slice of life

Nicole Shap, Dexter Pennant, Syed Amirhamzah,Yajie Yang, Jeremy Sharps

How a Lot ofEmployees

Cheat a Littleat Work

Dissatisfaction, frustration, boredom, or simply because they can.

WHY DO PEOPLE CHEAT AT WORK?

Employee Theft

Calling Out forthe Wrong Reasons

Misusing Company Time

COMMON UNETHICAL BEHAVIORS

EMPLOYEE THEFT

According to Statistic Brain,

$50,000,000,000 worth of office supplies are stoleneach year from U.S. businesses by employees

75% of employees have stolen at least once from their employer

33% of all business bankruptcies arecaused by employee theft

Harden, Seth. "Employee Theft Statistics." Statistic Brain. N.p., 06 Sept. 2015. Web. 20 July 2016.

BUT WHY?

It’s just a pencil!Employees think that small, readily available items are okay to take. This is a

slippery slope that can lead to stealing valuable items. It is easy to justifystealing smaller items versus the company car.

Everyone else does it!It is easy to steal when others do it without any consequences. It is even easier,

when a supervisor don't hold employees accountable for stealing, or do itthemselves.

According to Matt Villano of Nytimes.com, “18 percent of the 2350 surveyedworkers admitted to having taken office supplies for personal use.”

BUT WHY?

According to Dan Ariely, When people are even a small step away from

money, cheating increases.

He asked his participants the question, "How badwould you feel about taking a pencil from work

home, compared to how bad would you feel abouttaking 10 cents from a petty cash box? "

In an experiment where participants received tokensrather than money for completing math problems,

the rate of cheating doubled. Participants felt morecompelled to cheat when money wasn't the direct

reward.

If employees don't see the direct monetary value ofan item, such as a stapler, they are twice as likely to

steal it.

"Transcript of "Our Buggy Moral Code"" Dan Ariely: Our Buggy Moral Code. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2016.

THE BIG PICTURE

In terms of Organizational Behavior,employees often present counterproductive work behavior.

"CWB represents behavior that harms other employees, the organization as awhole, or organizational stakeholders such as customers and shareholders"

Why does this occur?

Lack of satisfaction often results in undesirable behavior. CWB has a strongnegative relationship with job satisfaction.

Kinicki, Angelo, and Mel Fugate. Organizational Behavior: A Practical, Problem-solving Approach. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

WHY IS THIS UNETHICAL?

If employees take the business' property, without telling their superiors, theyunderstand it is an unethical behavior. They recognize that what they are

doing is wrong, but do it anyway.

If an employee is aware that what he or she is doing is bad, it's probable thathe or she is demonstrating unethical workplace behavior.

Factors of unethical workplace behavior:Sneaking around

LyingTaking without asking

Dishonesty Deception

CALLING OUT FOR THE WRONG REASONS

"In a survey at this time last year, workforce-management firmKronos found that 57 percent of salaried employees said they

would take a sick day even if they weren’t really sick."

According to CNBC,

According to BusinessInsider,

"A new survey by TheFit.com, a website monitoring companyculture, polled 5,250 full-time working professionals and foundthat 85 percent of employees actually tell the truth when they

call in sick."

\"Are You Calling In Sick Too Much?" CNBC. N.p., 09 Feb. 2011. Web. 20 July 2016.Kassel, Matthew. "A Surprising Statistic About Workers Who Call In Sick." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 July 2016.

BUT WHY?

When employees call out of work,employers often don't question their

reasons.

Why?

Employers could be accused ofharassment or invasion of privacy if they

were to accuse an employee of makingup a false excuse.

Because of this,

Employees often take advantage of theiremployer. They call out "sick" when most

times, they aren't sick at all.

COMMON EXCUSES FOR CALLING OUT

Car or traffic problemsIf the employee lives far from the workplace,this excuse can be common and believable.

Child-related needsChildren are unpredictable, so employees can

easily lie and say that their child is sick, orneeds to be driven to school

Calling out sickMany employees call out sick when they

oversleep, are hungover, or just don't want tocome in to work. Employers cannot prove

that they are not actually sick.

ETHICS

"Ethics is concerned with behavior- right versus wrong, good versus bad, andthe many shades of grey in between. "

Lying about one's reason for calling out of work is unethical. We know thisbecause, if it were ethical, one wouldn't see the need to lie.

Kinicki, Angelo, and Mel Fugate. Organizational Behavior: A Practical, Problem-solving Approach. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

In terms of Organizational Behavior,

"Unethical behavior damages relationships, erodes trust, and thusmakes it difficult to conduct business.

Unethical behavior also reduces cooperation, loyalty, andcontribution,which of course hurts the performance of individuals,

teams, and organizations."

WHY IS THIS UNETHICAL?

Businesses provide a fair amount of sick days to each employee. Whenemployees take advantage, they are costing their company valuable dollars.

Excuse abuse is stealing. Employees get paid to do what they shouldn't bedoing, or even for just not wanting to coming to work, most times without the

employer knowing.

MISUSING COMPANY TIME

How do employees misuse company time?

Break abuseTaking several breaks each hour

Taking longer lunch breaks than allowedTaking 'smoking' breaks, even if not a smoker

Time sheet fraudWhen employees are responsible for logging their own hours, the

practice of rounding up to the nearest hour is considered time-sheetfraud. If supervisors are unaware of when employees come in or leave,

it is very easy to type in any time the employee chooses to.

Personal businessPersonal phone calls

Surfing the web TextingSleeping

DOES THIS HAPPEN OFTEN?

According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners,"Payroll fraud is the number one source of accounting fraud and employee

theft."

According to the American Payroll Association,"The average employee steals 4 hours and 5 minutes every week."

In its annual Wasting Time at Work Survey, Salary.com reported that 89percent of respondents admitted that they waste time at work each day. Asmall percentage even admitted they waste at least half of an eight-hour

workday on non work-related tasks.

Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 20 July 2016. "Time Theft: Top 7 Ways Employees Steal Time." EPAY Systems Seamless Human Capital Management. N.p., 22 Sept. 2014. Web. 20 July 2016."

2014 Wasting Time at Work Survey." Salary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2016.

WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

According to the Wall Street Journal,

People engage in empty labor for a number of reasons:

The job or tasks feel meaninglessWage labor is an unequal institutionin terms of job security and in termsof stress and strainThe tasks don't serve any humanneeds, perhaps not even the needs ofthe company. Frustration with their company or acertain manager

"The Science of Slacking at Work." WSJ. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 July 2016.

WHY IS IT UNETHICAL?

It's not your time, it's company time

When employees accept pay for time they don't spend working, they arestealing from their company.

Employees are not complying to the Code of Conduct of their workplace,therefore participating in unethical behavior.

According to the Philadelphia Business Journal,

Misuse of company time is the number 1 most common unethical behavior inthe workplace.

"The 5 Most Common Unethical Behaviors in the Workplace." Widgets RSS. N.p., 26 Jan. 2015. Web. 21 July 2016.

HOW DO WE FIX IT?

Should employers impose strict time-sheet regulations?

If employees are required to constantly report their whereabouts or areplaced under frequent personal or electronic surveillance, they are likely to

feel that they are not trusted by their employer.

Instead,

Employers should clearly spell out toemployees what is considered acceptable

use of company time, while still beingflexible enough to allow for the odd long

lunch, personal phone call, text, orcheck-in on social media

TO AVOID EMPTY LABOR

Employers need to set clear goals and Key Performance Index(KPI - a form of evaluation metric for employees performance in a company) and

judge an employee’s performance by whether they achieve them, rather thanfocusing on how they achieve them and how much time it takes.

This idea is in line with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory which suggestshuman beings are motivated to work harder when they set aside specific

goals/vision/mission in their careers.

The Theory of Intrinsic Motivation and Extrinsic Motivation is also relevant whenconsidering that working hard is a benchmark for future successes.

Kinicki, Angelo, and Mel Fugate. Organizational Behavior: A Practical, Problem-solving Approach. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

IN CONCLUSION

Three common unethical work place behaviors are:Employee Theft

Calling Out for the Wrong ReasonsMisusing Company Time

Why are they unethical?Stealing from the workplace, lying to supervisors, accepting pay for time

not working, and participating in inappropriate workplace behavior are allconsidered unethical workplace behaviors.

How can they be avoided?Employers should remind their employees that each piece of company

property has monetary value, and is for in-company use only. Employersshould set clear goals for their employees, and encourage them to want to

work.