.
A ream of A4 paper because your son needed to print out his project and you’d run out and didn’t have time to stop at Officeworks.
A roll of sticky-tape.
A USB stick.
A packet of Kingstons from the staff kitchen.
A bottle of wine on Friday night (you were the one who stayed behind to clean up – you earned it).
Perks of the job?
Office pilfering?
Stealing.
Last week, news.com.au ran a story about a German office worker who stole 20 tonnes of office supplies. That’s a lot of paper-clips. And it’s not like he flogged it on eBay. He kept it – under his house. Maybe his kids had a lot of projects coming up. Maybe he was unwell. Maybe he was just a criminal. From news.com.au:
The 69-year-old retired caretaker from Stuttgart stole everything from pencil sharpeners to detergents to office ladders.
After an anonymous tip-off police went to his home and are now working hard to sort through truckloads of office equipment which the worker stole from city offices he had access to while working.
The police said the man did not try to sell any of the items and just hoarded them in his apartment, basement, attic and garden shed.
According to studies an estimated $US50 billion is lost annually from US businesses due to employee theft with a massive 75 per cent of employees stealing from their employers.
Pens and post-it notes are the most commonly pilfered items according to a study by media company Vault.
But employee theft which costs companies billions of dollars every year ranges from pens and envelopes to more “extravagant” items such as lap tops, office chairs and falsifying time sheets and expenses.
So you might not have a truckload of paper-clips under the house but ask around. Most people will admit to taking home something they didn’t pay for and aren’t entitled to. We laugh it off, saying we work so hard we’re entitled to a packet of post-it notes. Who notices anyway? The waste in that place is shocking!
But the bottom line notices and the topic turns business owners purpley red with rage. Because it’s not just physical stuff – personal phone calls can be counted as theft too, ‘I’ll call you from the office so work can pay.’ Sound familiar?
So what is it? A sense of entitlement? A sense that we are underpaid and overworked so these little self-awarded bonuses are okay?
It’s interesting stuff and it seems the bigger the company, the more okay it is. Telstra can afford to lose a yellow highlighter.
What do you think? Is taking home a pen from the office a criminal offence?
Comments
114 Comments so far
For sure it’s stealing if you know what you are doing. I do it all the time still knowing it’s naughty! But being an office manager it’s not OK for others to steal. I hate seeing the pens drindle away so fast and then never being able to find a pen anywhere in the office when I need it ASAP. The girls who order the stationary fixed that, they now hide the pens from everyone else so they have to ask for one and they can then monitor who deserves one and who doesn’t. Pretty cruel, hay? hee hee. On saying all of that you will never find me stealing anything other than pens or tape.
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I have the opposite problem. I’m a teacher and we never have enough stationery. In fact this post has reminded me that before we go back to school I need to get new pens, a stapler, whiteboard markers and new folders. Not complaining, it’s just interesting how it really depends on the industry as to what’s appropriate
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hehe.. this is funny because I recently took a few drawer organisers and desk caddy home – for our new study. But they were old and noone was using them anymore so I figured I was doing the office a favour!! The worst I usually do is a couple of phonecalls every few months and maybe a few pens.. not much.
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I never used to bat an eyelid at using the work printer or phones for personal stuff until a few years ago when my hubby and I opened our own business that employees 20 people. Now I get it! Someone (now me) pays for that stuff – it’s not free, it costs REAL MONEY and can put really large holes in our profitability (or add to losses if it’s a bad year). So no more nicking the work stapler for me…
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Doesnt matter how big or small it is, its dodgy to take something, someone else has to pay for it.
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How do you feel about personal phone calls?
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Mmmm, thats a tough one. I think they should be kept to a minimum but sometimes its unavoidable, people do have important things happening in their lives outside work and many workplaces dont allow personal mobile phones to be used during work hours. And as most people work beyond their original hours of employment anyway a few phone calls here and there isnt the end of the world. I think thats all part of give and take. I always started work an hour before I was meant to be there each day, doing things that needed to be done before the office was busy, so I dont think they begrudged me making a call here and there. At least I hope they didnt
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I would put myself in the category of stationery being part of the pay packet.
I don’t count the additional time that I give to get the job done (no overtime in my industry) and I don’t expect them to begrudge the pens, paper and phone calls.
Its a two way street. And more in their favour than mine.
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Yep I agree.
What you lose on the roundabout you make up on the swings!
I have always said if you clock watch me I will clock watch you – and trust me you will lose!
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First proper job, cadet journalist. Toured the printing press in action, met the editor and sub-editors with my slack-jaw of excitement but … it was the stationery cabinet that had me.
It was like seeing the Holy Spirit.
I never technically ‘stole’ anything from there, but I loved finishing a notebook or grabbing sticky-notes and dispensers and all many of wonderful things. The pens were terrible though.
Lana has MUCH nicer pens.
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I know, the absolute POTENTIAL of a stack of pristine notebooks. One of the best things in my world.
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I have an entire shelf in my massive bookshelf dedicated to empty notebooks. All the possibilities!!!!!!
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I just take Lana’s pens
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How does Lana feel about everyone pinching her pens?
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I think sometimes it is the industry you work in.
I know mine don’t mind the odd overseas phone call. Also in this day and age of voip you don’t pay for the calls like you used to.
Especially last week when I did a 60 hr week. I am not compensated enough (either hourly or bonus) and so they don’t mind anything that helps make our lives easier.
Another way of looking at it is we all use our personal mobiles nowadays for work calls and how many people are able to charge that back to their company??
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There is a big brewery in the U.S that is relatively new, after 2 years of employment they award their staff with shares in the company. Works a treat, no theft of alcohol and everyone works harder because the harder they work the more rewards in their pockets!
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giggle….
Telstra (back then it was Telecom Australia) “supplied” all of mine and my brother’s stationery for our entire schooling……!!
Hmmmm Maybe that’s why my Internet costs so much now…….
Karma, perhaps!!
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I hear you. Not only did Telecom Australia provide all the things for omine and my brother’s schooling, it also provided esky’s tools, jumpers, desks, and free long distance calls if you called through the exchange…oops.
That said, it may have rubbed off on me in a different way, because I cant think of anything I have taken from work. Oh know wait, yes I can. When I went on maternity leave I took my pink pacer and pink ruler. I told my boss it was my maternity leave pay…
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Ha! The “good old days”…..lol
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I took over as the admin officer in a Telstra department. During my first few days at work I noticed one of the guys filling his child’s school stationery list from the stationary cupboard.
I could not believe my eyes when I saw what he was doing…obviously he had been doing it for years. No wonder public servants get such a bad name.
As one of my jobs was ordering and organising the stationery I had a lock put on the cupboard and from then on if anyone needed anything they had to justify it to me.
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That was probably my dad…..
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That was probably my dad…..
Nah it couldn’t have been as I stopped the person from doing and you said that your dad did it for the whole of your school life, which would have been (I”m assuming) 12 years.
That’s a long time for your dad to have been stealing from his employer.
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I think that it is wrong to take from work, but sometimes we do it without even realising that we are, in effect, stealing – printing an occasional page, sending a fax, walking out with a pen, making a private phone call, accessing private emails – it all counts. I’m sure that in most workplaces there is an element of goodwill all those things I mentioned are okay as long as it isn’t all the time. But then again, maybe it’s not.
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Not taking a pen from the office – I would say most arent actually “stealing” but just forget as you do and take with them, I leave work pens at home and my home pens at work absent-mindedly. Obviously this guy is different for taking that much, there is a line, but where it is drawn is difficult as you write – it’s more common sense I suppose. For instance I would say yes to personal phone calls but no to an hour long personal phone call catch up to a friend, that would need to be met with a stern word from your employer. But the other stuff is not stealing unless it’s intentional and a lot more than a pen, in my view. But interesting article.!
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