When things go badly, it’s easy to start pointing fingers, but Lawrence Conrad, owner of Independent Security Services Atlantic Inc., is a good model for how to act when trouble arrives. According to thechronicleherald.ca, Conrad found out two of his employees were writing fake tickets to get out of work and fired them within hours. He didn’t wait to see how mad his clients would get; and he didn’t hesitate long enough to get a lawyer. He fired them and he alerted the police.
Conrad has a security company to run and wasn’t going to waste time while his reputation went down the tubes.
“I asked them, I said, ‘Why would you even bother writing tickets? What was your purpose here? The only thing you did is steal hours from me.’
“And I said, ‘Were you both truly that lazy?’ And the only comment I got from both of them, separately, was ‘We were stupid.’”
“They were taking what I call coffee breaks, extended lunch breaks.”
While the crime made no sense to Conrad, the consequences were clear. His company provides parking enforcement services and bills clients, namely, the cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, for hours worked. Now those billed hours must be reimbursed and he’s prepared to make the culprits come up with the money – through the court system. Conrad’s contract with Halifax is up for review in the next few months and he is eager to prove this kind of trouble is anomalous and won’t be tolerated.
Both men, whom Conrad described as stellar employees who faithfully showed up at 7:45 a.m. every morning, worked for the company for a year and a half. They were vetted through the Justice Department, had background police checks completed and swore an oath as special constables.
The city of Halifax made Conrad aware of the high number of tickets issues to “phantom” vehicles, and once he figured out the scam, he took action. I guess it’s no surprise the owner of a security company would act so decisively, but I’m still impressed.
Read the rest of the article here.
