When we sat down with Laura McLand, VP of Human Resources at Sun Holdings, host Rebecca Taylor brought a disclosure that lands at the worst moment. An employee on her way out uses the exit interview to report that her manager has spent a year stealing from petty cash, and she puts the total at several thousand dollars. Fear of retaliation and the need for a paycheck kept her silent until now. The manager she names is a strong performer with no warning that anything is coming.
Laura works in restaurants, and her answer came with a clock. Within 24 to 48 hours she wants the video reviewed, the finances researched, and the employees interviewed, before anyone accuses a manager. She also wants to know why a year passed before HR heard a word.
Why the Report Waited Until the Last Day
Laura did not start with the manager. She started with the silence. She asked whether employees at that location had the information to reach HR, and why this one did not feel comfortable using it.
She takes the fear at face value. An employee cannot go to the manager and say stop stealing, she noted, so she understands the fear of retaliation against a whistleblower. She would still ask why the employee did not go to the district manager or to HR.
Timing matters too. Laura looks for the moment the employee decided she was done, and “what was the final incident” is, by her account, a big question in HR. Sometimes a disgruntled employee leaves with a claim that is not entirely true, she said, and only an investigation shows which.
How Small Theft Grows When Nobody Notices
A year of missing petty cash is a pattern, not an incident. In Laura’s telling, a manager pockets $20, sees that “nobody noticed,” and takes more the next time. Her rule is that “stealing is stealing,” whether the amount is $20 or $200.
She wants theft addressed the first time it happens. Rebecca recalled a past retail job where the team let a suspected employee repeat the behavior before confronting it, looking for a pattern, since “people tend to get bold.” Harvard Business Review opened a 2014 article on how unethical behavior becomes habit with Bernard Madoff describing the same slide in an embezzlement case, where a little at first becomes comfort and then something big.
In a restaurant the logic extends to food. A cook who prepares extra at closing to take home is on the same path, so Laura wants kitchens to “account for that food cost at the end of the day.” It is one of the many forms employee theft takes.
The pattern also points back at the company. Laura wants to know whether the district manager or finance noticed a year of missing cash. If nobody did, she asks “how did we not see that.” Strong performance does not settle it. As she put it, “some of their numbers may be good.”
What Actually Works
Run the First Round Within 48 Hours
Laura named the risk on both sides. Move too fast and HR makes assumptions and a rash decision. Move too slowly and the theft keeps going, which will “cost us money.” Her window for the first round is 24 to 48 hours.
She starts with the departing employee, who knows which days it happened and who else saw it. Those dates let the risk team narrow the camera footage, check more than one angle, and compare several days. She wants an all-encompassing workplace investigation, up to the district manager and across to finance.
Ask Everyone the Same Opening Questions
Laura’s team keeps interview documents for “the accuser, the accused, and the witnesses.” In her words, “we always start out with the same questions,” then each conversation goes where it leads. A standing set of investigation questions for all parties does the same job.
The questions stay open-ended, because other employees often supply what the first one did not. An inquiry that begins with cash can turn up a manager who is not working full hours. If the departing employee refuses to name witnesses, Laura does not stall. “We actually continue that investigation,” she said.
The manager is interviewed either way. If the cameras and finances show nothing, Laura still asks why the employee believed it, since a manager carrying a deposit to the bank can look like one pocketing cash. If the evidence is there, the manager still gets “the opportunity to respond to any allegations.”
Keep the Hotline Poster on the Wall
Every restaurant is supposed to display a poster telling employees how to reach HR, with “a phone number, hotline, and email address.” Laura asks district managers to look for it when they visit. When it is missing, she treats that as an indication of its own.
More than one channel matters. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners studied 2,402 occupational fraud cases for its 2026 Report to the Nations and found tips most often arrive through web-based reporting at 46 percent, email at 34 percent, and phone at 23 percent.
The poster shares a wall with the labor law postings a restaurant already hangs, and kitchens wear paper out. Laura’s standard is that “they need to have a fresh one” up at all times.
Where Employee Relations Fits
The scenario is a reporting failure before it is a theft case. Sun Holdings runs an employee hotline, and Laura wants current staff to feel comfortable calling HR after a colleague leaves. In her experience some do.
Rebecca made the case for an anonymous reporting system on the same grounds. It gets a concern raised sooner, and it is “a lot easier to fix a small problem than to clean up a big mess.”
The employee leaving should hear that her report was taken seriously. One who stays and no longer feels comfortable at that location can transfer to another restaurant.
Frequently Asked Questions About Petty Cash Theft Investigations
Yes. Laura investigates whether or not the witness stays, and she wants the departing employee to know the report was taken seriously.
Within 24 to 48 hours for the first round, in Laura’s practice. That covers reviewing video, researching the location’s finances, and talking with employees.
The investigation continues without the names. Laura’s team contacts other employees who worked with that manager, reviews recent camera footage, and looks for the final incident behind the disclosure.
No. Laura’s position is that stealing is stealing, whether the amount is $20 or $200. Rebecca added that theft usually sits closer to zero tolerance, with other forms of gross misconduct.
Because it may not be an oversight. Laura treats a missing poster as an indication worth checking, and Rebecca raised the possibility that the information was hidden on purpose.
The Bottom Line for HR Leaders
Laura McLand’s framing is that “the employees are our customers.” HR gives them good service so they can give it to guests, and she calls the result “a domino effect.” She rejects the assumption that HR only sees the corporate side.
The petty cash case shows what it costs when that fails. This employee saw the theft and trusted no avenue enough to use it, so a year went by. The companies that hear about the first incident are the ones whose employees know where to call.
See how AllVoices helps People teams learn about a problem while the employee who saw it still works there.
