More Workers Bending The Rules
We've all done it, haven't we? Called in sick when we're not really sick, or nabbed a pen or two from the office?
While it may sound harmless, office misconduct is on the rise. And that's a disturbing trend to many experts and to the economy, reports CBS News correspondent Susan McGinnis for The Early Show.
You know who they are: the co-workers who keep calling in sick, with every excuse imaginable.
A worker who wants to remain anonymous says, "My mother's sick. I have used my daughter's sick. I have used: 'Hey, I have a meeting at my daughter's school.'"
Another one says, "I would have to, like, change my voice a little bit because, you know, just to be believable. Work it that way and say that 'I just don't feel good.'"
Some are downright experts at it. So much so, CBS News had to hide their identities.
Silhouette A says, "An elderly parent is an excellent excuse. Father falls down the stairs - two days off of work, mandatory."
Silhouette B adds, "Kidney stones - totally fail-safe. No one wants to know. No one needs to know. They hear kidney stones and they start shifting workloads and writing Get-well-Soon cards."
"I use weather all the time," says one man who wanted a guarantee he wouldn't be recognized. But his disguise, Groucho glasses, gave him away: Dave Price.
From the weather to kidney stones, more people are lying at work.
According to CCH Incorporated's annual study on absenteeism, the number of employees calling in sick is at a five-year high, with a majority not really sick at all. CBS News' unscientific research shows, there's also very little guilt over it.
Asked if they have any guilt, Silhouette A says, "100 percent no!" and Silhouette B says, "Guilt? I'll worry about guilt on the weekends."
And it's not just the mental health day. Resume fudging is at a three-year high. And mangers are noticing, from padding expense reports to theft, office misconduct is rising.
When it comes to nabbing a notepad or pen or some post-its, most companies will look the other way. But experts say that just like that sick day, pilfering office supplies sets a bad example and could spiral into bigger things.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."