Where do office supplies belong? Here’s a hint: it’s in the name

I seldom, if ever, assume people in general do a particular thing, unless, of course, I do it too. But if it is a criminal act, then I assume in general that nobody would do it.

There is a peculiarity, it seems, with taking office supplies home, like a pen, or a soda, or a coffee capsule. Apparently, some people think it is no big deal, or even that there is nothing wrong with it. Some go so far as to assume everybody does it – maybe because they do it too?

Both lines of thinking are wrong, but it is perhaps more wrong to think that there is nothing wrong. You might think these supplies are simply there for everyone to take, that they are just “freebies”.

The starting point is, however, that they are the property of your employer and are not yours. For you to legitimately take them, you need your employer’s consent, and the precise extent of this consent is key: when these supplies are left around the office for everyone to take, your employer is consenting only to staff taking them for use at work. If you take them home or for your own benefit, then the consent no longer covers the taking.

You might defend yourself by saying, “I didn’t know, I thought they were just free for me to take.” But good luck persuading anyone to believe that, because any reasonable person will know that office supplies are meant for office use – there is literally the word “office” in the name.

It is therefore a crime of theft: you took property belonging to another without valid consent, and you could not have genuinely believed that you had the consent or right to do so. In the eyes of the law, you have committed an offence of dishonesty, different only in degree to stealing a million dollars from your employer’s bank account.