A sandwich short of a picnic or a modern day Nancy Drew?

It occurs to me occasionally that some people must think, that if you work in HR, you must be a few sandwiches short of a picnic.  The reason this occurs to me is that people seem to think that they can get away with things that your average 10 year old would spot as "dodgy"  but, for some reason, they happily try and get these things past their HR department.

One thing that any length of time in HR will give you, is a healthy dose of cynicism and a nose for the suspicious and we can't resist looking into things that just don't add up.

Take, for instance, absence...  its not often that you have to actually track the number of "grandmother's funeral's" that any one particular employee has to attend, but it does happen!  Equally, some people haven't realised that being sick every Monday is likely to raise alarm bells and we WILL ask for reasons, and won't accept "flu" for such short, regular, absences.

I remember when the swineflu epidemic was in full swing employees and employers were all overly cautious about transferring and catching bugs. People calling in sick left, right and centre claiming "SwineFlu".  Interestingly, a colleague of mine sent two of his employees to have independent tests when they claimed they had the dreaded virus... neither tested positive and the company didn't have any further claims from employees, who diligently continued to turn up for work.  Hmm....

However, it is expense claims that bring out the Sherlock Holmes in us HR people, and continue to amaze us at the cheek of some employees.  Vague receipts from foreign trips often turn out to be lunch, dinner or tea, but have also turned out on investigation to be clothes, adult movies, massages or even tennis lessons ....  Thank heavens for the internet, a sense of humour and for employees who claim that a bill for headwear is  in fact lunch! .. well, I'll eat my hat!