Organizational Misbehaviour

On the fiddle

2007-11-12T14:08:00.000Z

What would a LP approach have to say about the incident covered in the following newspaper articles?

Scottish Gas fires 50 over Winnie scam (Alan McEwen, The Evening News).

SCOTTISH Gas has sacked more than 50 staff after workers were accused of stealing £27,000 by exploiting a glitch in the company's reward scheme.

The firm held dozens of disciplinary hearings after it discovered staff had been repeatedly buying Winnie the Pooh bracelets using the scheme...

City gas bash explodes into mass brawl (Alan McEwen, The Evening News).

MORE than 20 staff from Scottish Gas' Edinburgh call centre were involved in a mass brawl during an X-Factor office party. The fighting erupted during the private function at the Corn Exchange, which was organised as a "morale boosting exercise".

Some staff started hurling glass bottles at each other amid apparent recriminations following mass sackings earlier this year...

When academics misbehave

2007-10-30T19:20:00.000Z

Academics are no saints when it comes to misbehaving at work.

Quite what misbehaviour can entail is varied as you should know by now.

Read the following article in today's Guardian (Education) and consider how many of the themes from the module can be related to some forms of academic plagiarism - When plagiarism is academic (Jessica Shepherd).

This week at Durham University, professors are investigating whether a former dean of the business school is guilty of plagiarism.

Professor Tony Antoniou resigned this month over allegations he copied the work of his peers for his DPhil thesis and a later journal article. He remains a professor of finance at the university...

'Lost' office hours

2007-10-23T22:28:00.000+01:00

What would a labour process approach have to say on the misbehaviour contained, very briefly, in the following article in today's Guardian?

Business counts the cost in fan hours lost (by Richard Wray)

More than 120,000 office hours were lost on the eve of the football season as fans put the finishing touches to their online fantasy football teams.

Visits to fantasy football sites ballooned in the run-up to the first games on the weekend of August 11 and 12, according to figures from the internet measurement group comScore, with fans avidly watching the last movements in the transfer window before finalising their squads...

Spanish practices

2007-10-12T13:17:00.000+01:00

If you have never heard of Spanish practices or just don't what is meant by the term see this one-sided definition first of all.

Royal Mail's view - and how the union sees it (Mark Milner, The Guardian).

Read the article and consider how it fits in the management control and consent. Do any 'Spanish practices' exist where you work?

Royal Mail said yesterday it had identified 92 so-called "Spanish practices" among its workforce, with some of them widespread. Here are some of the issues Royal Mail is concerned about, with the response from the Communication Workers Union...

Shrinkage

2007-10-08T18:03:00.000+01:00

Retail's shrinking feeling (Jeremy Scott-Joynt, BBC News: Business).

Retailing, on the face of it, tends to be a straightforward business.

Electronic scanners open up new opportunities for insider thieves

Buy cheap. Sell dear, and plenty. Keep costs down.

Do it right, and come home with a profit.

But even the best retailers are doing well if they make a margin that goes much beyond a single-digit percentage.

Consider what they are up against. There is competition. There is the fickle taste of customers.

And then there is the steady 2% or so of sales that drips away each year through what the trade, euphemistically, calls "shrinkage" - and what the rest of us would simply call theft...

Posties use YouTube to voice discontent

2007-09-19T13:38:00.000+01:00

Consider the relevance of new web-based communication technology in relation to management control mechanisms.

GPs on the fiddle

2006-11-11T09:35:00.000Z

Sicknote 'sting' appeal quashed (BBC News: England).

Disciplinary action against a GP snared in a newspaper sting over sicknotes may go ahead after a court overturned a General Medical Council (GMC) decision.

...It was alleged the doctor said that for £1,000 he could provide a note a couple of days before Ms Dobson required it...

Worker responses to management jargon

2006-11-07T22:24:00.000Z

Let's help to herd the dinosaurs (Claire Herald, BBC News: Magazine).

Office jargon: loved by bosses but increasingly hated by staff. In a mood of revenge, Magazine readers suggest their own versions of twisted phrases to baffle the bosses...

...In other offices, that may be commonly known as workspace-specific perceptual abstraction, or daydreaming. At James Dignan's office, his workmates also try to get away with non-specific interfacing or needless chat. Staff might like to try some activity deficit substitution, aka looking busy...

Employer intimidation

2006-11-03T14:16:00.001Z

North Sea divers accuse employers of resorting to bully-boy tactics in bid to end strike (Mike Berry, Personnel Today).

Striking North Sea divers and support workers have claimed employers are resorting to bullying and intimidation tactics to undermine strike action.A strike by more than 900 diving personnel in a row over pay has entered its second day.

The RMT union, which represents the divers, said reports were coming in of intimidating telephone calls being made to strikers' homes and attempts to bully people into signing individual contracts...

Bullying and intimidation of colleagues

2006-11-02T13:24:00.000Z

Bullies use psychological tactics to intimidate colleagues in the workplace - Chartered Management Institute.

Bullies in UK workplaces are using psychological tactics and behaviour to undermine and intimidate colleagues, as organisations fail to act.

Bullies in UK offices are using a range of subtle tactics and behaviour to intimidate colleagues at work, according to research by the Chartered Management Institute. The survey also suggests that their ability to torment is enhanced by increased levels of organisational change and ineffective action by employers...

National identity

2006-11-01T12:36:00.000Z

You don't speak Welsh? Well, that'll be double the price (John Harris, The Guardian).

A minor culture war seems to have broken out in Llanberis, the scenic Welsh town that serves as the gateway to the mountainous wonders of Snowdonia.

A car-park attendant at the town's Royal Victoria Hotel, known only as Pete, was reportedly caught offering a 50% discount to Welsh speakers: if you asked how much it was to park in the local tongue ("Faint mae'n gostio i barcio yma?"), it was £2, whereas those who inquired in English paid double...

Shopping at work

2006-10-31T12:33:00.000Z

Businesses set to lose more than £7bn as staff go Christmas shopping online (Emma Ann Hughes, Personnel Today).

The soaring popularity of online Christmas shopping could cost British businesses more than £7bn, experts have warned.

Online sales are set to hit £9bn this Christmas after more than two million people took up shopping on the internet in the past 12 months...

Fibbing employers

2006-10-30T10:58:00.000Z

Do employers shade the truth? (Jennifer Veitch, The Scotsman).

It is often said that if an offer seems too good to be true, then it usually is. And there are few areas of life where it is more important to bear in mind this well-worn cautionary phrase than in the employment market.

Job candidates are not the only ones putting on a show. In this mutual beauty contest, employers also try to show themselves in the best light and may make offers that sound fantastic but turn out to be far from reality...

Organized crime

2006-10-27T10:52:00.000+01:00

Call centres infiltrated by gangs (Raymond Buchanan, BBC News: Scotland).

One in 10 of Glasgow's call centres has been infiltrated by criminal gangs, police believe.

The scam works by planting staff inside offices or by forcing current employees to provide sensitive customer details.

The information is then used to steal identities and fraudulently set up accounts or transfer money...

Corruption

2006-10-26T21:03:00.000+01:00

Police corruption 'risked lives' (BBC News).

For corrupt former trainee detective Charles Fletcher, the information he passed on bought him a wardrobe full of designer clothes...

White-collar crime

2006-10-24T21:55:00.000+01:00

White-collar criminals find quality of mercy increasingly strained (Andrew Clark, The Guardian).

Leading lawyers have questioned the US's appetite for condemning white-collar fraudsters to decades behind bars, in a debate ignited by the sentencing of Enron's former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling.

...Specialists in white-collar crime say sentences have steadily become more severe in recent years. Some have suggested that whereas corporate fraudsters were once treated too leniently, they are now being spared any mercy at all...

Moral behaviour and private life

2006-10-23T21:53:00.000+01:00

Tougher ethical code imposed on doctors (Sarah Boseley, The Guardian).

A code published yesterday holds doctors to the highest standards of moral behaviour in their private life, with their right to practise at risk if they form sexual relationships with former patients or view pornography.

...Doctors have long been told it is unacceptable to have sexual relations with their patients. Now supplementary guidance will spell out for the first time that it will "usually be inappropriate" to form a sexual liaison with a former patient - no matter how long ago they left a doctor's books - because of the risk that patients who had suffered mental health problems may still be vulnerable...

Office gossip and banter

2006-10-20T19:18:00.000+01:00

Time to chat costs businesses £43bn a year (Emma Ann Hughes, Personnel Today).

Office gossip and banter is costing employers £43bn a year, research from More Than Business revealed.

The small business insurer found more than 18 million working hours a day are lost when employees discuss the previous evening’s premiership game or the latest reality TV show eviction...

Instant messenger in the workplace

2006-10-19T15:33:00.000+01:00

Those IMs Aren't as Private as You Think (Amol Sharma and Jessica Vascellaro, The Wall Street Journal).

It's already a workplace maxim that employees should be careful what they say in their emails from company computers. But fewer office workers know to apply caution to their use of instant-messaging service.

These immensely popular computer programs, which let users exchange short text messages with online buddies in real time, are no haven for private chatter. Companies and government agencies can monitor and log IM conversations conducted on company-network computers. And though it seems that IM conversations disappear into a cyber-vacuum when a session is over, that isn't always true...

An alternative means to sack an employee

2006-10-18T00:01:00.000+01:00

Encouragement to leave the job? (Michelle McGinty, The Scotsman).

IT IS described as the best solution for everyone concerned by its advocates - and a sneaky way to get rid of staff by others.

"Managing out" describes the process of weeding out workers who are either not up to the job or are the wrong person for the post. Known as "counselling out" in the US, the system provides regular, candid feedback to an employee while simultaneously setting targets that are generally unachievable in hopes that he or she will quit in frustration before being sacked...

Corruption

2006-10-17T10:26:00.000+01:00

Construction workers admit corruption is widespread in the industry (Emma Ann Hughes, Personnel Today).

More than half of UK construction professionals feel corruption is rife in their own industry, a Chartered Institute of Building survey showed.

...Six out of 10 felt fraud was prevalent, and 41% said they had been personally offered a bribe...

Accommodating misbehaviour

2006-10-13T13:36:00.000+01:00

E-breaks to replace tea breaks at work (Jane Fraser, The Scotsman).

...Virgin Money is among the first to announce such an initiative, under which staff will be allowed 15 minutes to do online shopping and other personal tasks at work. With time-wasting constituting the main concern for employers looking to curb e-mail and internet abuse, the scheme could help maximise productivity, while still allowing employees a measure of freedom. But does it go far enough?

Despite the fact businesses are now more conscious of the potential consequences of internet and e-mail abuse, nearly one in three still has no acceptable use policy. Misuse can lead to grave financial implications and damage to reputation, particularly given the higher level of media interest such cases often attract...

Wasting time

2006-10-12T11:59:00.000+01:00

Workers waste hours in web of reciepts (Natasha McLeod, The Scotsman).

...At a time when long hours gnaw relentlessly into the nation's spare time, employees are turning workplace technology to their advantage, by logging on there rather than at home.

And with mundane day-to-day tasks taken care of and out of the way by the time workers actually get round to leaving the office, more can be made of evenings and weekends...

Lies

2006-10-11T12:05:00.000+01:00

Nice CV, shame about the lies (Steve Boggan, The Guardian).

Imagine: there you are sitting at your shiny desk on day one of your new life as a Master of the Universe when, at the end of the office, you see your boss marching purposefully towards you with your CV in his hand. "You lied!" he booms, in front of all your new colleagues. "Get your things and get out." And it's only 9.30am...

Fiddling expenses

2006-10-10T17:02:00.000+01:00

UN staff claim school fees for phantom offspring (David Leppard, The Sunday Times).

Staff at the United Nations headquarters in New York claimed tens of thousands of pounds in school fees for non-existent children, one of its most senior auditors has revealed...

Office romances

2006-10-09T17:00:00.000+01:00

Nervous men kill off the office romance (Roger Dobson and Yuba Bessaoud, The Sunday Times).

A series of high-profile harassment cases has sparked the first signs of “segregation” in the workplace as relationships between the sexes are disrupted by mutual suspicion...

Waiter revenge

2006-10-08T16:56:00.000+01:00

Revenge of the tipless class (Tony Allen-Mills, The Sunday Times).

Workers supposedly scorned and maltreated by self-regarding Hollywood stars are fighting back, writes Tony Allen-Mills. Now, it seems, a celebrity can barely utter an imperious demand before someone is mocking them on the internet...

Bullying

2006-10-03T22:18:00.000+01:00

Union urges zero tolerance on workplace bullying (The Guardian).

The union Amicus complained today that bosses were failing to do enough to tackle workplace bullying...

...Amicus claims that bullying costs industry an estimated £2bn a year in sick pay, staff turnover and loss of production, while one in 10 workers said they had been bullied...

Shirkers

2006-10-02T10:17:00.000+01:00

Workers want a way to shop shirkers (The Scotsman).

Workers are fed up with under-performing colleagues and want bosses to bring in new ways of "shopping shirkers", according to a report published today.

Cheats at work

2006-09-27T14:32:00.000+01:00

At debt's door (BBC News: Magazine).

It's a booming business but even some "respectable" bailiffs are conning people, lying and ripping them off...

Late for work

2006-09-26T14:41:00.000+01:00

Better late than never? Not true. (Ben McConville, The Scotsman).

More than 11 million hours per year are lost to lateness in the UK as a result of transport delays alone, and the true figure for tardiness at work is thought to be much higher. The total cost to the UK economy for transport-related lateness is estimated to be £7.7 billion per annum, according to a survey by recruitment firm Reed.

Bungs

2006-09-21T12:06:00.000+01:00

FA probes BBC 'bung' allegations (BBC News: Football).

The Football Association says it will investigate "any possible breach of the rules" over allegations regarding the payment of bungs within the game...

...WHAT IS A BUNG? A secret and unauthorised payment seen as a financial incentive to help a transfer go through...

Stealing company information

2006-09-20T00:28:00.000+01:00

Light-fingered directors steal company information (Georgina Fuller, Personnel Today).

Almost one third of UK directors have stolen confidential information from their employer, research has revealed...

Flight attendant revenge

2006-09-19T10:05:00.000+01:00

A Flight Attendant’s Revenge (Ellen Simonetti, The New York Times).

During my eight years as a flight attendant, I heard more complaints about the decline of airline service than I can remember. But what about the decline of passenger behavior?

...That guy got off easy. Flight attendants can exact revenge on passengers who misbehave without them even knowing it...

Fraud

2006-09-13T10:49:00.000+01:00

Whistleblower recalls Enron crisis (BBC News: Business).

The Enron employee who first challenged bosses about fraud at the firm says she feels Ken Lay's death has cheated the US people of justice...

You can hear Sherron Watkins interviewed by Michael Buerk in The Choice at Radio 4's Listen again page. The programme was broadcast on Tuesday 12 September.

Animal abuse in the workplace

2006-09-08T12:16:00.000+01:00

Turkey plant workers filmed playing baseball with live birds (Jeevan Vasagar, The Guardian).

Turkeys at a Bernard Matthews plant in Norfolk lived a life that was less than "bootiful", it emerged yesterday, as magistrates sentenced two farm workers to community service for playing a game of baseball with live birds...

Sexism in the workplace

2006-09-07T22:53:00.000+01:00

Sexism in UK workplaces on the rise (Michael Miller, Personnel Today).

Sexism in the workplace is on the increase, with almost three out of four (72%) of women claiming they have been bullied because of their gender...

Refusing to do job

2006-09-06T12:44:00.000+01:00

Firefighters disciplined for refusing safety advice to gay pride marchers (Georgina Fuller, Personnel Today).

Nine Scottish firefighters who refused to give safety advice to people attending a gay pride event have been disciplined...

Industrial spying

2006-09-05T10:12:00.000+01:00

Bugging the boardroom (BBC News: Technology).

Most trade secrets are stolen by people working on the inside, who then sell them on to a rival company or exploit the know-how themselves for personal gain...

Bugging the Boardroom, a two-part investigation into industrial espionage, starts on Tuesday 5 September at 2000 BST on BBC Radio 4.

Technorati Profile

Whistleblowing

2006-08-29T15:32:00.000+01:00

Junk mail 'whistleblower' faces sack (David Rose, The Times).

Postman may lose job after telling householders how to avoid the daily avalanche of unwanted mail...

Bombarding a firm with millions of e-mails

2006-08-23T15:30:00.000+01:00

Mass e-mail attack teen sentenced (BBC News: UK).

A teenager who bombarded a firm with millions of e-mails, causing its server to collapse, has been given a two-month curfew after pleading guilty...