incrediguy Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Hello all, I've enjoyed looking through the forums here so far but wasn't able to find any answers to my questions. I work in a hospital on an orthopedic unit with an attached gym with about 70 nursing staff, plus another 20-30 staff including housekeepers and therapists. We had an honor box run by a volunteer using donated startup funds with the profits intended for throwing parties, etc as a perk for the employees. Since it was run by a volunteer who didn't make any money off of it, it seems to have fallen prey to shortages, and no one wants to take the initiative to take responsibility for it and run it for profit. While it was going, the snacks sold were K-cups, candy bars, and trail mix types of snacks that seemed pretty popular. However, the person running it never kept track of the numbers and just restocked as money came in, so she didn't know how much she was being shorted, she just knew she wasn't making money. Have any of you had experience running a box at your own place of employment? I don't intend to expand beyond this one location, but I do want to provide a service to our staff with enough income to make the inventory runs worth my time. Do you notice any drop in shortage with displaying signs asking for payment, that stealing is stealing, or any other techniques? If I'm shorted here I won't just be pulling the location, I need to come up with a solution to maintain profitability. Thanks for any help or comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I get the impression that you haven't serviced honor boxes before. I wouldn't put an honor box at my place of employment for the SAME REASON customers ask YOU (the honor box service guy) to REMOVE your box when you notify them that there are shortages -- you do not want the fact that someone is STEALING have an affect on your relationship with your fellow employees. Most of us here with experience with honor boxes know this: when a box starts coming up short, it will either sort itself out relatively fast (either on its own or with the help of a friendly "note") or things will get worse fast. Here are a couple examples of what might happen when the box is short: 1) The box isn't short all the time. This time was possibly just a fluke. Maybe someone that owed the box called in sick and they forgot to pay. 2) Someone keeps forgetting to pay. They might be the sole culprit for all of the shortages but they have money problems and they are hungry. Rather than fess up and be "that guy" that is blamed for all shortages, they say nothing... and continue to eat! The box stays consistently short each service cycle. 3) The box suddenly gets worse and worse on each consecutive cycle. It's time to do something because it's getting WORSE. Now, assuming you have issue 2 you can either ignore it and hope it doesn't get any worse, you can pull the box, or you can leave a note. If it is issue 3, you should pull the box OR leave a note. If you DO leave a note, here are a few examples of what could happen: 1) It fixes the problem and payment becomes better for a while. 2) Someone feels sorry for you and pays the debt of the thieves. 3) Someone gets royally offended that you would ever DARE to accuse them or someone in the office of stealing and they ask you to remove the box. How DARE you accuse these poor innocent people? They would NEVER steal. Either you are lying, or someone else is sneaking into the office and taking only snacks. How dare you! 4) The shortages get worse. .. and finally.... 5) People stop taking snacks (cause they are offended by the notes) Most of the time, leaving a kind note results in nothing but a short-lasted decrease in shortages followed by a few weeks of "making-up" for the DECREASE in shortages by having an even greater INCREASE in shortages. In summary, notes don't work, but they are fun to do when you are actually pulling the box. I had a school where I left notes EVERY WEEK with a TALLY of the shortages. The shortages probably averaged 40%. People were happily taking snacks and simply not paying!! I left note after note. Finally, I left a note saying "Not paying for snacks will result in the immediate removal of the box." with a date on it. The following 2 or 3 service cycles were about 10% short (no big deal). Then, after Thanksgiving, the box has 15 pieces missing and there's about 7 dollars in the box. It had been 3 weeks so I KNOW people had been paid already. I wrote another FINAL note saying "The box was removed due to shortages." and left it in the same place as the box. No contact information or anything. If they were to get upset about losing their box, they will all blame each other and that's fine with me. But you WORK with these people so you can't simply write a nasty letter and then run off (but it is very rewarding to do that!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incrediguy Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 I get the impression that you haven't serviced honor boxes before. I wouldn't put an honor box at my place of employment for the SAME REASON customers ask YOU (the honor box service guy) to REMOVE your box when you notify them that there are shortages -- you do not want the fact that someone is STEALING have an affect on your relationship with your fellow employees. Most of us here with experience with honor boxes know this: when a box starts coming up short, it will either sort itself out relatively fast (either on its own or with the help of a friendly "note") or things will get worse fast. Here are a couple examples of what might happen when the box is short: 1) The box isn't short all the time. This time was possibly just a fluke. Maybe someone that owed the box called in sick and they forgot to pay. 2) Someone keeps forgetting to pay. They might be the sole culprit for all of the shortages but they have money problems and they are hungry. Rather than fess up and be "that guy" that is blamed for all shortages, they say nothing... and continue to eat! The box stays consistently short each service cycle. 3) The box suddenly gets worse and worse on each consecutive cycle. It's time to do something because it's getting WORSE. Now, assuming you have issue 2 you can either ignore it and hope it doesn't get any worse, you can pull the box, or you can leave a note. If it is issue 3, you should pull the box OR leave a note. If you DO leave a note, here are a few examples of what could happen: 1) It fixes the problem and payment becomes better for a while. 2) Someone feels sorry for you and pays the debt of the thieves. 3) Someone gets royally offended that you would ever DARE to accuse them or someone in the office of stealing and they ask you to remove the box. How DARE you accuse these poor innocent people? They would NEVER steal. Either you are lying, or someone else is sneaking into the office and taking only snacks. How dare you! 4) The shortages get worse. .. and finally.... 5) People stop taking snacks (cause they are offended by the notes) Most of the time, leaving a kind note results in nothing but a short-lasted decrease in shortages followed by a few weeks of "making-up" for the DECREASE in shortages by having an even greater INCREASE in shortages. In summary, notes don't work, but they are fun to do when you are actually pulling the box. I had a school where I left notes EVERY WEEK with a TALLY of the shortages. The shortages probably averaged 40%. People were happily taking snacks and simply not paying!! I left note after note. Finally, I left a note saying "Not paying for snacks will result in the immediate removal of the box." with a date on it. The following 2 or 3 service cycles were about 10% short (no big deal). Then, after Thanksgiving, the box has 15 pieces missing and there's about 7 dollars in the box. It had been 3 weeks so I KNOW people had been paid already. I wrote another FINAL note saying "The box was removed due to shortages." and left it in the same place as the box. No contact information or anything. If they were to get upset about losing their box, they will all blame each other and that's fine with me. But you WORK with these people so you can't simply write a nasty letter and then run off (but it is very rewarding to do that!). You are correct, I have not serviced them before; thanks for your lengthy explanation. The problem I was trying to reconcile was something you mentioned, and that is the fact that addressing shortages with notes is shocking for everyone, since most people would never think that it could happen consistently or purposefully and it would just lower workplace morale and strain relationships. It has already been established that shortage is an issue, but since no inventory accounting was being done by the previous servicer, I don't know how bad the shortages were or if she was just angry that there was any shortages at all and decided to stop it out of indignation. I'm reluctant to redo the honor box system just to experiment and find out exact shortages, but its still tempting because I don't know how bad it might be and most people really did enjoy having access to snacks and k-cups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrCorey Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 ah the feed a nurse program. put chocolate mints in there, and if you ever need their help, you will be set for life. yeah, the same office workers that eat each others lunch when no one is looking. "ah was that your lunch? please cut down on the mayo" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incrediguy Posted January 30, 2015 Author Share Posted January 30, 2015 ah the feed a nurse program. put chocolate mints in there, and if you ever need their help, you will be set for life. yeah, the same office workers that eat each others lunch when no one is looking. "ah was that your lunch? please cut down on the mayo" Yep, that's pretty much how it goes haha. I guess the logic is that you're "helping them help others". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russ Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 I have no experience with the 'honor boxes' but I have a lot of experience with human nature and I can guess some of the things go through the minds of the culprits who take and don't pay... For one thing they probably assume that like any vending machine, anything with a place to put coins is a gold mine making its owner rich, so too bad if they feel like helping themselves. Once the note calls out the fact that there are shortages, they likely think 'if the shortages were that bad they'd have pulled the box already, the fact it's still here means they're still making money.' And they keep helping themselves. It goes back to the suspicion that everyone in business must be getting rich at their expense. If they don't honestly believe that, they still pretend they do to justify their dishonesty. Honor box sounds like a tough business to make any real money at given human nature and the tight rations of 'honor' these days. Evidently some people make money at honor boxes, but probably the most is made by the people who make the boxes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevo59 Posted February 1, 2015 Share Posted February 1, 2015 Here is my advice concerning honor boxes.........take the money you plan to invest in the honor box, go down to the local convenience store, buy lottery tickets, a couple of six packs of beer and a bag or two of chips and go home, put in a movie, relax and enjoy yourself. In the long run, you will lose less money and save yourself an incredible amount of time, energy and aggravation! And you stand a better chance of hitting the lottery for a million bucks than you do making money from an honor box.....too many people have no honor.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
incrediguy Posted February 1, 2015 Author Share Posted February 1, 2015 Here is my advice concerning honor boxes.........take the money you plan to invest in the honor box, go down to the local convenience store, buy lottery tickets, a couple of six packs of beer and a bag or two of chips and go home, put in a movie, relax and enjoy yourself. In the long run, you will lose less money and save yourself an incredible amount of time, energy and aggravation! And you stand a better chance of hitting the lottery for a million bucks than you do making money from an honor box.....too many people have no honor.... I'm glad I asked about this, I definitely won't be trying for the honor box again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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