Surprises We Can Do Without
Most business owners and business leaders respect and appreciate their employees as the ones on the ground helping the company grow and making us look good. It is devastating therefore when a trusted member of the staff goes rogue and commits a fraud. What are some of the signs?
Reports of casino spottings
New car purchase that seems out of reach
Lifestyle changes that don’t make sense
Hard working, always first to arrive, last to leave, never takes vacation
Sudden change of attitude
Those of us that have experienced a renegade can add to the list above. Here is one story that stands out in my mind (there are others but for blog purposes, one is enough):
Jackie
Years ago when I was the Controller for the Dallas Marriott Market Center (that site now hosts a Courtyard); we had an employee on staff named Jackie. She was the epitome of skills and efficiency. In addition at the company picnic she brought all six of her children and I still remember the t-shirts they wore labeled “Jackie #1”, “Jackie #2”, etc. Great mother, cute kids and appeared to be a great employee. She worked night audit for a while and during that time a couple of drop deposits disappeared with no trail that had us baffled. A day opening in the office became available and she was the first to come to mind for the position. We decided to cross-train her with our general cashier who was approaching retirement.
One day my assistant controller approached me as I was leaving to go home and informed me that the game room receipts (approximately $600) came up missing. I initially brushed it off and told him I was sure they would turn up. He then went on to say, “Jim, there is something else”. I said, “Okay, what is it?” He then went on to explain that two weeks earlier the main safe came up $500 short and he, the general cashier, and Jackie counted, re-counted and searched for every possible place for the money and potential errors with daily deposits, etc.. On the 3rd day of their search and audit $500 in cash was suddenly found under the cashier’s desk. The general cashier was outraged and accused Jackie of being a thief. My assistant decided not to share this with me this at the time. Needless to say, I was furious and immediately arranged for everyone who had access to the safe take a lie detector test (this would include me, and our security chief was a licensed polygraph administrator).
Two things came from those sessions. First of all, Jackie confessed and was immediately terminated by me. Second is this, when I was on the machine our security chief asked me if I ever stole anything from Marriott in my career and I confidently answered “no”. He informed me that my answer showed deception and shared that information with my boss. Thankfully my boss laughed it off. To this day I cannot explain the deception reading but it will be a cold day (you know where) before I ever allow myself on a polygraph again!
Trust, verify and leave the polygraph to the perp!
