The hard and costly facts about employee theft (They Say)

For this paper, I wanted to look at a genre that has always interested me, Crime. With that being said, the workplace is a hotbed for crime, so why not talk about employee theft in aspects of what an employee commonly steals,  consequences of employee theft in both personal matters, as well as the effects on retail. 

WHAT IS STOLEN?

According to a survey taken through boston.com[1] 40% of working adults  admit to simply “borrowing” things from work with the intention of bringing them back, though some never no…so let’s look at what they list as the most popular items to steal.

1.       Pens, Pencils, highlighters, which was admitted by 82% of respondents admitted to seeing missing from the workplace

2.       Paper products (notebooks, sticky notes) 35% of workers noticing them disappearing

3.       Paper or product clips (28)%

4.       Staplers (22%)

5.       Scissors (20%)

6.       Tape Dispensers (14%)

7.       Printer Ink (9%)

8.       Binders (8%)

Nevertheless, to be fair, I figure I would go to another source and see what they say. At Careerpath360[2]  popular items stolen are: Envelopes and Paper “If you write a letter at work or use paper for any other drawings or doodles then it is theft as it is not part of your employment and the paper cannot then be used for your employers business. If you then take an envelope and send your letter through the works-franking machine, then you are stealing even more from your employer.

Sticky tape “Lunch break gives you the opportunity to nip to the shops and buy a present for your friend’s birthday. It needs wrapping. You buy the pretty paper but do you remember the tape to fasten it? Again, it is theft. You are using equipment provided by your employer for your private use.).

Printer cartridges “These can seem expensive to supply for home use, but ordering extra for home when stocking up the office, is still theft, unless part of your employment contract includes this as a contractual clause. Even doing your personal printing in the office can be seen as a theft of equipment and time.” Private phone calls as “incurs a cost to your employer, not only the actual call but also your time in making the call.”

A Third source from laywers.com[3] states: “Turns out the majority of office workers (58%) have taken office supplies for their personal use, according to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive® and commissioned by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell's [http://www.martindale.com] lawyers.com [http://www.lawyers.com], the most comprehensive and trustworthy online resource for finding lawyers. Among those who admit to taking office supplies for personal use, the most commonly stolen office supplies include pens/pencils (77%), followed by self-adhesive "sticky" notes (44%) and paper clips (40%). Some employees (2%) are even taking decorations like plants, paintings and office furniture (2%).

"People often forget that workplace resources are not their own and are actually considered company property," said attorney Alan Kopit, legal editor of lawyers.com [http://www.lawyers.com]. "We are not just talking about pens and paper here, employees are also stealing expensive things too like computers, software and books.”

Likewise there was a story that was posted in late August on collegehumor.com that surfaced that had me laugh.  It has to do with an employee who kept stealing another employee’s turkey sandwich…I’ll admit it had me laughing at the antics. [4]

A popular story that came out in 2006 I (which was later featured on American Greed[5]) involved  twin sisters Charlene Corley and Darlene Wooten who were caught charging the government ridiculous amounts of money for shipping items to various bases ($998,798 to ship two 19 cent washers).

Yup, you read right almost...............

 This all happened because the government would automatically pay these invoices as they were deemed the highest of priority, how the fraud was started was when one of the sisters accidentally listed a high shipping charge (For example; $5,000 instead of $00) and the government auto paid it. While the sisters returned the money then, they did not the rest of the times. Eventually costing the United States Department of Defense over $20,000,000. Ultimately, the sisters were caught, in 2006 after being approached by federal investigators; Darlene committed suicide and left a check for $4.5 million to the Defense Department.  In 2009, Charlene was sentenced to 78 months in prison (the minimum for wire fraud and money laundering) and ordered to pay back $15.5 million in restitution. [5]  Compared to what's happened in the retail world, the damage of $20,000,000 is just a drop in the bucket. 

According to the 26th Annual Retail Theft Survey[6]”. When it came to cracking down on internal theft, the survey revealed that apprehensions for dishonest employees rose 6.5 percent and recovery dollars rose 2.5 percent…Employee Apprehensions: 78,085 dishonest employees were apprehended in 2013, up 6.percent from 2012. Employee Recovery Dollars: Over $55 million was recovered from employee apprehensions in 2013, up 2.5 percent from 2012.

The survey also points out that one out of every 39.5 employees was apprehended for theft from their employer in 2013; this based over 3.0 million employees. The survey also shows that on a per case average, dishonest employees steal approximately 5.4 times the amount stolen by shoplifters ($706.21 vs $130.80)

To quote from the article: “Employee theft is perceived by many to be the most severe problem facing industry today! Many people often think of theft and abuse in companies as being isolated acts, which in themselves cost an organization little. Unfortunately, this is untrue! It is also not true that most employees are caught stealing inexpensive items such as ‘pens, pencils, and paper clips’ from their employers. Over the years, Hayes International has witnessed a steady and significant rise in this serious problem. Each year thousands of employees are caught stealing from their employers and co-workers. Furthermore, our studies reflect that this group of thieves are being caught stealing far more than a few insignificant supplies. Below are a few highlights of our most recent survey:

Highlights from Jack L. Hayes International’s 26th Annual Retail Theft Survey

§  One out of every 39.5 employees was apprehended for theft from their employer in 2013. (Based on comparison data of over 3.0 million employees.)

§  Apprehensions: Survey participants apprehended 78,085 dishonest employees in 2013, up 6.5% from 2012.

§  Recoveries: Dollars recovered from dishonest employee apprehensions totaled over $55 million in 2013, an increase of 2.5% from 2012.”

A table from the same survey that shows the difference in consequences of dishonest employees over a year

DISHONEST EMPLOYEES			Difference
	2012	2013	#/$	Pct.
Apprehensions	73,297	78,085	4,788	6.53%
Recoveries	$53,790,325	$55,144,201	$1,353,876	2.52%
Avg. Case Value	$733.87	$706.21	-$27.66	-3.77%

As show with tables,surveys, and real life examples, employee theft is a big issue and the consequences can be enormous, and affects everyone from the employees, to retailers (which ultimately passes costs onto consumers), even to as far as our government if someone is scandalous enough to steal from them. The consequences can be severe and will ruin lives. Even more so, some of the most thievish  employees can be the ones at the top and this just has me thinking about when I get my next job and things I’ve seen in the past……which leads me onto part two (or the I Say part)

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[1] The most stolen office supplies. (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://www.boston.com/business/gallery/stolenofficesupplies/

[2] Guess, B. (2011, July 16). Most Common Items Stolen from the Workplace. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://www.careerpath360.com/index.php/most-common-items-stolen-from-the-workplace-2-3878/

[3] Majority of Office Workers Have Stolen Supplies. (2006, May 1). Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://press-room.lawyers.com/majority-of-office-workers-have-stolen-supplies.html

[4] This Is The Most Passive-Aggressive Office Note Battle We has Ever Seen. (2014, August 19). Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6986532/this-is-the-most-passive-agressive-office-battle-weve-ever-seen

[5] (2010). Dr. Stokes/C&D Distributors [Television series episode]. In American Greed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: CNBC.

[6]Annual Retail Theft Survey - Jack L. Hayes International, Inc. (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://hayesinternational.com/news/annual-retail-theft-survey/