Examples Of Deviance In The Workplace

Workplace deviance is a can be a serious issue throughout the workforce. It can come in many forms such as gossip, poor management, stealing, lying, and tardiness or absences in the workplace to name a few. Many administrations strive to establish an atmosphere of conformity and teamwork to achieve maximum efficiency while creating a healthy corporate culture. Deviance can occur in any size of the organization, which in turn can sabotage any and all efforts. In the medical profession, as a future billing and coding specialist, it is my duty as an employee to follow protocol set out by my employer when it comes to coding. Instructors have taught us that charging an insurance company more than the allocated amount for a specific medical visit for reimbursement can result in a sanction, or the employee responsible can be fired. This term is called upcoding, a fraudulent and inaccurate billing code to increase reimbursement on a medical procedure or treatment (Oxford, 2016).
There are two kinds of workplace deviance: interpersonal deviance and organizational.
Interpersonal deviance attempts to damage relationships through activities such as gossiping, lying and allocating blame. Gossip between coworkers and bosses can create deviant workplace behavior. Gossiping slows productivity and can create bad morale amongst coworkers. Disrespect in general is a known deviant behavior. When you begin to disrespect your peers, clients, and supervisors it can be detrimental to your workplace. Loud phone calls to clients to discuss personal information, is not only a deviance but is also violation of HIPAA. Talking back to your employer is not only disrespectful but could result in job
termination.
Organizational deviance contributes to lateness or theft of equipment, and poor management of staff. Tardiness and absences in the workforce not only show a lack of dependability but also a deficiency of commitment to your peers. Even being fifteen minutes late to work could put the workplace behind substantially and throw the whole day off, consequently having the clinic or office run late. This lack of dependability shows the management team that you as an employee may not care about your job. It is estimated to cost businesses up to $200 billion per year in theft, fraud, and absenteeism (Andrew Comensoli, 2014). Theft in the workplace can be as little as stealing supplies and taking credit for work that belongs to another employee to as big as stealing money from the office. This kind of deviant behavior shows employers that you cannot be trusted with property or private information (Lisa Finn, n.d.).
Loss of medical license, suspension, loss of status or title, and termination of job are all examples of risks of deviant behavior in the workplace. Is it worth it? NO! You work so hard to get to where you are, how you could chance to ruin it all by being deviant in the workplace. Another risk is landing on the medical sanctions list. This list, referred to as “healthcare sanctions are exclusions that are levied to certain individuals or entities from participating in a federal healthcare program” (“What are medical sanctions,” n.d.). These individuals then become barred from programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, due to illegally hiring sanctioned employees, and the risks of this are fines, suspension from those programs, and possible jail time. If you are sanctioned then your license is suspended or revoked for medical misconduct or even a felony charge.