Improper Preferential Treatment of an Employee | Influence

Ignored Complaints from Employees

For about a year, increasingly agitated complaints from employees about the behavior of his business partner, Mr. Willich, had been landing on the desk of Mr. Heinrich, managing director of an energy supplier and client of the Aaden Detectives Düsseldorf. There was said to be a colleague who repeatedly stood out negatively due to misconduct in daily work and unacceptable interaction with the team, yet seemed immune to any form of criticism because Mr. Willich always protected her. At some point, Mr. Heinrich had had enough of the complaints and wanted to issue a formal warning to the unpopular colleague, Ms. Eicken, but Mr. Willich prevented this with great determination. Mr. Heinrich thus found the reports of his employees about the unusually protective behavior of his partner toward this employee confirmed.

 

He questioned the reasons for this preferential treatment of a particular employee, which was greatly resented by the rest of the workforce and damaged the working atmosphere. When directly confronted about the matter, Mr. Willich stated that he simply considered Ms. Eicken to be a capable employee and did not want any harm to come to her—nothing more than that. His partner, however, did not believe him and commissioned the Aaden Commercial Detective Agency Düsseldorf to investigate the relationship between Willich and Eicken.

Determining the Background of this Preferential Treatment

Preferential treatment of individual employees by a supervisor can arise from a variety of motives: simple sympathy, an affair, leverage held by the employee (for example a compromising secret), jointly pursued illegal activities, and so on. The latter two points in particular can of course pose a potential risk to the client company and therefore represented an acute concern for Mr. Heinrich. The Aaden Detectives Düsseldorf were now tasked with using surveillance to determine what kind of connection existed between the two suspects. We also suggested to Mr. Heinrich that an investigator be placed within the company, but according to the managing director this was not possible within the functional and operational area of the target persons.

Secret Meeting During Lunch Break

Our commercial detectives from Düsseldorf picked up Mr. Willich one morning, previously agreed upon with the client, outside his single-family home, which he shared with his wife and two children. He drove straight to work and parked his vehicle in an associated parking garage, then proceeded to the office premises. As this was a fairly large complex with multiple exits and a total of four parking areas, three of our Düsseldorf detectives were involved in this surveillance operation. One of the investigators conducted a close-range search for Ms. Eicken’s vehicle and—despite the three parking areas at, under, and on the commercial complex—only located it in a side street.

 

During the lunch break, Mr. Willich moved his car and parked it in the same side street. At first, the unpopular employee was not with him. However, Mr. Willich sat in his vehicle for some time, and after about ten minutes the other target person of the Aaden Detective Agency Düsseldorf appeared. She got into the passenger seat, both remained together in the car for about fifteen minutes, and then returned separately to the office. Due to rainy weather and hazy visibility, the deployed surveillance operatives were unfortunately unable to determine what the two individuals were doing in the car.

Farewell with Physical Contact

After work, the two target persons of our Düsseldorf commercial detectives walked together to their vehicles. There was physical contact during their farewell; however, it could not be determined from a discreet distance whether this was merely an embrace or also involved a kiss, as the already poor weather conditions were compounded by darkness, further reducing visibility. After departing, Mr. Willich and Ms. Eicken drove behind each other for quite some time until Mr. Willich signaled his subordinate with his headlights and turned off toward his single-family home.

Rendezvous at a Restaurant – with a Detective

The following day, for cost reasons, surveillance by our Düsseldorf private detectives was scheduled to begin only after the end of the targets’ workday. This time, both target vehicles were parked in the parking garage of the commercial complex, albeit at some distance from each other. After work, only Ms. Eicken initially exited the driveway and then stopped two cross streets away at the roadside. Mr. Willich followed shortly afterward, drove into the same cross street, and signaled his employee with his headlights, whereupon she immediately left the roadside and followed her superior. A few kilometers further on, both parked their vehicles in the parking lot of a restaurant and entered the establishment hand in hand. An investigator from the Aaden Commercial Detective Agency Düsseldorf followed them, sat at a table with a good view of the target persons, and ordered a salad to maintain appearances.

 

The detective observed how the manager and employee held hands affectionately, exchanged intense looks, and occasionally kissed on the lips. They dined while engaged in lively conversation. After leaving the restaurant, Willich and Eicken remained by their vehicles, embraced, and showed affection for quite some time. Eventually, they managed to part and drove off in their respective vehicles. The business partner of our client of the Aaden Detective Agency Düsseldorf then headed straight back to his wife and children.

Further Surveillance Provides Additional Confirmation

After consulting with our commercial investigators, Mr. Heinrich, the managing director of the energy supplier, requested that the findings be confirmed by adding another day of surveillance. This can be summarized briefly here: once again, after work, the two target persons went together to a restaurant (a different one from the previous day), dined there, and were subsequently observed being very affectionate in Mr. Willich’s vehicle—the exact extent of this intimacy was not investigated further by the deployed Aaden Detectives Düsseldorf for reasons of discretion.

 

The client received the evaluation of the findings the following day and declared the assignment concluded, expressing his thanks. What steps he subsequently took with the help of the evidence provided by the Aaden Commercial Detective Agency Düsseldorf is unfortunately not known to us to date, as at the time of the last contact he himself was still uncertain.

Notice

Note: For reasons of discretion and data protection, the locations of operations and certain personal details have been modified without altering the substance of the actual events.

Aaden Detectives Düsseldorf

Münsterstraße 306

D-40470 Düsseldorf

Tel.: +49 211 9874 011-0

Fax: +49 211 9874 011-9

E-Mail: info@aaden-detektive-duesseldorf.de

Web: https://aaden-detektive-duesseldorf.de/en

 

CEO: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

Register Court: Amtsgericht Köln

Registration Number: HRB 83824