. Two childhood neighbors of mine were murdered because they used to take in foster kids and one day couple teens knocked on the door asking to see the foster kid. The kindly couple opened up the door to tell talk to them and the teens broke in, stole from them, and murdered them.

You have to be careful who you let around your house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our housekeeper has had her son come over with her whenever she cleans on Sundays. This was fine with us and he is around 18. This morning I picked up more pain killer pills for my dog who just had hip surgery and left the bottle at the edge of the counter. After they left I found that a new 30 pill supply was down to 10 and the bottle was closed sitting on its side. We have a camera in the kitchen facing our back door and it captured him taking the pills. I’m not sure what’s appropriate here. I’ve already let her know about the drugs because I was afraid he could overdose but she asked me if I’m going to let her go and I told her I haven’t decided yet. Obviously the kid is not welcome but would you fire someone over this?

You really have no choice as this has colored your relationship and it cannot be repaired. Let her go with two weeks pay.

[Anonymous]

You people are out of your minds--severence?? This family stole from you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You people are out of your minds--severence?? This family stole from you.

Worth it to not make unpredictable people mad. I would actually do more than that. I would do a slow fade and pay for times that I cancel and then finally let them go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s odd that she brought her 18 year old son most days. What reason did she give? That would impact my decision.

Op again. She asked if I minded because it’s summer and school is out and I said it was fine because she normally isn’t with us on the weekends so I was trying to be accommodating to her. When he would come over he would normally help his mom clean or do errands. We have a pool and I would let him use it too. I believe he is going to community college in the fall. We have a big house and I’m normally okay with people being over (obviously what he did I was not okay with).

She offered to get the pills back and pay me back I told her that was okay and to just give me back the pills. I flushed them down the toilet because I don’t know where they’ve been and don’t want to give them to my 15 year old dog and expose him to something by accident. I have a decade long relationship with my vet so they didn’t ask about proving what happened to get new pills but I offered them video proof that they didn’t want to look at. All pills are now in a wall safe.

I didn’t call the police and even if I terminate her I don’t want to screw up someone’s life over this. Kids/young adults do dumb things. The pills were retrieved and not taken or distributed.

[Anonymous]

YES I would on the spot and without any hesitation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would terminate effective immidiatelu, pay severance, and change the locks. No way would I feel comfortable with her having ongoing access to the house—either the son may convince her to let him in or he could make a key copy.

This, plus call the cops with the tape. It’s not the mom’s fault, but you have to keep your family safe.

That's where I disagree. The mom knows that the son has issues and the potential to get into trouble. That's why she brought him to work with her. In your home. So she allowed this to happen. Maybe not directly but she knew this was a possibility. And because she wasn't watching him closely enough, he stole from you. I've had my weekly house cleaner ask to bring her 10-year-old son every now and then on summer days or holiday and that's fine with me. The son either plays with my kids or just sits there on his iPad and never causes any trouble. And she watches his every move. Unless he was helping her clean, there was no reason to bring him with her other than the fact she wanted to keep him out of trouble. But she brought trouble into your home. That's too much of a breach of trust IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s odd that she brought her 18 year old son most days. What reason did she give? That would impact my decision.

Op again. She asked if I minded because it’s summer and school is out and I said it was fine because she normally isn’t with us on the weekends so I was trying to be accommodating to her. When he would come over he would normally help his mom clean or do errands. We have a pool and I would let him use it too. I believe he is going to community college in the fall. We have a big house and I’m normally okay with people being over (obviously what he did I was not okay with).

She offered to get the pills back and pay me back I told her that was okay and to just give me back the pills. I flushed them down the toilet because I don’t know where they’ve been and don’t want to give them to my 15 year old dog and expose him to something by accident. I have a decade long relationship with my vet so they didn’t ask about proving what happened to get new pills but I offered them video proof that they didn’t want to look at. All pills are now in a wall safe.

I didn’t call the police and even if I terminate her I don’t want to screw up someone’s life over this. Kids/young adults do dumb things. The pills were retrieved and not taken or distributed.

OP, you're a good person. Hopefully this young man learned a lesson. What is his mother doing to punish him? She must have been mortified.

[Anonymous]

You can't trust her judgment, bringing an 18 year old to work is strange, and then on top of it he steals drugs. This is trouble.

I personally would move on and find someone with less baggage and drama.

[Anonymous]

terminate

[Anonymous]

How is this even a question? She needs to be terminated.