GameStop, Inc.

To: Lisa Keglovitz, Senior Vice President, Human Resources

From: Christopher Fidel Garcia, Store Lead
Date: March 5, 2018
Subject: GameStop Employee Timesheet Falsification

On Monday morning, I was looking over my store’s timesheets because they were not matching
the schedule which I had created this month. After I had talked to some of my Senior Guest
Advisors, Jake and Amanda; and my Assistant Store Manager, Alex, it has come to my attention
that people are clocking each other in at other stores. This is something that should not be taken
lightly as it is not only affecting the hours that are available to each store, but also affecting
company and store profit. Through this memo I want to thoroughly explain why it is important to
implement a new way of recording time spent at work.

Through my store investigation, I found that one Guest Advisor, Orion, and one Senior Guest
Advisor, Jake, were taking part in the falsification of timesheets in conjunction with other stores.
After contacting the other Store Lead, Michelle at the Fashion Center store, we found that the
employees were clocking in employees from other stores while they were not there. This means
that the Northridge Fashion Center store (Store #5874) had one of my employees clocked in
when they were not there. The reason that this was able to occur was because employees were
sharing their ID numbers and passwords to log into Workday. Our company’s implementation of
the Workday sign-in has been a huge help to reduce the difficulty of doing payroll, but it has
significantly decreased our security against timesheet falsification.

In order to protect our company from further timesheet falsification, I recommend that we
integrate a biometric scanner to clock in and out of work instead of using Workday.

I highly suggest that our human resource team review the benefits of switching over to a
biometric scanner versus using Workday; it is a simple username and password form of clocking
in. There is already solid evidence from more than one store in our district that shows that the
use of Workday is not keeping our company and stores safe from timesheet falsification. Even
though it is an employee to employee-based problem, taking action to counteract it from
happening through the rest of the company is something that should be considered highly
important. Along with the implementation of a biometric scanner we should update our videos
on what timesheet falsification is and how to defend against it for Store Leads and Assistant
Store Managers. I propose that we have a conference call between the Store Leads in our district,
HR heads, and the District Lead to further advance our precautions with timesheet falsifications.

I understand that such a large-scale implementation is difficult, and that the argument can be
made to just fire the employees that are caught falsifying. However, our company would have to
pay legal fees to obtain the profit which was lost by these falsifications as well as have to
constantly hire new employees and train these employees. By not implementing any type of
security when it comes to timesheets we are highly running the risk of continuous loss of profit.

To argue against those who oppose this implementation on the grounds that it is an employees’
choice if they wish to be unethical, timesheet falsification happens even on a federal level. In a
U.S. Attorney’s Office press release it was revealed that, “[Daniel J.] Glauber had submitted
timesheets for hours in which he did not work on-site. He was paid $26,940 for these hours”
(U.S. Attorney’s Office par. 5). This leads to the question that if someone who is hired by the
government to do work cannot make the correct ethical decision then: How can we allow our
employees the opportunities to make the same unethical choices? The truth of the matter is that
there is no way to ensure that someone will act in the ethically correct way and we should be
doing everything we can to make sure that they are not able to make unethical choices.

When it comes to the argument that we should not be using biometric scanners for timekeeping
because it would infringe upon our employee’s rights, it would not infringe on any of their rights
as long as we are doing things in the correct ways and following governmental labor codes.
Anthony Zaller, a California litigation attorney whose focus in his practice is to represent
employers in California labor and employment cases made a list of five things that employers
should consider when thinking about using biometrics, one of which includes: “There is no
prohibition in using biometrics such as finger prints or hand prints in time keeping systems…
Labor Code section 1051 prohibits employers from sharing [information gathered from biometric
scanners] with third parties” (Zaller par. 5). Using this information, it is safe to conclude that our
implementation of biometric scanners would be legal under labor codes as long as we ensure that
our employees’ information is not being obtained by anyone other than our company.

My final defense for the implementation of a biometric scanner is that it would be easier to prove
in a court of law that a falsification of timesheets was occurring if we were using biometric
scanners instead of Workday. Beau Howard a founding partner of Freed Howard LLC, a law
firm, who focuses on privacy law, internet forensics, and business litigation states, “Whether
your employee conveniently ‘forgets’ to clock out or systematically falsifies timesheets, wage
fraud is tricky to address. However, if the employer can prove that the employee was
intentionally padding their timesheets, …the retaliation claim will not be viable” (Howard pars.
1,7). As we are right now it is easy to walk away from the computer and ‘forgetting’ to clock
out; however, with a biometric scanner it is difficult to logically argue that you forgot to scan
your hand or finger on your way out of the store.

Thank you for considering my request for a change in-time-keeping in our company and stores.
If you have any questions please call me, email me, or stop by my store (Granada Hills #6985).

Thank you,

Christopher Fidel Garcia

Granada Hills #6985 Store Lead
Tel: (818) 896-2614
Email: christopher.fidel.garcia@gamestop.com
 Works Cited

Howard, Beau. “Can I Sue My Employees For Padding Their Timesheets?” Freed Howard LLC,

Freed Howard LLC, 22 June 2017, www.freedhoward.com/can-i-sue-my-employees-for

padding-their-timesheets/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2018.

The United States Attorney’s Office. “Former Federal Contract Employee Pleads Guilty To

Falsifying Timesheets at Two Agencies.” The United States Department of Justice, The

United States Department of Justice, 14 Nov. 2016, www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/former

federal-contract-employee-pleads-guilty-falsifying-timesheets-two-agencies. Accessed 4

Mar. 2018

Zaller, Anthony. “Five things to know about biometrics in the workplace.” California

Employment Law Report, Anthony Zaller, 3 June 2016,

www.californiaemploymentlawreport.com/2016/06/1936/. Accessed 4 Mar. 2018

*Note, this is a writing of a fictional scenario