The bad news: a number of them feel so much at home, they take the office home with them in ways that they shouldn’t. These folk should know they are putting themselves in danger of being fired and of possible legal implications for taking home company property, even something as tiny as a stapler or a pen.

Among people who admit to taking office supplies for private use, the most usually nicked office supplies include pens / pencils (77%), followed by self-adhesive “sticky” notes (44%) and paper clips (40%). 2 % of workers even take decorations like plants, paintings and office furniture. But that’s going a bit overboard.

These things can happen easier than you’ll realize and we aren’t just talking about pens and paper here ; workers are also taking dear things, too, like PCs, software, books and other publications. Worker theft costs home businesses billions annually. These costs are then passed on to clients hence incurring higher costs and to other employees resulting in lower salary and less benefits.

In fact, as well as pens and paper, some folks also sometimes borrow resources immediately related to the productiveness of the business such as classified info, patents, company contacts, actual examples and regulars.

Office theft may seem like a small problem but it reflects a lack of discipline and respect for the company which can directly affect profit and productivity.