Don't Shoot the Wounded

During the ride home from the airport yesterday I realized that nothing had changed in the recovery field during the two weeks I was in Mexico.

As soon as we got in the car I learned that staff was investigating a manager who was suspected of stealing. And sure enough, by the in time we were to Mesa, another call came in confirming his guilt.

Now 20 years ago such information would have really bothered me, but we’ve dealt with this maybe a dozen times. While it’s disappointing when someone betrays trust, I've read that most retail businesses lose more to employee theft than to outsiders. In fact, we lose less than most businesses because everyone’s under a microscope here.

Sometimes people ask “how can you trust anyone after they steal?” 

My response is that we trust addicts to be addicts, and sometimes when they’re not spiritually right they revert to old behavior.

So what did we do with this thief?  Because he rolled over immediately and admitted he’d stolen we fired him. But we let him remain in the program as a client. He agreed to repay the money and we told him we wouldn’t prosecute him if he repaid us.

Some might say we’re too lenient in these situations.  However, reality is that many of us were given more than one chance before we changed our lives. For that reason we never shoot our wounded. We try to help them get better.