Landscape Management, February 2011

THEHALLMARK RON HALL EDITOR AT LARGE Ron has been in the Green Industry for 27 years Contact him via e mail at rhall@ questex com Theft inside the dolphin tank Dont play with the dolphins It makes them too tired to perform T he message printed in bold letters on a small scrap of paper attached to my time card was plain enough I understood Yes this is a story about dolphins and what I learned about them in the strangest job I will ever have But as much as I learned about dolphins one summer long ago I learned as much about people that even trusted employees when offered the perfect storm of opportunity to steal may steal A surprisingly large number in fact if you believe what some experts say What circumstances encourage employee theft Theyre staggeringly simple 1 a need 2 an inviting opportunity and 3 a perception of minimal risk of any detection and arrest While theres little you can do to assuage an employees needs you can dramatically reduce opportunities for theft and increase the risk of detection within your operations by learning from the experiences of other owners in this months cover article see page 16 OK back to the dolphins Decades ago I took a seasonal security job at a large amusement park and was promptly assigned to babysit four young Atlantic bottlenose dolphins LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET FEBRUARY 2011 14 Each day hundreds of people lled a huge concrete bowl like arena to watch them launch themselves through hoops and perform other stunts They represented a huge investment for the amusement park the reason why I was hired to safeguard them from 11 30 p m to 7 30 a m six nights a week Or at least thats what I surmised at the time We became acquainted the dolphins and me Perhaps even friends Who knows Sometimes we played together in the dark One of the dolphins feeling frisky would snatch up a ball that had been bobbing in the pool and toss it out toward me If I tossed it back likely as not another dolphin would chuck it back to me Sometimes this or some other diversion we invented went on well into the night It didnt occur to me that they like me would be tired once each day broke Sleepy dolphins cant leap as high as rested dolphins Now my people lesson Occasionally prior to going to our assignments the third shift security force gathered for training Thats when a park police sergeant would go over a list of dos and donts including the parks zerotolerance policy on theft He tried to impress upon us that he fully expected 70 of the parks seasonal employees to steal or attempt to steal something during their employment there The inference wasnt subtle After all we were seasonal employees too Unannounced visits to our security stations by police of cers in the nights darkest quietest hours reminded us of this I dont know how the police there came up with the 70 gure I suppose they based it upon their on the job experiences While I recall bristling over the suggestion that I might steal too looking back on that summer blithely unaware of it then I helped validate that 70 prediction After all wasnt my frolicking with the dolphins resulting in them not performing as they should each day stealing from the enjoyment of the hundreds who came expecting a great show The park police sergeant fully expected 70 of the parks seasonal employees to attempt to steal during their employment