Freakonomics

I picked up "Freakonomics" this week and was surprised to see so many fraud related items in the first few chapters of the book. The story on cheating teachers was not news. Anyone with kids in school knows that there is a great temptation on the part of teachers to "teach to the test". It is the classic warning about taking care to pick what you measure carefully because it will drive behavior (sometimes the wrong behavior).

The story that I thought was most interesting was the one about the guy who quit his job to sell bagels to offices. Their assertion in the book is that there is no meaninful data on white collar crime(I am not sure that is true). The authors use the bagel man as a way to analyze this problem. Since he did business on the honor system and kept incredibly detailed records he was able to track company honesty. Some of the interetsting things he learned:

1. Weather: The worse the weather the more people cheat the bagel man.
2. Holidays: The Christmas holiday produces a 2% drop in payments.
3. Morale:The healthier the work environment the more honest they are.
4. Power:The higher up in the organization the person is the more likely they are to cheat.

I am interested in feedback:

1. Are you more inclined to cheat at work(through cutting out early or other slacker behavior) when your boss is a jerk?
2. What specific issues make it hardest to be honest at work?