I stopped by the bakery yesterday and found a bunch of strawberries that weren't mine. I asked my bakery manager if she knew anything about them, and she said that one of my bakers had asked her a few weeks back if he could use the kitchen to make desserts for a friend's wedding. She told him he should ask me. Since he didn't do that, I feel he does not respect me nor his manager, and I no longer trust him.
First of all, I know the first mistake I made was not making this clear as a company policy. However, since my manager did tell him to ask me first and he did not, so I think it was fairly clear that this was something he would need permission for. So the first issue is to let him know he has broken my trust, and he will have to rebuild that if he wants to continue working with me.
So I've decided ultimately my policy is that employees are not allowed to use company facilities for competing businesses. If they want to pursue freelance work on their own time using their own facilities, I'm going to say that's fine. But philosophically, I am expecting my employees to support my company vision, and that includes bringing business in. I feel very comfortable with this decision.
My question is how does trust get rebuilt? Is it even possible? I feel like he's a good guy so I do want to treat him with respect. It's such a complicated issue.
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