Sticky-Fingered Employees Threaten Offices

May 1, 2006 12:00 PM

CORPORATE SECURITY

Eemployers might want to lock up the supply cabinet before leaving the office.

Why? It turns out that the majority of office workers (58 percent) have taken or stolen office supplies for their personal use, according to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell's lawyers.com (www.lawyers.com).

Among those who admit to taking office supplies for personal use, the most commonly stolen office supplies include pens and pencils (77 percent), followed by self-adhesive “sticky” notes (44 percent) and paper clips (40 percent).

But that's just the little stuff. Some employees (2 percent) are even taking decorations like plants, paintings and office furniture.

“People often forget that workplace resources are not their own and are actually considered company property,” says attorney Alan Kopit, legal editor of lawyers.com. “We are not just talking about pens and paper here; employees are also stealing expensive things like computers, software and books.”

Kopit suggests employees review their office policy and be sure to alter their behavior to abide by the regulations.

Employee theft costs small businesses billions of dollars a year because, in addition to pens and paper, employees are also stealing resources directly related to the productivity of the business, such as classified information, patents, corporate contacts, case studies and periodicals.

“Business owners need to evaluate the current policies and employee practices and, if necessary, institute new systems to eliminate the risk to the business,” Kopit says.

Harris Interactive fielded the online survey between March 31 and April 4, 2006 among a nationwide sample of 2,364 adults.

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