Calling in sick

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40536366/ns/business-bloomberg_businessweek/

I love corporations.

This article (admittedly mostly anecdotal) describes situations where companies are hiring spies (at $75 an hour) to report on whether or not employees are really out sick or playing hooky.

So many questions!

1) If a corporation has the cash to pay somebody $75 to spy on their employees, why not just hire more employees? I realize these spies aren't full-time (or receive benefits) but doesn't it just seem silly to pay somebody $75 an hour to spy on somebody making $30 an hour?

2) How many sick days are these people really taking? I am continually amazed at how a company would rather fire a worker and go through the long and costly process of hiring/training a new one rather than let something slide. It really is cutting off your nose to spite your face.

3) Wouldn't the company be better off spending money trying to fix the problem? Clearly if people are calling in sick all the time they are either a) bad hires or b) your company sucks to work for. So either you need to address your HR issues (bad hires) or figure out why your employees hate you so much they would risk getting fired just to take a sick day and get away from you.

4) How hostile a work environment does this create once this is found out? Like if Bob gets fired for taking a sick day, does the company not think "Bob is going to tell his (former) co-workers what happened and the entire office is going to hate us more". Right? If I found out that the company was hiring spies to check on me every time I called in sick, ya think I'd want to work there long term?