More Workers Bending The Rules

Probably Not So Good , Studies Say, And You're Not Even Feeling Remorse

(CBS)  And if they do, watch out.

Companies like Phenix Investigations of Indianapolis could be on your case. A man, who must remain anonymous, spends all day tracking supposedly sick workers. Call him a slacker tracker.

The day McGinnis caught up with him, he was watching someone who's supposed to be home with a bad back. But Phenix caught him playing golf with no problems bending over, reaching all the way from the waist taking the ball out of the hole.

Phenix has seen and taped it all. From one supposedly sick worker found loading a barbecue into his trunk, to another one doing yard work, and then, a little performance when he spots the surveillance van.

Loafers like these have multiplied Phenix's business over the years. But whether it's ditching work, or boosting Sharpies, experts sense a troubling breakdown in workplace ethics.

"I think the trend we're seeing is cause for alarm," says Susan Meisinger of the Society For Human Resource Management.

She notes today's job-hopping workers have a false sense of entitlement. They've lost loyalty to companies that fire at will, or whose leaders set bad examples, like Enron and Tyco.

Meisinger explains, "If those leaders are able to get away with what those leaders are able to get away with, what is the difference if I take an extra day of leave?"

She estimates the difference at billions of dollars a year to companies nationwide. Katie Sutliff of the Ethics Resources Center sees a greater cost to worker's self respect.

She says when you join a company, "You are to some extent agreeing to live by whatever values and standards and the policies of the organization you signing on to. Is taking a pen a horrible thing to do? No. But if you were to say this is something you've been asked not to do, and you've done anyway, well then it becomes pretty clear that that's not the right way to go."

Try telling that to the kidney stone person who's already plotting the next move.

"For my next job, I'm inventing a kid," the kidney stone person says, "To me, that's the sick day holy grail: Little Johnny's got a doctor's appointment; little Johnny's got a parent-teacher's conference. Little Johnny's getting his teeth cleaned. It never ends."