Business-Harming Misconduct in the Workplace | Proof by Detectives

Almost every employer knows it, yet many do not know how to prove it: business-harming misconduct by employees that is hardly noticeable in small amounts, but can cause major damage to a company when it happens repeatedly. Employees who do not work to the extent expected of them, but instead take a longer break after every hour of work; secretaries whose thefts at first are limited to company pens and adhesive tape, but can quickly extend to far more valuable company property; employees who clock their hours incorrectly; or, in what is certainly the worst case, employees who pass on internal company data and innovations to competing businesses. Corporate detectives such as those at Aaden Detective Agency Hamburg step in to help: +49 40 4223 6960.

A Case Example from Lower Saxony

Company Review with a Surprisingly Negative Result

Peter Wedel (name changed) was the head of a medium-sized company and placed great value on punctuality, proper completion of assigned work, and company-oriented thinking in his employees. In fact, he was quite satisfied with his staff, but upon conducting a detailed review of his company’s workflows, he had to determine that production had slowed and profits had declined in the previous quarter. There had been fewer successes, even though Peter Wedel had invested a lot of money in smooth operations and had hired highly qualified people.

Caught in the Act While “Taking a Break”

A few days after the company review, Mr. Wedel returned to the office earlier than usual from his lunch break and heard music coming from one of the individual offices. He went to the door behind which he believed he heard music and found Mr. Buchholz there, one of the relatively recently hired shift workers. At that time, Mr. Buchholz should have been at work. He quickly turned off the music and stated that he had “just been taking a short breather,” but would return to work immediately. Peter Wedel left the office thoughtfully and hoped that his suspicion that Mr. Buchholz might be one of the disruptive factors in the company’s workflows was mistaken, because this employee handled many internal business processes that were supposed to be coordinated and forwarded by him.

 

Peter Wedel had already heard from friendly managers and executives of other companies that lazy employees could be confronted by using detectives employed by investigative services such as Aaden Corporate Investigations Hamburg, and that their misconduct could be proven in a court-admissible manner. However, Peter Wedel wanted to take such measures only once he was absolutely certain of his suspicion. For the time being, he hoped for the best. His suspicion was soon confirmed, however: work continued to progress sluggishly, Mr. Buchholz was seen again taking noticeably long cigarette breaks on the balcony and having lengthy private conversations in the company kitchen, and for Peter Wedel the last straw was the trash bin in the open-plan office filled with beer bottles, which the cleaning staff cautiously pointed out to him.

Initial Suspicion – What Now?

Peter Wedel consulted with the company’s legal representatives and determined that a summary dismissal required clear evidence of misconduct and that the use of surveillance cameras would require not only the approval of the works council but also particularly serious circumstances such as regular theft of company property. He therefore decided, as recommended by friendly business owners, to use Aaden Corporate Investigations Hamburg and to have a detective placed undercover, who was hired and trained as a new IT specialist in a small office five doors away from Mr. Buchholz’s office.

 

Mr. Buchholz must have felt very secure when, only a few days after the detective was placed undercover, all employees on his floor went to lunch, seemingly including the disguised corporate investigator, who, however, secretly returned to the open-plan office. The investigator from Aaden Detective Agency Hamburg was able to observe Mr. Buchholz through the open office door during the following two hours of lunch break until his colleagues returned. The suspicious employee turned up loud music, drank two bottles of beer – which he carelessly disposed of in the open-plan office trash bin – and watched videos and series online instead of doing his work (he was on break duty that day and therefore had no permission to handle private matters). Equipped with the corresponding photo and video material from our Hamburg detective, Peter Wedel was able just a few days later to dismiss Mr. Buchholz without notice and additionally sue him for damages. The proceedings are still ongoing.

Internal Threat: Employees

As in Peter Wedel’s case, and also in many other internal problem cases at small, medium-sized, and large companies, the use of Aaden Detectives Hamburg is not only advisable but even urgently necessary. As in the case described, we operate by monitoring the relevant employees and documenting the misconduct, but we also investigate, for example, with our IT specialists, work computers where there is justified suspicion, in order to prove possible leaks of internal company data or excessive private use of the computer. In this context, it is of course crucial whether employees were permitted to use the PC for private matters or not. If private use is allowed, the employer may only have browsing histories and individual desktop data reviewed in the most serious cases of suspicion.

 

This happened, for example, at a medium-sized company based in Hamburg, where an employee brought the entire internal company internet and intranet to a standstill by uploading several gigabytes of private photos to a social network, thereby blocking the entire production for that day. Such damage makes it clear that even when private use is permitted, there can be no free rein, and that the employee must be held responsible for such an unreasonable workload. If private use is generally prohibited in the company, an inspection by the security experts of Aaden Corporate Investigations Hamburg can take place quickly and, if desired, on a regular basis.

Many Other Areas of Work for Detectives

Our detectives from Hamburg are also active in numerous other case scenarios. For example, in the past we have proven that employees had their alleged overtime clocked in by colleagues or falsified it through other manipulations. Proving fake sick leave, which causes damages in the millions for medium-sized companies each year and thereby significantly slows down the overall potential of the German economy, is also part of our work. The investigators of Aaden Corporate Investigations Hamburg naturally tailor their operations precisely to the needs and individual employee problems of their clients, with whom they jointly develop an operational concept.

Notice

Note: For reasons of discretion and data protection, the locations and certain personal details have been altered without changing the substance of the actual events.

Aaden Corporate Detective Agency Hamburg

Contor Center Hamburg

Katharinenstraße 30a

D-20457 Hamburg 

Tel.: +49 40 4223 6960

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-hamburg.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-hamburg.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824