I'm just saying that in the grand scheme of things, it could have gone a lot worse than having an independent employee and an excess of pre-oxidized carts.
If it were me I wouldn't fire the guy, one of those "It was a mistake but no harm done so this is your one warning" kind of moments...
For sure the employee could have caused more damage, hardly a defense. I'm not sure how you asses the cost of this. Lost stock, PR, and a lot of factors play into it. More importantly IMO it's not the thing an professional engineer does. It sounds like this guy works without direct supervision which raises the odds.
It's a personnel matter, it's G's call for sure, we're speaking in the general case I think? He's the guy with the important relationship here. It's his company and customer base that's at risk. His family's future that's on the line, not the engineers.
So we're pretty close on this. From what I know, I'd be inclined to ignore the 'you got away with it this time' part (not even a known at this point, it's still not resolved, right?). I wouldn't fire the guy if things were otherwise OK and I still had confidence in him but he'd get some 'time on the beach' (unpaid time off) to think it over, rewrite his resume and start his job search if he didn't want to obey the rules I suspect? This is
grossly unprofessional, such actions expose the company to all sorts of risks (suits can come from most any direction and 'I lost control of my engineer' will cost G his house and kids college as likely as not when the jury hears it). It is by no means casual. In an engineering department with proper management this sort of stuff doesn't happen without the right number of signatures for good reasons. In a 'one man engineering department' the wrong one man could spell the end. G has to be able to trust this guy in the future, his corporate structure won't allow him to supervise.
Make no mistake about it, 'the buck' stops with G. He's ultimately responsible for everything done by THC on his behalf, he's the guy that gets served with the long papers if it goes south. He knows that and accepts the responsibility.
Good luck to G on this. I see the stakes as very high, this is not a good thing even if it worked out perfectly.
OF
