What is malingering? Malingering is defined by Merriam-Webster as, “to pretend to be sick or injured in order to avoid doing work.” The most famous malingerer might be Ferris Bueller, but while he only cost his friend’s dad money buying a new car, malingering Americans cost billions of dollars a year. According to a study available in the US National Library of Medicine, malingering adult mental disorder claimants costs were $20 billion in 2011. Below are some ways you can nip malingering in the bud.
Apply standards consistently
In order to make sure employees understand expectations and don’t feel singled out, standards and practices have to be enforced consistently. If you make one employee get a doctor’s note after calling in sick then you need to make every employee do the same. Medical issues are a sensitive topic and companies can get into hot water if an employee feels they’re being treated unfairly due to their health. Consider printing out a guide explaining expectations and having employees sign a sheet acknowledging they received one so there’s no confusion if this becomes an issue.
Ask for proof
If an employee is having bad enough medical issues to miss work then they should see a doctor to find out what’s going. Getting sick for a day isn’t uncommon, but when a medical issue regularly prevents an employee from working, something needs to be done. It’s not unfair for an employer to ask for documentation of the problem.
Knowing ahead of time that proof will be required when they come back to work will help deter malingering and prevent excuses about why they couldn’t provide proof. Even if you trust the employee, always get documentation for company records and to ensure consistently applied standards.
Be accommodating to employees needs
Even if you suspect an employee is malingering, be open to accommodating their needs. If they are malingering then they’ll lack excuses for not working when the company shows it’s ready and willing to work with them. If they’re not malingering then the company will have already done the right thing by creating an accommodating and inclusive environment. Making it tougher for employees to excuse their lack of work actually makes it easier for employees with genuine issues to work.
Be patient whether they’re faking it or not
Determining if an employee is malingering can take time.One of the most famous cases of malingering is the 1927 Bruneri-Canella. Brunei, a petty thief and con-man, pretended he had amnesia and was mistakenly identified as an Italian professor that went missing in World War I. The thief kept up his charade for years even pretending not to remember his family despite them identifying him. Eventually a court determined he was faking it. Patience is needed because if an employee is faking it, eventually they’ll be caught, but if they’re being honest, rushing to judgement is a big mistake.
Investigate
When an employee continues to claim they’re having medical issues, but you suspect something is off, contact a private investigator to look into the matter. It’s never fun to accuse someone of lying, but it’s a lot less fun to lose money to a scammer. Private investigators will be able to quickly find out if the employee is malingering or genuinely having problems.
Is an employee selling drugs from their job? What are signs of drug trafficking in the workplace? What can human resources do to stop drug dealing at work? These are questions every business owner and human resources department should be asking themselves before contacting a private investigator.
Why is an employee meeting with people in the parking lot on break?
It’s common for drug deals to happen in cars. It makes for a quick and private way to do an exchange in plain sight. In the backseat of car, on break from work, is where Jade Violes sold heroin while working at a Pizza Hut in Indiana.
In 2015, Violes was arrested for selling heroin after an undercover police officer purchased from her in the Pizza Hut parking lot. If an employee is meeting with people in cars during work hours it’s not unreasonable to suspect they may be selling drugs.
Why do employees keep meeting in the bathroom?
Do employees sell drugs in the bathroom at work? At the Senate mail room in Pennsylvania they did. This past March two employees of the Pennsylvania Senate were charged with crimes related to the distribution of heroin. A third employee was also fired from their job in connection to the drug peddling.
Police were alerted to the crimes when an employee not involved in the inter-office drug trade found 20 packets of heroin in the bathroom. Corey Miller was charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance after police found eight more packets of heroin in his wallet. Bathrooms can offer privacy to employees that some find too tempting to resist exploiting.
How can they afford all that stuff?
Does driving a fancy car mean someone is selling drugs? What about buying a new big screen TV and the latest smart phone? What if an employee is doing all of this and more? If this is the case then you may want to call an investigator.
Human resources departments know how much an employee earns from their job. If an employee is suddenly showing up in expensive clothes with fancy accessories and they haven’t picked up a second job then something could be up. It’s one thing to live outside your means, but there are limits to how much one can acquire on credit alone.
We recently fired an employee for using drugs at work. Could there be more?
Was an employee recently fired for using drugs at work? Were they the only person using on the job? Were they buying drugs at work? These are questions every human resources department should be asking when an employee is caught using drugs on the job.
Some businesses believe the nature of their work precludes them from having drug dealers in their midst, but that’s a mistake. It may be easy to write-off drug dealing from Pizza Hut, but it’s tougher when someone like 53-year-old James Peter Kranyecz gets bustedselling marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine from the church he worked at.
We caught an employee bringing drugs to work. Were they the only one?
Catch an employee with a small amount of drugs? Don’t just assume it was for personal use. The packaging and quantity of drugs should be taken note of when considering what to do next. Did the employee bring drugs on-site for personal use or were they distributing to coworkers? Was the employee acting alone or with their coworkers?
Earlier this year five United States Postal workers were arrested after conspiring to help distribute marijuana through the postal system. First, the postal workers gave their work schedules and routes to a drug dealer. Then the dealer timed when he mailed the drugs to make sure they ended up in the postal workers’ hands. According to News 5 Cleveland, Michael Tobin of the US Attorney’s Office said, “These are folks who had jobs, decent jobs as mail carriers, and they threw it all away for $200, $300, $400 of cash.”
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
Keeping employees safe is the humber one priority for most businesses. According to the United Stated Department of Labor Occupational Health and Safety Administration, 2 million workers report being the victim of workplace violence every year. 4,679 fatal workplace injuries happened in 2014 with 749 of those deaths being ruled homicides.
Protecting your business from the threat of violence must be a top priority in order to create a safe and productive space for your employees. Employees shouldn’t be anxious about their safety and neither should you.
Increased emphasis on pre-employment background checks can keep potentially violent people off of a company’s payroll. Annual background checks of current employees will help detect changes or rising threat levels before anything bad can take place. Private investigators can screen employees for red flags and let you know about them before it’s too late.
2. Save money through employee retention
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Some form of that question is asked in every single interview across America. Businesses don’t want to hire people for the short term. They want people that will stick around and be part of their company for years to come. Long term employees bolster company culture and cohesion. They also save businesses money on training costs.
The Center for American Progress reported in 2012 that the average cost to replace an employee fell between 10% and 30% of that employee’s annual salary. Searching for new employees sucks time and money from other activities managers could be working on. Improved background checks will protect any company’s investments by helping them make the right choice the first time they fill a position.
3. Protect your assets
Employee theft is a major problem for businesses. Costing up to $18 billion annually, everything that can be done to prevent employee theft must be done. Companies won’t always know before hiring someone if they’re more likely to commit theft, but expansive background checks can help detect early warning signs.
Credit checks are an excellent indicator of an increased risk of theft. For years the government and military have run credit checks on all personnel seeking security clearances. The higher someone’s debt and lower the credit, the higher their chances of being compromised by financial gain.
Has the employee stolen before? Do their former coworkers consider them honest? Beyond credit checks, a deep look at past employment can help indicate if someone might steal. Private investigators can find all this information and more.
4. Investigate social media history to prevent going viral for the wrong reasons
Going viral is all the rage for companies in 2016. Everyone wants to be the talk of social media and to trend on FaceBook and Twitter. Companies spend a lot of money on marketing and promotion aimed at creating the next online sensation. But what happens when you go viral for all the wrong reasons?
in 2012, Jessica Harr was a bartender for Proof Nightclub in Chicago when her Facebook page regrettably caused the club to become the talk of the internet. In an extremely racist FaceBook post Harr described African Americans as “ignorant” “stupid,” and “apes.” Harr even swore she’d never hire an African American for those reasons.
The post quickly went viral and numerous people threaten to boycott the club. Other club owners came out and said they’d had issues dealing with Proof Nightclub as well. Harr was quickly fired, but Proof’s brand was damaged and they had to commit serious time and money to repairing their identity.
In the age of social media, companies cannot afford to ignore their employee’s social media pages. One post is all it takes to stoke outrage and retaliation against a business for those they employ. If your background checks don’t include extensive online research then you need to make a change fast. Protect your brand and go viral for the right reasons.
5. Trouble with past employers
When companies interview job candidates it’s important they not only verify their work history, but investigate it as much as possible. Verifying the dates of employment is a good start, but finding out how the candidate interacted with coworkers and management is vital to thorough vetting.
Private investigators are perfect for building a profile of any candidate to better evaluate their chances of success if hired. Was the candidate considered a team player at their last job? Did they show up early and leave late or cut corners to get out as quick as possible? Don’t waste your time on employees who won’t give your company 100%. Find out who they are before you pay them for who you think they might be.
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
Skip tracing is a difficult, but valuable tool for any private investigator. Skip tracing is the practice of tracking down someone who has skipped town. Typically used to find people that are trying to avoid paying a debt or have skipped out on bail, a skilled skip tracer can run down sources to find just about anyone.
Skip tracers are only as good as the information they can procure. The first step in skip tracing is building a database of every thing you can possibly know about who you’re tracking. By searching through publicly available databases like telephone directories and social media sites, tracers can figure out who their target is and who they associate with. Skip tracers also search for past bills or debts to see where the missing person has lived in the past and who with.
Once enough data has been compiled, skip tracers sift through it to create a profile of their target. Combing through this data is one of the most difficult parts of skip tracing and will separate the inexperienced tracers from the veterans. Making a mistake at this stage can be costly.
Tracers have to know which bits of information are worth using and which are wastes of times. Some data may be outdated or contradicted by further research. Poorly assessing one data point can send the tracer and their profile in the complete wrong direction and it can take a while before that becomes evident.
With a completed profile, it’s time for the tracer to get out and talk to people in the area to find out more. Friends and family of the missing person can be great for getting an idea of where to look, but how forthcoming will they be? If they know someone’s looking for their friend or kin, they’ll be more guarded about discussing them.
Tracers need to know how to talk people and work them for information without tipping their hand. Slipping up can result in the missing person getting tipped off that the heat is on them. If the target knows people are coming for them, they’ll put more effort into concealing their movement and they’ll become more difficult to predict.
Surveillance and efficient work are the other keys to quality tracer work. Tracers need to be willing to sit on a location and watch it to determine if their target is in the area. Even when their target doesn’t show up, it’s important that tracers are dedicated and willing to determine who is coming around. The target might not have stopped in, but one of the visitors could be their girlfriend or sibling.
When someone is on the lamb it’s not out of the question that they would use a third party to relay messages or transport supplies. The only way to figure out who’s stopping in and why is through consistent surveillance and tracking. Dedicated surveillance is time consuming, but incredibly valuable.
Skip tracing is a skill developed over years of practice. There are seminars and limited classes that can teach people the basics, but veteran tracers will tell you hands-on experience is the only way to truly learn. Skip tracing can help close a case fast and every investigator should either be competent in doing it themselves or have trusted people at the ready to handle it.
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
Theft in the workplace is a major problem. According to the Global Retail Theft Barometer employee theft costs American businesses even more than theft by non-employees. Employee theft made up 43% of all lost inventory in 2015. That’s an annual cost of roughly $18 billion. It’s $2.3 billion more than the cost of theft by customers. Most of the theft that occurs isn’t an employee taking items and walking out of the store with them.
“Usually it happens during checkout, when an associate manipulates a transaction to benefit themselves or someone else,” Ernie Deyle, a 30-year veteran of the retail loss-prevention wars who leads the business consulting practice at London-based data analytics firm Sysrepublic told Fortune.com. Employees might, for instance, enter refunds, discounts, or voided transactions into a cash register or “cancel transactions, modify prices, or say someone used a coupon when they didn’t.”
The interesting question, of course, is not so much how as why. “Key reasons … include ineffective pre-employment screening, less employee supervision, and easy sale of stolen merchandise,” the report says.
Deyle sees cultural differences at work too. “Internationally, there’s more of an unwritten code that says it’s not honorable to do something dishonest toward an employer,” he says. “Here, it’s a different mindset. There’s so much turnover in retailing, and very little loyalty.”
So what can businesses do to combat employee theft and protect their investments? For starters they can invest in a stronger background check system. The reports says one of the key reasons theft happens is due to “ineffective pre-employment screening.” Everyone’s trying to cut costs and increase their dividends, but a lack of investment in screening employees thoroughly can end up costing your business more down the line.
One of the best ways to prevent losing inventory to employee theft is to get your employees involved in the prevention process. Very few people want to be the one to tell the boss about a coworker’s theft. It’s not that they think stealing is ok or don’t care, but who wants to potentially ruin relationships with people you have to work with every day?
Tip lines in 2016 mean more than just 1-800 telephone numbers. Setting up an email address dedicated to tips allows employees to anonymously report a coworker’s stealing. Everybody text messages nowadays and creating a text message tip line is perfect for younger employees. Tip lines are a great way to empower your employees to report cases of theft without exposing themselves to retaliation from coworkers or the people they report.
Another cause for employee theft is a lack of consistent oversight. Employees don’t want someone constantly standing over their shoulder, but thinking someone is watching them will decrease the rate of employee theft at any business. Cameras are a good option to create the presence of supervision and keep employees mindful of their actions.
Private investigators can help with every aspect of this and more. Recommending and installing cameras in places most likely to disrupt theft is too easy for a good P.I.. They can also operate the tip lines to make sure every tip is investigated and your employee’s anonymity is protected. Investigators are perfect for higher quality background checks too. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Protect your assets today.
For Private Investigation Inquiry contact Thomas Lauth, Lauth Investigations 317-951-1100
David Schroeder, Blog Writer, Lauth Investigations International
