Workplace Cheats Get Off Easy, Author Says : Employment: Off-job rodeo rider’s light-bulb injury proves a lot of bull. Consultant says employers should crack down hard on dishonest workers.

Employees who steal from their companies or cheat on benefits often are dealt with too leniently.

That’s one message from management consultant N. Elizabeth Fried and her new book, “Sex, Laws & Stereotypes” (Intermediaries Press, Dublin, Ohio).

Though Fried says she has authenticated the tales of employee cheating reported in her book, many are so fantastic they read better than fiction.

Fried changed the names and some details to protect those involved, and you can readily grasp why red-faced human resources executives don’t want to be identified--or why they don’t want the public to know they have only rapped the knuckles of employees who swindled their companies.

* “My doctor tells me I have a brain tumor, and he wants to send me out of state to a hospital where he knows some specialists,” one processing plant supervisor named Clyde tells Bennett, the human resources executive. Clyde asks for eight to 10 weeks off for brain surgery and gets it.

Not only does Bennett fail to get a medical certificate before granting Clyde’s leave, but when the scam unravels (a distant hospital had no record of Clyde as a patient), he offers Clyde the choice of being demoted or resigning.

When Clyde opts to resign, Bennett helps him by setting up job interviews with other employers.

Bennett does all this even after learning that Clyde had swindled his plant buddies out of about $4,000 with a fishy story that his medical policy didn’t cover everything.

Each case history in Fried’s book was reviewed by a panel of 43 U.S. and Canadian human resources professionals. In this instance, they conclude that “Bennett is the person who needs brain surgery” for not firing Clyde outright. Worse, by helping him find a new job, Bennett exposes his own firm to liability should Clyde do the same thing at his new employer.

* When company custodian Dakota Hornsby filed his fifth workers’ compensation claim in two years for a back injury he allegedly got changing light bulbs, human resources executive Emily’s suspicions grew.

Still, she gave Dakota time off for his back to mend, only to learn from another employee that Dakota is a rodeo rider. The firm’s security officials followed him to his next performance and videotaped him on a bucking bronco. Confronted with the evidence of how he spent his sick leave, he was fired.

If Emily had asked her insurance carrier to investigate earlier, the expert panel said, Dakota couldn’t have worked his scam so many times before the company nailed him.

* Salesman Kashra did everything in his power to prevent manager Doug from going on the road with him to visit a zero-sales territory. After Doug got into his car, Kashra faked a heart attack at the wheel, later admitted it was a pretense and, given another chance, drove Doug into a guard rail, nearly killing them both.

Doug discovers the impact has popped open the trunk, crammed with four months’ worth of undelivered customer samples. It turns out Kashra has been selling them elsewhere at retail.

Instead of filing theft charges, Doug bounces Kashra for “unauthorized use of company property” and “poor performance.”

Once again, the panel found that the company is letting a cheating employee get off lightly.

“Most people recognize that any company may have a bad apple,” the panel concluded. “The public will be more impressed if they perceive that the company has dealt firmly with the situation rather than attempting to sweep it under the carpet.

“Prosecution also clearly signals to other employees that the company will not tolerate criminal misconduct . . . that employees who engage in such activities will not only lose their jobs but also face the criminal justice system.”

Until companies get tougher on cheats and thieves, Fried’s book suggests, many will apparently just repeat their swindles.

Fried’s firm, N.E. Fried & Associates Inc., in Dublin, Ohio, specializes in helping businesses in the area of compensation and search.