Honestly Dishonest

A week ago I was able to see Dan Ariely, http://danariely.com/, present not once but twice.  Let me just say that if I had him as a professor during my undergrad years I would have become a behavioral economist.  Of course then Pinkcollarcrime.com may not have started but I still think it would have.  The reasons why are that I have always been fascinated by people and their decisions and attitudes regarding money.  A more simplified way of being a behavioral economist.  And of course this is very present in the stories of good women who do bad things and steal from their workplace.  With the exceptions of sociopaths all my suspects were without a criminal history.  They did not fit the typical profile of a felon. 

 Ariely’s most recent book, http://amzn.to/MDgP0Z, is full of entertaining examples of how people rationalize their actions.  If you are a golfer you definitely need to read this.  As I have written before the fraud triangle’s rationalization is something you as a business owner are not able to control.  I have numerous clients who tell me how generous they are with their employees’ salaries but then I remind them that even if they were to pay their office manager $1,000,000 and they spend $2,000,000 then they will find a way to make up the difference i.e. steal. 

 Many of the stories I tweet there is a quote from the business owner saying they were a good judge of character or that the employee totally fooled them.  My response to that is rationalization.  Some people who are honestly dishonest will rationalize their behavior and steal when the opportunity presents itself.  As a business owner you need to take away the opportunity so an honest person will not become dishonest. 

 Stay tuned for more interesting stories about being honestly dishonest and the Pink Collar Criminal.