According to this Fox Business article, there has been a big increase in people stealing office supplies from their employer.:
According to data from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiner, office Opens a New Window.stealing of noncash items — ranging from scissors and notebooks, to staplers and paperclips, has ballooned to 21 percent of corporate-theft losses in 2018 from 10.6 percent in 2002….
Hot items include scissors, notebooks, staplers and tape, especially during the gift-wrapping holidays.
The uptick has even forced managers to routinely stock up on 20 percent more supplies in order to account for lost items right off the bat.
My first reaction was that the notebooks and pens at any office I ever worked in were not worth stealing, though I probably did hoard a box or two of Uniball Onyx Micro Points years ago when they were my favorites. But I always had trouble finding notebooks in the supply room that I even wanted to use in the office, let alone steal.
At one office where I worked, these National notebooks with pale green paper were the only offering. They were the 8×10 version, which was totally annoying, because you couldn’t tuck in letter size papers without the corners getting all bent.
Another office also offered steno pads, which I tried for list-keeping, but didn’t like. I ended up buying my own notebooks (you can see a few in this post), and after I discovered the Uniball Signo RT 0.38, my own pens. Hopefully I saved the company enough money to make up for the occasional roll of tape I took home!
How about you, notebook addicts? Do any of you work in places where they supply nice notebooks that are tempting?
Theft increases when people perceive that their compensation is not adequate. Fortunately for me, I have no temptation at my workplace because there is nothing worth stealing here (lol).
Temptation to steal? Nope, nothing worth stealing and I’ve always had to provide my own pens, paper, and other misc items need. Thank God for Staples back to school sales for tape, post-its, staples, etc. As far as pens and paper, nothing at Staples is all that terrific. Gel pens are great if I can’t have my fountain pen.
Those green tinted National notebooks were a huge favorite of mine in college.
Early in my office days, I returned from my lunch break having bought a few file folders and notebooks for use at home. My new boss reproved me: “Oh, you never need to buy such things. They are part of the perks of the job.” I found it hard to believe her. To me, that was stealing. I had been brought up to pay for what you use. I still believe that.
As for the green tinted National notebooks, they were my preferred journal notebook for many years. I accumulated a carton’s worth of them.
When I have worked at places that stocked good pens, they’d often find their way home in my pocket, but never intentionally. I practically had an annual ritual of gathering up all the office pens around my house and returning them. These days, I buy almost all of my own office supplies.
My office only stocks Bic pens and the Staples brand steno pads and legal pads. The hot items at my office is toiletries and cleaning supplies. It’s gotten so bad that they are now locked up so you have to ask for them.
I think that such a problem exists and it is difficult here to do something. But I am not sure that the losses of employers are large because of this.
Notebooks and pen stealing, from what I’ve heard in my company, usually peaks when back-to-school days approaches (typically late August – early September).
Nothing much to steal for stationery addicts, anyway (even if nowadays the notebooks we source are from Clairefontaine).
Other than that, not much pen stealing. It’s more “not returning the Bic Crystal you just borrowed which looks so much like every other pen around you don’t even have the time to jot a phone number that you already forgot who you borrowed it from”.
My Bic Crystals were disappearing at such a high rate that I started to bring my own stuff to the office, so they were more recognizable. No pen abduction anymore :) Even funnier : since I started to be obsessed with fountain pens, people are so scared to ruin them that they also became afraid to borrow… My Bic Crystals… ^^