About of Fifth of U.S. Workers Pilfer Office Supplies: Survey
Jun 25th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsFT. LAUDERDALE, Fla.
A new survey shows that about one in five people admits pilfering items from work — and only 21 percent say they regret it.
“It’s amazing how many people admit to this,” said Brent Short, managing director of Spherion, the Florida-based based staffing company that conducted the survey of more than 2,000 people, according to a report from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “A lot of them really don’t think of it as theft.”
The Scripps News Service cites Duquesne University ethicist James Weber as saying that attitudes about theft of minor items such as pencils or Post-It notes are a “textbook case” of how people view ethics from the standpoint of consequences or principles.
“From the perspective of consequences, taking a pencil home, perhaps to give to your child for school the next day, will probably cost your company mere pennies — making it easy to justify. But from the standpoint of ethical principles, it’s still theft — and it’s wrong.”
The Kansas City Star notes that of the surveyed workers, the highest-paid typically stole more than the ones who earned less.
Print This Story
Email This Story
