My experiences and opinions (I say)

Although I agree with the surveys  that the most commonly listed items (staplers,scissors, paper, pens etc) are your most commonly stolen items because of their portability as i've been guilty of regularly leaving my church with a pen each week because I usually forget my own, I cannot accept the fact that Ink cartridges are common based on the simple fact, that with so many makes and models of printers, not everyone has a printer that uses "HP 61" ink. 

With that being said, I’ve received some benefits from employee theft through myself, people I know or i've known.  My mom’s ex-boyfriend when he was working at an Italian Restaurant, would not only give us “free” food (pizza, lasagna, chicken Parmesan, spaghetti etc.), this guy would go as far as to bring us home dough balls pre made. Containers of sauce, cheese, pepperoni, Italian sausage, mushrooms etc. He eventually got fired, and over time because of these thefts, and piss-poor management, the restaurant closed. 
To tie into the restaurants,  even I will admit when doing free work at a snack bar when working high school basketball games, myself and the rest of the crew were known to grab a hot dog, a soda, some nachos, and/or a pretzel (or any combination) every now and then.

Even my father, when he was alive and working for the county,would xerox copies of things we needed for either school or personal use. I remember getting a copy of a strategy guide book for a video game (Super Mario Bros. 3) So my dad would a three hole binder, clear two sided sheets, and placed each page of the guide in those sheets for preservation of the book.

Another story that I’ve heard from one of my friends, who were a former employee at an Indigo Books & Music in Canada, told me a story about an employee who would void receipts and pocket the cash. Over the course of 5 years, he stole round $30,000 before he was caught and eventually convicted.


My personal opinion is that, it is okay if you take a pen, or little nick nacks occasionally, or use some paper for non-work related tasks. I am against those who steal ink, or other high value items. If you're at a restaurant, you're more likely able to get by with stealing a hamburger than a case of meat and cheese.  Obviously, it is a big hell no when it comes to theft that hurts people, or rather large amounts of money or items, because that's just plain greedy.  This entire paper has me thinking about when I enter into another job at an office or restaurant, and thinks about theft, how every little penny adds up over time, and what happens when you have people stealing dollars, and that in the end, its not worth it, and I don’t want to be a bad employee.