It’s becoming an epidemic. First, a Fort Lauderdale waiter was fired after he left in the middle of his shift to help a woman who was being carjacked.

And now, a bank teller in New Jersey was told he must quit his job if he wanted to accept the $10,000 reward for helping catch a serial bank robber.

I understand the business’s position. When I worked retail, we weren’t supposed to chase down shoplifters. There are liability issues, and a worker’s safety is more important than money.

In the first case, the guy actually spent over an hour talking to the police (and the media.) When you’re in the middle of a shift, that can be a big problem for the employees who are left holding the bag.

In the second case, it was pretty dangerous to follow a suspect in 19 bank robberies. BofA can’t go around encouraging its employees to do things like that.

But there’s got to be a happy median. For one thing, it’s bad publicity, and it’s bad employee relations. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to actively discourage helping others. This seems to happen a lot.

-GhostGirl