Thievery: It’s not uncommon for employees to purloin pens, pencils, paper and
other office supplies. Nearly one in five employees in a June survey by Spherion
Corp. acknowledged taking office products for personal use within the past year.
Two-thirds of them took pens, pencils or rulers, and nearly 60 percent nabbed
calculators, staplers or tape dispensers But of those who admit their
thievery, a mere 22 percent harbor guilt or regret at having done so, “despite
74 percent of workers feeling it is wrong to do so.”
For some employees, taking office supplies is a gateway to more heavy-duty
stealing, according to Spherion’s Workplace Snapshot, which gathered online
responses from 2,137 working adults. Eight percent of employees say they have
taken higher-priced items, including laptops, PDAs or cell phones—an increase of
3 percent from a similar survey a year ago.
Employees steal for various reasons. The primary motivation, cited by 42
percent of these thieves, is that they need the stolen items—as though this were
a legitimate excuse. One-third of employees say their bosses or managers gave
them the go-ahead to take the items. An indifferent 18 percent took supplies
“because the company will never miss them.”
Male employees (20 percent) are slightly more larcenous than their female
counterparts (17 percent). Men also are less likely than women to feel that
appropriating company property is wrong, and also less prone to suffering the
pangs of a guilty conscience.
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