Not Hiring an Executioner

Another company in which scandal becomes the main product.
Usual situation; some ever so busy boss hires some ever so vindictive secretary/assistant.

My first experience concerned Dr. Rx and his rather surly “receptionist” who had been given the keys to the kingdom. To avoid taxes, Dr. Rx had a method of ‘green slip’. Green slip patents received receipts from the “other book”.

Dr. Rx was doing quite well and Miss Surly decided she should share in the benefit. When Dr. Rx refused to raise her salary it wasn’t long before the Income Tax folk arrived. Dr. Rx was very very deep in the pickle.

The situation could have been avoided if Dr. Rx did his own “accounting” and Miss Surly was limited to; “You can go in now.”

Although most companies don’t have the ‘green slip’ method, use the image in larger concerns where the “boss” has a secretary/assistant who would like to see him/her drawn and quartered. If you are too busy to actually plumb the character of your secretary/assistant you might have hired your executioner.

He or she could be a relative, could have arrived highly recommended. One doesn’t know, until temptation is conquered if one will succumb.  Many ’second-tier’ employees have a rudimentary hatred for their boss. A mixture of jealousy, resentement, a feeling that s/he is responsible for the bosses success.

If you are doing anything even slightly crooked, don’t let anyone know…especially not your second.

You must prevent a Miss Surly from being able to execute you. You don’t have to be doing anything dishonest, you don’t have to be particularly cruel to your staff; you must simply be aware that at anytime one of them might turn on you.

Overpaying a member of staff to insure their ‘loyalty’ doesn’t work. Giving them a fabulous package of benefits, is not protection. What is protection is supervision. Spot checks, double checks, in an unpredictable order.

For example, after you send that messenger to the bank, ring up the bank, find out if he’s there, find out if he made the deposit yet, verify the amount. The messenger can be the most dishonest person in the city, but he can’t be dishonest when he works for you.

Doing spot checks of receipt books, checking files, is far more important than lunch or sleep. The day your secretary/assistant walks in to find you at his/her desk, going through documents is the day s/he knows that any kind of scam is not going to work, so does not attempt it.

You can never be so “busy” you don’t know what is happening in your office. Powerful men and women have been brought down, some as low as jail, due to the actions of an employee.

In many cases what was done was not as bad as it seemed, but spins are dangerous things. I have said it before; it is better to have less work and make less money than to be so busy that your money is walking out of the office.