Ankle Monitors

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Tablet PC with Complianceturteltaub-adam-200x200By Adam Turteltaub
adam.turteltaub@corporatecompliance.org

I had an unusual experience at lunch the other day.  I was standing on line, and I noticed the man in front of me was wearing what for a  moment looked like an ankle bracelet, but was actually an ankle monitor.

He was in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops, which made it hard to miss while I was bored and waiting to order my exciting two-item combo.

As I pondered what might have gotten him into trouble, I also pondered briefly about whether I would wear shorts in the same situation.  I would not, I realized.  No matter the heat and humidity I would be in long pants doing my best to cover up my, um, situation.

The more I thought about it, the more I began to think:  what if companies had to wear an ankle monitor as part of their conviction or settlement?  What would a corporate ankle monitor look like?  And would companies let everyone see the monitor, or would they wear “long pants” to cover it up?

An ankle monitor is there to facilitate the monitoring of someone’s comings and goings.  To an extent companies who have a Federal monitor have something of an ankle monitor.  Still there is one key difference:  You don’t see the monitor every day and don’t literally feel him with you wherever you go.

So what would a corporate ankle monitor look like?  Would it be an actual monitor that everyone in the department affected, or maybe corporate management, would be required to wear for a certain period of time?  While legally that’s not likely to happen, it would serve as a good reminder of the need for compliant, lawful behavior.

One alternative might be to take some space on every computer screen, maybe the bottom right-hand corner to serve as a reminder of what the company has done and to remind employees that the organization is being scrutinized.

That would serve as an internal reminder, but what if there were something that could potentially be more public?  Would companies wear the equivalent of shorts and let everyone see? Would they try to keep it covered?

My guess is that most would wear long pants, but some would not.  Chipotle didn’t hide from its food safety issues and has been public about its remediation efforts.  Siemens went on something of a world tour after their FCPA settlement, talking about it and the very considerable and impressive progress they had made to prevent future incidents.

What do you think?  Is a corporate ankle monitor possible or advisable?  What would it look like?  And would companies, given the choice, let the public see it or would they wear long pants all the time?

Comment below to let others know what you think.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Always enjoy your thoughts, Adam. and, am intrigued by the corporate ankle monitor concept.

    My first, comment is that reputational impact of negative publicity, media coverage, add’l news articles, trade mag pieces, federal judgments by DoJ, FTC, et. al., and the Social Medial maelstrom that accompanies poor corporate decisions are all fairly indicative of an ankle monitor and scarlet letter for bad actors in the econosphere.

    But, having said that, a corp. ankle monitor can almost be designed around an individual/corporate credit score, but with news/reputation/legal/juridical/governance/corp citizenship factors and KPI’s thrown into the mix. Would have to be a neutral party or organization or newly created NPO with the right startup team and thought leadership and some initial capital (hello Gates foundation?), etc.

    Hmmm. Like I said, as always, interesting thoughts. — Jg.

  2. Adam brings up a great point and asks a very engaging question- should corporations, like individuals, have to ‘wear’ a daily reminder of their past transgressions. For people on the front-lines, far away from the C-Suite, corporate penalties and fines are an abstract concept- they don’t impact daily corporate life or work. I think his idea about an icon on a computer screen, or some other visible sign of past misconduct would have a resonating impact. I often talk about debarment as part of a settlement agreement, where everyone is reminded that being shut out of markets due to the conduct, is such a monitor, even if only for a limited period. As for me, Adam, I wore long pants for the one month of my monitor; however, as I have written, I had some urgent medical needs when I got home, so I had to explain it to more than one doctor or nurse. Some still talk about it!

  3. Adam presents a unique way to look at the issue of corporate accountability. I like to believe that companies who might be subject to a deferred prosecution agreement, or an Administrative Agreement with a federal agency, are already wearing a badge of shame. Companies that are suspended from government contracting for example appear in the excluded parties list system at Sam.gov. The company’s transgressions remain in that database in perpetuity, and this information is consulted by potential customers and subcontractors on a routine basis. In addition companies subject to a monitor under a deferred prosecution agreement are frequently the subject of regular news reports and social media comments. Such agreements with the DOJ almost always negatively impact share prices of publicly held companies. The negative consequences of corporate misbehavior may not rise to the same level of shame as an ankle bracelet, but can certainly tarnish the image of a corporation for sometime to come.

  4. What an interesting approach! In a culture where everyone gets a trophy for showing up, the ankle bracelet–a modern-day scarlet letter–is unlikely to take off as a popular deterrent to future bad behavior. The pressure to deliver positive messaging is on. Learning from history is more difficult in this environment but not impossible. We just don’t get to “wear” it.

  5. Totally agree. As an employee of a hospital under a CIA, I see more and more laxity the further into it we go. People forget what happened and think it can’t happen again. Scrutiny is no longer there in their opinion.

  6. I agree that the “ankle bracelet–a modern-day scarlet letter” type approach might not be very acceptable but something internal would definitely be beneficial. It would work as a reminder about why a company changed the way they do things and help to encourage building the new habits that are necessary to correct the behavior that originally got the company in trouble.

  7. Thanks all for your comments. It’s so true, as you noted, that people do tend to forget quickly. I wish there were a good way to keep the reminder in front of them.

  8. I had one other thought on this as I was driving to work today and saw a Chipotle ad… While they have been very open about the measures they have taken to correct the situation I feel it was too little too late. With outbreaks of ecoli, salmonella and norovirus in 2015 how can I have any confidence that the problem is fixed? To me the tone at the top here says “meh, wash your hands if you feel like it”. In this case the only thing that would maybe steer me back towards their doors is a government mandated reporting system or rather a corporate ankle monitor.

  9. In corporate healthcare, having past “transgressions” don’t always hurt your chances of moving on, and even becoming more successful than before. Thinking Rick Scott, past CEO of Florida health system who is now governor of the state… Others to be sure that I am aware of. Do we think that if Rick Scott were wearing an ankle bracelet, he would not have been voted in?

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