Stealing from work: Where do you draw the line?

[twinrider1]

A pen or a pack of Post-Its...I'll admit, not every one I took home was used for business purposes.

But some go a lot farther. What have you taken home? How far is too far?

 

[Fritzo]

I've taken home routers and other equipment, but this is kind of expected of me since I'm supposed to be an expert in all the hardware we offer, so I guess it's not really stealing

Other than an occasional office supply, I'm pretty honest.

 

[highland145]

$1M...that's the line.

 

[rudeguy]

I've taken home routers and other equipment, but this is kind of expected of me since I'm supposed to be an expert in all the hardware we offer, so I guess it's not really stealing

Other than an occasional office supply, I'm pretty honest.

Same here.

I find pens and sharpies in my pocket and just toss them on my desk at home. But I did just order a pretty nice hot air rework/soldering station that work paid for but will never see the office. But then again I brought in a ton of my tools from home to work.

The line between work and not work is very blurred with me. I do a ton of research at home and need some work things there.

 

[Ryland]

I make most of my work purchases through fatwallet.com and keep the funds generated from there. The most I take beyond that is sometimes using the printers here or random office supplies if my wife needs something RIGHT NOW.

 

[SithSolo1]

I took a roll of paper towels once.

I'M SO SORRY BOSS, PLEASE DON'T SEND ME TO POUND ME IN THE @#$ PRISON!

 

[brandonb]

I draw the line at the point where I know I'm consciously stealing. Like "I'm going to go into the office supply room, take this notebook and bring it home for Johnny Boy school supplies."

 

[Oyeve]

I have taken anything from DLT backup systems to full fledged external raid systems. These were surplus items we had at my old job so eventually they would have been trashed so I didnt feel like I was stealing. What i used to do a lot back in the day was swap out my home CPU with a faster one at work when we would get better systems in. I updated many CPUs that way and the work PC would work so no one was the wiser. Tons of ram which for the most part was never used. I still have bags of the useless crap. I apparently had a problem. Im much better now.

 

[WilliamM2]

Only things taken by accident, say a pen in my pocket, etc. But my employer buys the cheapest office supplies available, so I usually take it back. In fact, if I want a pen that writes well, or a marker that lasts more than a week, I bring in my own.

 

[Geosurface]

I don't *think* I've ever stolen from any job I've had.

Unless you count fucking off on the internet for a massive portion of the day - but that was sort of the nature of the job, there was a lot of waiting around for a new build of the software to test (this was years ago when I was a software tester)

 

[KidNiki1]

packs of paper mostly. one ream of paper lasts a loooooong time at home.
also, i do the office supply ordering and sometimes if i order a certain amount, some promo bag/umbrella/whatever comes free. sometimes i take those home.

however, it's a family owned business, so i guess that means i'm stealing from myself. i'm not sure that counts.

 

[surfsatwerk]

time

 

[lupi]

Always take little things home, that way when the wires are on you and they ask if you've stolen from the government you can answer without concern.

 

[NutBucket]

I like to think of it as borrowing

 

[sourn]

I don't steal I simply acquire. But the only time I worked an office job was in the army. I had to acquire a lot of stuff from other companies anyways, so sometimes some of it simply went home with me lol.

Actually got me a nas storage, though to be fair I did ask supply/tech if they knew who it was. Well nobody did, so it came home with me.

 

[StrangerGuy]

Things that are untracked and nobody really keeps tabs on like A4 copy paper. Of course not in quantities people would suspect.

 

[Mixolydian]

There's nothing at my job worth stealing. Wouldn't be able to get past security anyways.

 

[rudeguy]

Things that are untracked and nobody really keeps tabs on like A4 copy paper. Of course not in quantities people would suspect.

wait..so a couple dollars worth of paper is worth risking your job?

I've never understood people with such low morals. Do you figure its ok since no one will notice?

 

[lxskllr]

Pens and stuff like that. I also donated stuff to work. Sometimes I covered the cost by padding my time sheet, but not always. I did a lot of stuff that wasn't anywhere close to what I was hired to do, and not always within my comfortable skill set, so I billed what the job should cost if I knew what I was doing. IOW, I might have spent 5 hours on a project, but I'd put 3 hours on the time sheet. Materials I brought in were sometimes converted to time, and weighed against market value, and effort I put in.

tl;dr
I don't owe anybody anything. Sometimes I made out, sometimes the company made out.

 

[StrangerGuy]

wait..so a couple dollars worth of paper is worth risking your job?

I've never understood people with such low morals. Do you figure its ok since no one will notice?

20 sheets of paper. Gimme the death sentence, moral crusader.

 

[darkewaffle]

A spare ethernet and DVI cable, but that's about it. Plus pens and postits, yeah.

 

[BoomerD]

You mean youse folks steal more than just stealing wages while surfing the internet on company time?

That's it...I'ma call the cops!

 

[Red Storm]

I draw the line at the point where I know I'm consciously stealing. Like "I'm going to go into the office supply room, take this notebook and bring it home for Johnny Boy school supplies."

This.

 

[mmntech]

Just time.

 

[rudeguy]

20 sheets of paper. Gimme the death sentence, moral crusader.

So your morals are worth 20 sheets of paper? Are you in a position where you can't afford 20 sheets of paper? What if you got pulled into your bosses office because they have you on camera stealing 20 sheets of paper? How would you explain that to him/her?