Hi,

Bit of an odd situation that I’ve not come across before.

Staff have been commenting for a while that food has been going missing from the fridge in the staff room.  In fact one member of staff stuck a note in a tub of salad saying ‘if you like that much I’ll make you one’.

On Friday a member of staff walked into the staff room and witnessed another member of staff taking food out of another persons lunch box.

There was a short exchange of words and the witness then reported the incident to her line manager.

The person with her hand in the fridge went home sick and doesn’t work Mondays.

The other staff are outraged so I am considering calling her and suspending her whilst I sort it out.

Theft is a gross misconduct offence but would this amount to that or should I be looking at a more lenient warning?

Grateful of any advice.