2 employees gone together simultaneously for no clear reason

April 23, 2008 6:03 PM

I am the CEO of a smallish non-profit (150 employees) I noticed recently that my CFO and my executive assistant were taking vacations and days off at the same time over the past 18 months (9 of 11 vacations) For reasons i wont go into, i doubt seriously they are having an affair. other than an affair, and this being a strange coincidence, any possible explanations you can think of? perhaps it is just my anxiety but somehow this is strange...
posted by dougiedd to work & money (50 comments total)

Do you have any reason to feel suspicious? Could they just be great friends? Why is it any of your business?

It would seem odd, but only if you have some reason to distrust them. Do you have anything more to add that might give a clue as to why their vacationing could be a bad thing?
posted by SeizeTheDay at 6:07 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Do you care, other than 'hey, maybe our productivity is being affected'? Do you have any professional reason to care, or just curious? Your post doesn't really help with your motivations for asking the question. AskMe won't know this answer.
posted by msamye at 6:10 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

performance problems with both of them yes. but beyond that a lingering sense that something fishy is going on that i have no proof whatsoever for yet just a hunch. i could care less what people do in their private life if it has no impact on the workplace or company.
posted by dougiedd at 6:13 PM on April 23

Are they planning to start a new business? Have either one of them registered domains recently? I think there is a way to pay to search domain registry by the registrant.
posted by pieoverdone at 6:17 PM on April 23

If it has ethical implications, you need to assemble a team to look into it. This should be done if your giving levels are likely to be affected if it comes out and you have not done an investigation beforehand. It's better to fire someone, in the eyes of a major donor, for doing something unethical than for that same donor to read about how you'd done nothing because you 'thought nothing was wrong'.

Also, 150 people is not a smallish non-profit unless 125 of those people are volunteers. I am guessing you are probably spending about $2.5Mil on salaries and benefits, right? Think how that will be affected if it turns out they are having an affair and it gets out without you doing anything.
posted by parmanparman at 6:17 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

You're asking, "Hey, tell me how my spidey-sense could be giving me a false positive." Unfortunately, the real answer is likely, "Your spidey-sense is going to be irrelevant if there's no legal employment-related reason for you to care."

But hey, I'll bite: Your executive assistant realizes that because your CFO is going on a vacation, you'll have less of a need for an executive assistant to facilitate your work with the CFO, so it's a good time for him/her to take a vacation, too, because it lessens the potential impact on the company.

A lame scenario, isn't it? Because you need to follow through on your "hunch" and investigate this if it is indeed causing a problem. But if there's no problem ... well, you're just going in circles, then.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:20 PM on April 23 [2 favorites]

Perhaps they belong to the same church, social, or hobbyist group which has outings/events that they both attend. For example: if they both belonged to Habitat for Humanity, they might be going on the same builds, or if they were both avid cyclists, they are going to the same races.
posted by jamaro at 6:24 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

the only issue would be whether they are having an affair and being indiscreet about it. as CEO, you are probably more insulated from rank-and-file gossip than most, so this might be your first indication of something everybody already knows about.

as to how to handle it (if at all), it probably depends on the type of relationship you have with these people, whether it's formal or informal or what.
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:25 PM on April 23

Eleven vacations in 18 months sounds like a lot, unless these are one or two day vacations. If they are short vacations like that, how likely is it that the two are simply observing the same religious holidays and have no personal connection?

performance problems with both of them yes.

At the CFO and executive assistant to the CEO level, you should be able to warn them about their performance and leave solving their performance problem to them. If you have to micromanage your CFO's vacation time in order to keep that officer productive, you probably need to start looking for a new CFO.
posted by b1tr0t at 6:26 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

on preview, now that i see there are performance problems, it's worth sending them an email saying "going over last year's numbers, i couldn't help but notice you both took a lot of vacation days at the same time. perhaps it was a coincidence, perhaps not. i don't care. however, i'd like to take the opportunity to remind you that i very much value what you bring to this organization and hope that whatever goes on in your private life would not compromise your professionalism here. thanks."
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:29 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

1. Have you looked at the dates on a calendar and where they fall in relation to holidays, 3-day weekends and such? Look for a pattern, I bet you can find one.

2. Go to your e-mail box. Look at e-mails from the CFO and EA surrounding the vacation dates. Any clues?

3. Ask each of them, privately (and some other folks to obfuscate the intention) what upcoming dates in the next 3 months they intend to take vacation. See if future, planned dates align.

4. Next time they are out at the same time, spot check. Call each of them. Better yet, look at your cellphone bill for those dates to see if you took or made any calls to them on the dates they were out.

You'll probably have a lot more info after steps 1-4.

Good luck.
posted by cior at 6:29 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

any possible explanations you can think of?
Do they have families, kids? Most people with kids end up vacationing the same weeks (and national holidays) because that's when everyone has off.
posted by cocoagirl at 6:35 PM on April 23

A lot of people take vacations based on the school calendar. Maye they both have children who have the same schedule and that is when they take off.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:36 PM on April 23

what cocoagirl said.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:36 PM on April 23

but the thing I feel like that I've heard of when it seems suspicious that 2 people are taking off at the same time are "accounting issues," i.e. embezzlement. Any worries there?
posted by chrisubus at 6:39 PM on April 23

Embezzlers don't take vacations
posted by doppleradar at 6:46 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

Could you please explain yourself a bit more? You seem to be saying, "I could [not] care less what people do in their private lives if it has no impact on the workplace or company, but I'd really like to know what these two people are doing in their private lives."
posted by optovox at 7:02 PM on April 23

To Grand Cayman they do!
posted by soviet sleepover at 7:03 PM on April 23

1) Hold a joint meeting with both him and her. Do it casually, impromptu, with as little notice as possible.

2) Ask them straight out if it's OK that they do not take vacations at the same time. Tell them there is a business reason for this that you can't disclose at this time. Try not to tell any outright lies...the furthest you should go is to say something like they are your two key people and you need at least one of them in the office at all times.

3) It will become immediately apparent by their demeanour / response whether or not there is a legitimate reason (like the ones others have suggested) for the past coincidences. Assuming you can spot a liar (see also: assuming they are not good liars).

4) The rest is up to you.
posted by randomstriker at 7:11 PM on April 23

Usually people take vacations on popular holidays. If you're asking why they both took thanksgiving, christmas, easter, and spring break off at the same time....
posted by jesirose at 7:16 PM on April 23

2) Ask them straight out if it's OK that they do not take vacations at the same time. Tell them there is a business reason for this that you can't disclose at this time. Try not to tell any outright lies...the furthest you should go is to say something like they are your two key people and you need at least one of them in the office at all times.

If they are good liars, or innocent, this has a good chance of blowing up in your face. Try to be more tactful. Confrontations work best when you hold all the cards, not when you are still gathering information.

A quick discussion with your director of HR and/or legal council is probably in order before you take any of our advice.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:17 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

s/council/consul/
posted by b1tr0t at 7:20 PM on April 23

"Unfortunately, the real answer is likely, 'Your spidey-sense is going to be irrelevant if there's no legal employment-related reason for you to care.'"

Umm... are we forgetting about employment at will? If we're not, then damn near anything can be a 'legal employment-related reason' to care. Like taking too many vacations coincident with other employees.


"Your post doesn't really help with your motivations for asking the question. AskMe won't know this answer."

This is nonsense. OP's motivations for asking the question don't really have any bearing on the answer. In no way, shape, or form does "other than an affair, and this being a strange coincidence, any possible explanations you can think of?" require a psychoanalysis of the OP. He provided a set of facts, asked for a possible explanation. Many were given down-thread.


"on preview, now that i see there are performance problems, it's worth sending them an email [heavily implying that there is something untoward going on.]"

Please, for the love of god, don't do that. If either of them has an over-active sense of morals/honor/etc. they could be irreparably offended and for what? You can say all of the same things without implying that they're bumping uglies.
posted by toomuchpete at 7:31 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]

In the book "Up the Organization", Townsend talks about a case where one of his VPs suddenly gave a huge raise to all the executive secretaries at Avis. Townsend (at the time the CEO of Avis) was suspicious that this particular guy had been sleeping with one of them, but couldn't figure out a reasonable way to determine if it was true.

So he asked someone else for advice. The other guy said that if Townsend told the VP he was fired for having an affair, one of two things would happen:

1. The VP would explode in rage. In that case the VP clearly was innocent, and Townsend wouldn't need to follow through.
2. The VP would say, sheepishly, "How did you find out?" In that case he was guilty and Townsend should go ahead and fire him.

Townsend decided to try it -- and the result was #2. After the VP was terminated, Townsend reduced all the secretary salaries again to their previous level. None of them complained.

Whether that's what you should do or not, I couldn't say. But it's something to consider.
posted by Class Goat at 7:33 PM on April 23

Buy two of these and put one under each of their automobiles. That should feed your paranoia for a little while and provide some insight to see if they ever meet up outside of work.
posted by yoyoceramic at 7:55 PM on April 23

other than an affair, and this being a strange coincidence, any possible explanations you can think of?

Just reminding some of the above responders that an affair isn't illegal or any of your business, not even if it hurts their productivity or performance (the performance itself could be, but the root cause is not.) I'd file the possible affair under "benign" reasons. The scarier reason is embezzlement or other conspiracy.

If your own work is all above board, just remove the mystery and play straight: If you're having quantifiable, documented performance problems with your EA, fire her and you're done. That's likely easier than firing the CFO. And then, if the CFO's own performance problems vanish after your EA is gone... bonus. No need to play detective if the problem is solved anyway.

Of course, if YOU have been up to some shenanigans of the type that your EA might know about, and your CFO might be interested in.... well, you're in a lot of trouble right now. Maybe it's time to polish up your own CV.
posted by rokusan at 8:02 PM on April 23

Talk to your lawyer. "Employment at will" does not give you the license to commit crimes (such as surveillance outside the workplace), and it shouldn't be used as an excuse for some of the awful awful behavior recommended here.
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:21 PM on April 23

Sounds like it's an affair.

If it's valid paid holidays, booked in advance- not much to do with you, unless their is a rule against employees forming intimate relationships with each other.

If they are taking sick days it's a different story.

I like the suggestion that you ask them not to take time off at the same time as you need either around the office for xyz reason.

Be careful in confronting them, their absence may be co incidental.
posted by mattoxic at 8:29 PM on April 23

Do you have an auditor? If not, its time to audit the books (this is just damn good practice anyway). Also you should be careful with the cash accounts if you have any concerns that any embezzelment might be going on. If you have concerns regarding your employees, consult an employment lawyer before taking of the advice up thread. The thing you want is to give anyone grounds for a lawsuit on wrongful termination or sexual harrassment b/c you are accusing them of having an affair.
posted by zia at 8:45 PM on April 23

Oops

The LAST thing you want...
posted by zia at 8:46 PM on April 23

I don't think it's out of the question that this is only coincidence.

People's vacations and personal days follow patterns. Everyone takes time off in August (for some reason — god knows I wouldn't want to waste my vacation on 100-degree weather, mosquitoes, and humidity, but apparently I'm the exception). There are, as mentioned above, school holidays which may be independently influencing both their schedules. Additionally, in my experience, every workplace has its own ebb and flow which influences when people feel they can take time off — for example, at my last job many customers were in higher education, so we tended not to schedule vacations during the beginnings of semesters as our products began to see production use and problems cropped up which staff needed to be on hand to handle. At another (non-profit) job, the annual cycle of fundraisers with lengthy lead times tended to channel vacations toward the quieter times of the year.

Given that and the fact that you have 150 employees I don't think it's at all surprising that two of them have vacation schedules that overlap somewhat. It is a human trait to find patterns in randomness, and also to see coincidences as less likely than they really are.

I would also add that, while I'm not any sort of manager and am speaking entirely from inexperience, if you are looking at this as a way to get rid of these employees because of the performance issues you mention without having to bring up those issues directly (and I'm not saying you are, only that it occurs to me as a possibility), that strikes me as an unwise course of action which is likely to have unintended consequences of one sort or another.
posted by enn at 8:52 PM on April 23

One other thing — I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario in which embezzlement would lead to intentional shared vacations. Would someone mind explaining this?
posted by enn at 8:56 PM on April 23

I'm seconding the idea of coinciding religious holidays or childrens' school holidays. Worth a check before making the jump to bigger assumptions.
posted by Asparagirl at 9:10 PM on April 23

To elaborate on what doppleradar said about embezzlers not taking vacations, most embezzling schemes require the embezzler or a co-conspirator to be present to keep the scheme from being found out. Some organizations mandate their employees taking vacations in order to keep these schemes from succeeding.

That being said however, your personal assistant and CFO conspiring to embezzle, resell donor lists, etc... could do some serious damage. Hopefully you have a regular schedule for external audits.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:54 AM on April 24

When the CFO is doing anything that makes your spidey sense tingle, it's time for an unannounced external audit.

Other than that, it could be anything or nothing. Audit first, ask later.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:41 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]

Occam's Razor says to check the local public school calendar first and foremost, if the parties involved have young children. (School holidays don't always fall where you'd expect them to.)
posted by availablelight at 6:02 AM on April 24

The employees in question don't even need to have young children themselves -- they could be taking vacations with other family members with children.

I think that your sense that their vacations have something to do with the performance problems either 1) needs more explaining to us or 2) is actually irrelevant.
posted by desuetude at 6:30 AM on April 24

You're making this out as a very fishy thing, without providing any information about why it possibly WOULD be a fishy thing.

If they are having an affair, it's none of your business OR the NPO's.
If they are stealing money, you and/or your board should have noticed by now, if you haven't then you're fallible in this to some extent.
Whatever they are doing, they are doing it on THEIR OWN TIME ON THEIR DAYS OFF, something you have no rights to care about.

Unless you have something more to give us, I suggest you MYOB---especially now that you've created an internets proof that you're snooping.
posted by TomMelee at 7:03 AM on April 24

I strongly agree with those who say that their choice of vacation days is absolutely none of your business. Your only business is their performance at work. If you suspect embezzling, ask to go over the accounts or set up more regular meetings - most people are able to embezzle only because no one other than the finance staff is looking at the expense/revenue statements while everyone else just reads their (misleading) reports. You don't have any evidence right now that anything is wrong with the operation. If you do, call them to account based on the evidence, not on your vague suspicions and feelings. If you can't find any evidence, chances are that nothing's going on, and that you are gathering information about your employees' private lives in an inappropriate way.

Their personal lives are not within your control as long as there is no impact at work. An affair, two families that are friends and vacation together, two staffers who have found a way to manage their workflow better - as long as their choices fall within your vacation policies, there is no problem here. Even when an employee is, for instance, an active alcoholic, or has a crazy family situation with lots of absences, you can't call them on the carpet for their activities outside of work. All you can do is identify how their behavior is a problem at work, and come up with a solution for the problem that satisfies the requirements of their job description. The rest is up to them - if they want to keep drinking and it has no impact at all on work, you haven't got a reason to investigate their private lives.

If there are performance problems, they need to be addressed as performance problems, and individually. Document the performance issues and begin meeting with them to correct the problems. Do not consider the two people a unit or assume anything "fishy" is going on. Concentrate on their obligations to you as an employer, not on what their personal lives may contain. If by some remote happenstance you find they've formed an embezzling ring, you have a legitimate work-related problem. If not, you really don't have any reason to pry into their private lives and are treading on some rather thin ice by doing so.

It sounds like you could really use some guidance in the HR department. Do you use a payroll company such as PayChex or ADP? Those companies often have a service as part of the payroll package that includes a certain amount of HR consult. You could call and find out about that if you have the resource. Also, what about your board? Do you have anyone with employment law or HR expertise on your board? Or law at all? You need to be careful that you are not getting involved in something which you truly should not be involved in, as CEO.

Also, do you have an EAP? If there are emotional or personal problems that do affect work, one of the possible outcomes of a meeting with the boss is that the employee is referred to the EAP. Consultations are totally confidential and no information is shared with the employer, but the employee can get some of the help they need to meet the job description.
posted by Miko at 7:55 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

on preview, now that i see there are performance problems, it's worth sending them an email saying "going over last year's numbers, i couldn't help but notice you both took a lot of vacation days at the same time. perhaps it was a coincidence, perhaps not. i don't care. however, i'd like to take the opportunity to remind you that i very much value what you bring to this organization and hope that whatever goes on in your private life would not compromise your professionalism here. thanks."

Disagree. If nothing is actually going on, or even if something is going on but you have no way to ever concretely prove it, an email of the type suggested above will give the secretary all the ammo she needs to ensure that you can never actually fire her -- because she now has a written record of your direct suggestion that she was having an inappropriate personal relationship with the CFO.

I notice that your AskMe asks only for possible explanations, and I like the ones we've seen so far: children/school district calendar... involvement in the same activity like a church or travel group...

But, I'll add my 2¢ anyway. It's possible that this only seems coincidental inside your vacuum of leadership; maybe there are lots of other employees whose holidays coincide, and maybe the reason is related to community functions, travel sales, school calendars.... but you only see the CFO and the EA's because you deal with both of them daily.

So, let's say you did solicit advice from AskMe on what action to take. If it were me, first I would familiarize myself with the company policies, so I could ascertain responsible answers to the following questions: "Do we have a policy prohibiting fraternization? If not, then is there a performance or security issue? If not, is there any course of action that benefits the company more than my just leaving this alone?"*

I'd speak first to my top HR person. I would emphasize that this is a confidential request, but that you'd like to look at all full-time employees' vacation days over the last 12 months, as a bar chart. You can explain it's that you want to get a better big picture of staff productivity against the non-profit's annual workflow. I believe that you will see how many people actually take holidays at the same time, and that it will give you peace of mind (which seems to be the real problem here. And that shouldn't be downplayed -- at your level of operations, trust is critical and you need to have trust in both those people, not constantly suspecting them of something illicit.).

If you did find an anomaly, one that actually creates a problem for the company, I would give it to HR to deal with -- this is the person you pay good money to handle personnel issues so you can keep your hands clean and run the business. Let HR suss out whether something inappropriate is going on -- especially if fraternization is against the company handbook, or if there are obvious opportunities for the two to be conspiring on a non-sleeping-together project that harms the company (like launching a competing org... embezzling... going to work for a competitor... etc.). I would also set up an external audit, as has already been suggested. But if it were me, I wouldn't personally touch this situation with a ten-foot pole.

And if I did decide to take matters into my own hands (WHICH I WOULDN'T, as it cannot end well), I certainly would start with the CFO. That's the one who has got far more to lose in terms of rank, salary, responsibility -- if he/she is faced with having to leave the org due to screwing around with a secretary. And I wouldn't put anything at all in writing until I knew I was in a completely protected position.

* But I suspect you'll find that the answers are "No," "no," and "not really," and end up leaving it alone.
posted by pineapple at 8:25 AM on April 24

an email of the type suggested above will give the secretary all the ammo she needs to ensure that you can never actually fire her -- because she now has a written record of your direct suggestion that she was having an inappropriate personal relationship with the CFO.

Doubleplus agree with this and disagree with all of the "direct confrontation" advice very strongly.

Not to mention that this sort of insinuation is unnecessarily humiliating. If my choice of vacation days was called into question in this manner, I'd start documenting in case a pattern of inappropriately personal comments emerged. Any inquires about vacation should be handled by HR, not the CEO, anyway.
posted by desuetude at 8:37 AM on April 24 [1 favorite]

Is this situation creating morale problems? Gossip? In that case, you need to take a couple of steps--

1. Stop the gossip! (I know that's impossible, but at least you can get it under wraps.) If you hear of gossiping on this topic, quell it.

2. Let the CFO know that the situation is creating gossip and morale problems, and request that they minimize the parallel vacations unless they can demonstrate a compelling business reason (for instance work flow) that requires them.

3. You could make a company-wide policy that certain combinations of titles/team members cannot take vacations at the same time. Personally I think this would be unwieldy and counterproductive, but if this bothers you that much, hey, you're the boss.

If the situation is not creating morale problems or gossip, then you need to assess the business impact. If there is none, quit worrying about it. Because you are the boss, your discomfort with this situation is likely to create the morale problems and/or gossip, so you need to either create systems that obviate it, or stop worrying about it, if as everyone is saying here, there is no impact on the business.
posted by nax at 9:12 AM on April 24

Instincts are not to be ignored, nor necessarily acted upon. You said no affair, so I will trust you on that one. The advice to check out school calendars was excellent. You say that both have performance issues, and they both report to you. Without knowing what those performance issues are, is it possible that their performance issues have something in common, ie. both seem to do their routine duties well enough, yet neither responds as efficiently as they need to for those things that you need their help with IMMEDIATELY, or vice versa, of course,....one or both are excellent firefighters, but then their routine duties suffer? CEO's have an extremely difficult road, and no peer shoulder's to lean on. Even in the best team environment, the buck stops with you. Aside from the pattern of mutual vacation days, you would be remiss in not noticing that both report to you, and both have performance issues. Is it possible they feel that you are being unfair in your expectations of them? Is it possible they feel you are too dependent on them in order to do your own job well? In any company, people chew the fat about the CEO at the water fountain. In small companies, your executive assistant and your CFO have office space right next to each other. This might be a long shot, but it is possible that they are both aware of what you feel are their individual shortcomings, but they have decided you have some of your own...and they will deal with them by neither of them being there at the same time to help you fight fires?

This is really just food for thought. It was not meant to imply that you are not doing excellent work as CEO, but to point out that this pattern may have as much to do with you or your style of management, or your employees' perception of you and your management style as it does with them or with chance.
posted by LiveLurker at 6:52 PM on April 24

wow: lots of responses and lots of emotions about this. impressive contributions and quite helpful.
Some folks are adamant that this is none of my business to the point that even noticing the apparent pattern of leave congruence is a violation of someones privacy, a position which seems extreme. observing an employees pattern of vacations is hardly spying on their private lives.
As for the idea that the pattern can be explained by holidays or likely similar interests or family needs , there does not appear to be such a pattern at all.
clearly the question relates most of all to what some have referred to as a spidey sense, and i think it is very clear that such a sense could never be the basis of any action against any employee. nevertheless, hunches , gut instincts and suspicious patters at least in my business live are NOT to be ignored, even thought they often are fruitless.
An annual audit is carried out and has been clean but i know enough to know that that means very little. An unannounced external audit is a different matter and will likely be pursued completely independent of this question. What i cant figure out is why if embezzlement were part of the picture they would take vacations together...
the last poster, Livelurker makes an excellent suggestion and indeed i suspect bthat they may indeed both feel that my expectations are unreasonable.
posted by dougiedd at 12:05 AM on April 25 [1 favorite]

observing an employees pattern of vacations is hardly spying on their private lives.

No, it's not - you need to keep track of attendance. But observing them in the context of your work policies and wanting to know what they're doing and why are two different things. The former is your job, the latter is none of your business.

Why do you feel you need an external audit? Most embezzling schemes in small companies are laughably obvious (I just heard about one where the finance officer just wrote a monthly check to her son. It was spotted when the CEO asked for a report and went over each expense - who received this payment? For what? Where is the invoice? If you are qualified to be CEO you should also be fully capable of asking for and understanding financial reports and asking the relevant questions. If there is incoming cash, you should know the points of revenue and whether there are any opportunities for drawer skimming. You should have someone show you how they count up at the end of the day (or revenue event) and log the entries, and how they are cross-checked and reconciled.

Gut instincts are fine. If you feel there is something fishy, investigate - but keep your attention on the work at hand. It is absolutely true that if you called an employee into a meeting and made any mention of what she was doing outside working hours - while not, apparently, violating your time off policies - she would be in a very good position to go to a lawyer about impropriety at your job.

I must say, also, that it sounds like your relationship with these key employees is not so good. It could very well be that they've simply come to the conclusion that it's easier to be away together than to have one person bear the brunt of the interactions. If so, this isn't really their problem - as a manager, it's yours. Either one or both of them could be not a good fit for your workplace or your personal leadership style, or your leadership and management style could use more training and work. Your approach to this problem suggests you might benefit from management training with an employee relations/HR focus.

Keep focused on the work-related issues. Do not engage in any speculation about what happens during off hours. If you think something is wrong with the books, investigate. Spend more time on the books and increase the frequency with which the CFO reports to you and what types of information you want to see. Attend to the performance issues by documenting the concern, having an initial meeting, and devising a benchmarked improvement plan. Then, once you have tightened up your ship, schedule an external audit if you need it.

You can't afford to be in ignorance about the books, especially not with the new 990 coming out this year. Repair your relationship with these staffers, or replace them. And avoid getting involved in their private lives. Even if they're embezzling on their off hours, you're not going to get any actionable information from the simple knowledge that that's their purpose. You need to know what they're doing at work. If you don't, you need to find out.
posted by Miko at 6:54 AM on April 25

Miko: "Your approach to this problem suggests you might benefit from management training with an employee relations/HR focus."
Your answer suggests you misunderstood the question, but thanks for the lecture.
posted by dougiedd at 12:25 PM on April 25

How did I misunderstand?
posted by Miko at 1:46 PM on April 25

As for the idea that the pattern can be explained by holidays or likely similar interests or family needs , there does not appear to be such a pattern at all.
clearly the question relates most of all to what some have referred to as a spidey sense,

You came here asking for "any possible explanations," so to discount the possibility of a pattern not apparent to you seems strange to me.
posted by desuetude at 3:19 PM on April 25

yes, as i said i came here asking for possible explanations and that is one and as I stated it does not appear to be such a pattern. doesnt mean there is no possibility.
as for how you misunderstood miko, if i were asking you how to manage employees or get HR advice i would likely not to this forum. I was asking how to explain an unusual pattern outside of it being an affair.
posted by dougiedd at 4:21 PM on April 26

OK. Sorry my answer went beyond your inquiry. It seems like you have a large range of possibilities here in answer to your question.
posted by Miko at 7:35 PM on April 26