I heard somewhere that the number one thing stolen from workplaces is legal pads, and the number 2 is toilet paper.

What do YOU typically swipe from work? Have you ever swiped anything unusual?

Do you think swiping office supplies will send you directly to hell?

Amy

We've had higher-than-expected "use" of pens, legal pads and the normal stuff so I imagine that stuff is walking out at some level. Something that is more sad is the coffee that we are constantly missing.

Our HQ office is small (about 150 people) and every so often, we're missing a box of coffee packets. There are something like 50 packets to the box, so this is a two month supply for some folks or a 10 day supply for Kalynda. We've also been missing cartons of paper towels and the little non-dairy creamers.

Things got so bad next to our main conference room that the office manager had a lock installed on the refrigerator that cools sodas and juices for meetings. Seems folks were using that instead of the soda machine.

I think the worst thing I've taken in my career was a book, and that was unintentional. Sure, I could have returned it after I left, but I wasn't in the mood to contact my old employer. Oh yes, there are scads of pens, zip disks and other stuff around, but I work at home a lot so that's just ducky by me. Besides, virtually all of that stuff ends up here because it was in my pocket when I came home that day.

As for outright theft, I haven't done that, even when I was a pup. The risk/reward ratio, to say nothing of my self-esteem, wouldn't let me.

Worst story: I worked for a large association in a three story building. One holiday season, we brought in 200 poinsettias to liven the place up. There were flowers everywhere! That is, until Christmas Eve day when the employees decided they shouldn't be left there over the long weekend and took them all home. I mean, all.

Our General Manager was so upset that we had trouble convincing him to even decorate the next year.

I've stolen morale. By leaving, there are many people left behind that have told me that I've swiped the safety net under the tightrope of IT and that they actually fear using computers with the parade of fools that have tried to fill my shoes (in the past month and a half, *three* have come and gone quickly)

I keep the morale in a mason jar on top of the shelf, next to the mixings for the bread machine. I sprinkle just a little bit of morale in my Shiner Bock Beer Bread and when a true friend that is stuck back at that s***hole needs a boost, they get bread.

Never stolen anything else, period.

Pens - the good ones. Our uniforms have a place behind the buttons to carry a pen around and the pen stays on my uniform when I go home and usually goes back to work with me. But I have kept the pens.

And I've made a some copies and faxes on the government's nickel.

Most of the other stuff is just given to us anyway (little green bound notebooks, etc.).

What I think is worse are the people who order scads of office supplies, just to have them. I worked for a lieutenant colonel that had me buying office supplies and display supplies for a big exercise--half of which were not needed but he wanted anyway. I was very glad to give up my government credit card when I left that assignment and no one will ever know that I'm qualified to hold a government credit card.

--naomi

Nothing I do/take from my job is actually stealing because my brother owns the company and knows what I am taking. I dont take much anyway. Occasionally a stamp or send a personal fax (which I did before I ever started working there anyway.) Paper is probably a big thing because when my son is there, he likes to draw on it. Again, usually "Uncle Jim" is right there and knows about it, so it isnt "stealing".

When i had real jobs with non-related bosses I never took anything. Maybe once in awhile a pen that mistakenly went along with me if I took work home, but that's it.

Erm, well, the time I spend on EA . . . .

Quote:Originally posted by amykhar
What do YOU typically swipe from work?...

Nothing.

Seriously, I can't think of a time when I've taken anything.

Quote:Originally posted by amykhar
...Do you think swiping office supplies will send you directly to hell?...

Yes.
Probably a hell filled with irate employees who hated my holier-than-thou speeches on why they weren't entitled to take office supplies home, and no the office didn't "owe" them a collection of pens.

Gold ingots, life-size imitation Easter Island heads, 105mm howitzer ammunition, silicone breast implants, self-esteem, red ballet shoes, incunabula, Strontium-90, stem cells...

Um, oh, sorry, which of my jobs were you asking about?

Quote:Originally posted by erik_kosberg
... Strontium-90, stem cells...

You worked at the Safeway deli???

The one set of equipment I remember liberating from my co-op supply cabinet were those skinny little erasers for the 0.5 mm mechanical pens. I've never found 'em anywhere else, and i hated mech pens that ran out of erasers...

... no regrets. Hell can't be any worse than Epinions.