Companies calling in detectives to crack down on hooky players

The corporate surveillance business is booming. That's because companies are hiring bounty-hunters to go after truant employees. Kronos, a workforce productivity firm, recently found that 57 percent of U.S. salaried employees take sick days when they're not really sick. That's a nearly 20 percent increase from statistics gathered from 2006 to 2008. Eric Spitznagel's article in Businessweek provides a look at how far employees will go in concocting their lies. In one case, a three-time "Teacher of the Year" nominee was arrested after taking extended sick leave and telling co-workers she had an inoperable brain tumor. Kronos Senior Director Joyce Maroney says people often go to these kinds of extremes because they have a general lack of enthusiasm for work. Employers are now fighting fire with fire. An interesting read.