No Good Deed...

On Friday, Dec. 19, my pastor, Greg Locke, played "Santa Claus" with the ministerial staff of the church with some local residents. The plan was to take fresh, crisp, $100 bills to 10 random people as a gift - as a blessing.

All went well, until ... well, I'll let Pastor Locke describe it.
(From his Facebook post):

If you know me, then you know it takes quite a bit to raise my temperature. However, today myself and the manager of the Goodwill of Mount Juliet had a very intense conversation to say the least. I was calm but I was very firm. You would think that a place called Goodwill would actually allow some of it to be shared every now and again. It takes a lot to shock me, but today's act of stinginess did just that. Today our church had the great blessing of going all over town and randomly blessing different people with $100 bills as a Christmas bonus. Walmart, no problem. Kroger, no problem. Dunkin' Donuts, no problem. Goodwill, are you stinking kidding me?

We picked out a lady that worked there who was showing a great smile and had a wonderful personality. I felt for sure that this was the lady that we needed to help. When we took a picture with her and let her know what was in the card she threw her arms around me and gave me the biggest hug of the day. Two hours later, she called the church not only to thank us in a big way but to let us know that she had to quit her job. The management told her that she had three options. She could either give the money back to us, she could be fired, or she could donate her blessing to the Goodwill organization since she was on the clock when she received it. She decided to keep the money and walk away. I personally went back down to that Goodwill store and met with the 20 year old manager and let him know that I was less than happy about this situation. He let me know with great sarcasm that it was her choice to quit. I then called the corporate headquarters of Middle Tennessee. The guy on the phone was floored and never heard of such foolishness. But then, his boss jumped on the line to let me know that was indeed a policy. I was told that anyone who works for Goodwill must give any gifts over to the corporation. I told the lady to keep my number and I'd help her find another job. I get it Goodwill. You've got your policies. Too bad you've lost sight of your people. It's Christmas folks.

As of this writing, this Facebook post has garnered over 4000 likes and as many shares. 

Goodwill's reply:

It was a Christmas gift, a joyful surprise, a random act of kindness. When representatives of a Mt. Juliet church walked unannounced into that town’s Goodwill store on Friday, they chose an employee with a big smile and a sweet personality and handed her $100 in cash. She gratefully accepted.

No one — not the employee, not the church members nor the store’s unsuspecting management, had anything but the best intentions in that moment. But there was a problem.

The employee had signed an honesty policy saying she would not accept gifts of cash or donated goods while on the clock. It is a policy that all Goodwill of Middle Tennessee’s employees for many years have agreed to follow, and there’s a great reason for it.

Goodwill is a not-for-profit that provides employment and training opportunities to thousands of Tennesseans, including those who have disabilities and others having trouble finding and keeping jobs, through the sale of donated goods. In essence, it is a charity made possible – day in and day out – through random, generous gifts from the community.

It is of the utmost importance to Goodwill that we remain good stewards of the donations we receive and that we maintain the trust of our donors and shoppers. Our unique business model demands that our employees follow a strict code of ethics, particularly with regard to the acceptance and stewardship of donations. A single inappropriate act by any one of our thousands of employees could betray that trust and have harmful consequences for the rest, not to mention endangering the much-needed services we provide the community.

But what occurred in our Mt. Juliet store Friday was not the sort of scenario this policy was intended to prevent. Had Goodwill’s management team known in advance about about the gift, they could have suggested that church members give it to the employee after hours. They would have been excited for her and might have even helped plan the surprise, knowing how much it would mean to her.

Instead, supervisors were caught off-guard and reminded the employee of the policy, and gave her the choice of returning the gift to the church or donating it to Goodwill. The situation could have been handled much better. The employee chose to keep the gift and walk away from her job.

A few hours later, the church’s pastor wrote a description of what had happened on social media, and it went viral.

On Saturday morning, Goodwill reached out to the employee and offered to allow her to keep the gift and return to work. The employee has told us she will consider the offer.

Goodwill’s President and CEO Matthew Bourlakas called the church’s pastor. He explained the importance of the policy in maintaining trust with the community and expressed regret about its strict interpretation in this instance. He told the pastor that every effort had been made to set the matter right with the employee. The pastor indicated that he understood the policy and that it was not his intent to hurt the charity’s reputation.

But the pastor’s social media post, and hundreds of comments voicing negative responses to the incident, remain online.

And so we wanted to tell you our story, how deeply we wish we had known about the church’s gift in advance and had responded differently. It was a gift of kindness, after all, and Goodwill employees — from donation attendants to truck drivers to the CEO — understand the power of that gift. We see it reflected every day in the faces of our co-workers.

We see it in the former prisoners who find jobs with Goodwill when no one else will hire them. We see it in recovering drug addicts who regain their self-respect through the power of work. We see it in those who are blind or deaf or wheelchair-bound or who have learning disabilities, all of whom lead normal lives of quiet dignity with the help of Goodwill.

And we see it in our neighbors across middle and west Tennessee — 26,000 of whom got assistance at Goodwill’s Career Solutions Centers this year and 8,600 of whom landed jobs.

All of this starts with the generosity of our donors and shoppers and is maintained through their trust in Goodwill. We will take this opportunity to review our policies and procedures. We thank our donors for their continuing support of Goodwill’s mission.

We wish you all a Happy Holidays.

What say you?