Employees Are Taking Office Supplies for Granted

If you’re like most workers, you’ve probably taken pens, file folders, paper or other company supplies for your personal use.

But chances are, you don’t think that amounts to theft. You’re not alone.

A survey released Wednesday showed that 1 in 5 U.S. workers admitted to stealing company office supplies in the last year. But even the survey’s authors acknowledged that the true rate of pilfering was much higher.

Some employees, workplace experts say, won’t cop to stealing because they don’t think what they are doing is theft. Others simply think that theft is justified, and they see their bosses doing it all the time.

A worker who grabs a ream of paper to print an office report on his home computer doesn’t think he is stealing, said Brent Short, managing director of Spherion Corp., a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based staffing firm that commissioned the survey of 1,600 employees nationwide. Eighteen percent admitted to stealing.

An employee who takes a can of coffee from the office kitchen might justify it on productivity grounds.

“He figures, ‘I don’t have time to pick up coffee but I won’t be any good tomorrow at work if I don’t have it,’ ” Short said.

Some employees consider office supplies a fringe benefit of the job, said John Case, a Del Mar, Calif., security consultant.

Other workers are following their bosses’ lead, said Karla Kretzschmer, a Michigan-based human resources consultant.

“When leaders use company cars for personal errands or get the office tech staff to set up their home computer, it’s no longer as black-and-white,” she said.

The problem is more pervasive among workers between the ages of 18 and 29, according to the survey. Nearly a quarter of those younger employees admitted raiding the supply cabinet, compared with 13% of workers 50 and over.

Mark Mehler, co-founder of CareerXroads, a New Jersey-based consulting firm, believes that younger workers are just more willing to admit to pilfering.

But Paul Harrington, who teaches economics at Northeastern University, contends that “kids working at low wages don’t have much at stake if they get caught stealing. They’ll just move to another job.”

What do employees take?

“Anything that’s not bolted down,” said Short, who has observed seasonal patterns to office theft. “Around the holidays every tape dispenser in the office disappears because people are wrapping presents.”

And in a couple of months, pens and pencils will fly off the shelves as parents restock their children’s school backpacks.