As an alarming number of workers play hooky, corporations are clamping down — and calling in the detectives
Rick Raymond parked his black Kia SUV behind a row of trees and peered out at his target. It was 4 a.m. on a recent morning, and Raymond — a seasoned private detective who has worked roughly 300 cases, from thieves to philandering spouses — was closing in on a different sort of prey. Recently, Raymond has come to occupy a new and expanding niche in the surveillance universe.
Corporations pay him to spy on workers who take "sick days" when they may not, in fact, be sick. Such suspicion has led Raymond to bowling alleys, pro football games, weddings, and even funerals. On this morning it has taken him to a field outside the home of an Orlando repairman whose employer is doubtful about his slow recovery from a car accident. Although Raymond tries to be impartial about his subjects, "80 to 85 percent of the time," he says, "there's definitely fraud happening."
Playing hooky without getting caught — as immortalized in the cat-and-mouse skirmish between Ferris Bueller and Principal Rooney in Ferris Bueller's Day Off — used to be an adolescent rite of passage. Now it has given rise to a thriving industry, with stern legal precedent to back it up.
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5 comments:
It just amazes me that these people have no clue or just don't care that it is not just the company that pays for this abuse. Example if you call out and a doctor’s note is required than that visit is billed to your insurance company. No big deal right? Wrong! Depending on the size of your company and the number of employees that pull this stunt, the insurance company will begin to set the premiums higher and higher based on their usage formula and guess who pays then, not the employer; they will pass that rate increase right on to the employee. I have over 17 years with this county and I have been treated good and bad and that’s the same all over so that’s no excuse. I have never called out sick and encourage others always to do the same. If you are sick your sick but a stuffy nose, please.
Are companies soon going to send "investigators" to your neighborhood to see if their employees are really on "vacation" or just killing time doing spring/fall clean-up? Sick days are part of a benefit package. Unless the employee is PAID for unused sick days (rather than just lose them than at the end of the year) then why not take them? Don't include "sick days" as part of a benefit package and then say the employee can't take them, but if he does, then we will send an investigator to check the veracity of his excuse. Sounds a bit petty to me. OR, eliminate "sick days" and replace them with "personal days"....they'll be used in the same manner and "doctor note" requirements will disappear, too.
OMG! These companies have been ripping us off for decades and they are worried about sick days?
And some companies policies are such that if you don't use your sick days, you lose them.
Simpletons that support these companies decisions make me wanna puke.
Dang wannabe straw bosses.
2:27pm,
And, you probably sit behind your desk all day long and play on your desk computer; you call research. Further, you may put in 8 real hours of real work per month, while others with more years of experience then yourself on their belt work their butts off.
Oh, by the way; don't your Monday through Firday shift end at 3:00pm. Have a nice evening.
Yeah 2:27 - You sound like one of those who show up to work even if they're sick and get everyone sick in the process!
If you ARE sick - stay HOME! I don't have health insurance and can't afford to get YOUR illness!
I will not kiss my boss' butt to keep from taking a sick day if I am sick. I usually only miss 1 or 2 days due to illness and it's usually because somebody else came to work sick!
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