From pens to notebooks, office theft on the rise
Accidentally slip some of those new office pens into your bag to save a couple bucks? Discretely tuck some of your employer's new manilla folders into your briefcase?
If so, join the club of office thieves whose numbers have been on the rise over the last 15 years.
According to data from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiner, office stealing of noncash items — ranging from scissors and notebooks, to staplers and paperclips, has ballooned to 21 percent of corporate-theft losses in 2018 from 10.6 percent in 2002.
The Atlantic, which was first to report the trend, added that most workers aren’t even coy about it, with more than 52 percent of workers admitting they steal company property in a survey from 2013.
Hot items include scissors, notebooks, staplers and tape, especially during the gift-wrapping holidays.
The uptick has even forced managers to routinely stock up on 20 percent more supplies in order to account for lost items right off the bat.
Mark Doyle, the president of the loss-prevention consultancy Jack L. Hayes International, told The Atlantic that there are a few factors to blame for office ransacking.
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He points to the decrease in supervision and the uptick in employees working from home for the increase.