Nearly 20 Percent Of Workers Admit Taking Office Supplies For Personal Use

Nearly one in five (19 percent) workers report they have taken office supplies for personal use in the past year, according to a recent Spherion Workplace Snapshot survey. Of those who admitted to stealing office supplies, 21 percent felt guilty or regretted the act. In 2006, a similar Spherion survey found that 18 percent of workers reported they had taken office supplies for personal use.

Workers said the primary reason office supplies were taken for personal use was because they needed them (41 percent). Nearly one-third (32 percent) said it was because their boss/office manager said it was alright to do so, and 15 percent claimed the company will never miss them. The most common types of items taken by workers were pens, pencils or rulers (25 percent) and paper, post-its or file folders (19 percent).

Workers earning more than $75,000 annually were the most likely to have taken office supplies for personal use. Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of these workers admitted to taking office supplies compared to only 11 percent of workers earning $15,000-$34,999 annually. Of the age groups surveyed, younger workers (25 percent between the ages of 18-24 and 29 percent between 25 and 29 years old) were the most likely to have taken office supplies for personal use, while workers aged 65 and older were the least likely (nine percent) to have taken such items for personal use. Further, older workers feel it is wrong to take office supplies for personal use more so than any other age group, with 83 percent saying so.

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