Author Topic: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?  (Read 14792 times)

The King of Many Things

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What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« on: November 19, 2017, 12:46:15 AM »
Batteries, obviously, but what else?

Sailor Sam

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2017, 12:58:18 AM »
USB drives. Pens. Coffee filters.

nora

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2017, 02:46:41 AM »
Nothing, and I am really strict about it. Qualifies for instant dismissal in my workplace. I have only heard one story of two people being dismissed though, and it was complicated, not just taking a roll of loo paper.

Rural

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2017, 03:27:48 AM »
Expo markers tend to migrate home in my pockets, forgotten, but they eventually migrate back again.

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2017, 04:22:37 AM »
Books, magazines, books, magazines, books and magazines.

My decluttering has gotten to the point where I can't justify hoarding more stationery, but I will nab anything I can regift.

Oh, also a cute ceramic milk jug this week. My team got around to cleaning out the office of someone who left suddenly 18 months ago and found it in her desk. I was the only one who wanted it.

cdttmm

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2017, 04:43:07 AM »
Much like Rural, dry erase markers tend to travel back and forth with me. I have no use for them at home so they always make it back to work eventually.

At the end of the semester, I adopt the travel mugs and flash drives that students have inevitably left behind. Some of the flash drives I end of "loaning" to future students who then somehow never seem to return them, but I don't really care. I sanitize the travel mugs and then use them if they turn out to be of decent quality. If they are low quality, they get donated to the thrift store.

Linea_Norway

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2017, 05:35:59 AM »
A plate calender (cheap item, once a year).

tarheeldan

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2017, 05:38:33 AM »
Nothing. Not cool yo.

Mrbeardedbigbucks

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2017, 05:51:31 AM »
Other than the usual office supplies, I do 100% of my printing, copying, faxing at work. I really don't print, copy or fax on a regular basis but I haven't owned a print/copy machine in over 10 years and have never owned a fax. I once printed and made copies of my resume and faxed it to a company I had an interview with...all from the office.

Oh, I once took a mouse and mouse pad home....and an office chair that was slightly broken. I fixed it and still have it today. I thought they might throw it out anyway. Turns out they fix them and send them to our office in India.

We also have a cafeteria at work with a nice breakfast buffet. They charge you by the ounce. The bacon and sausage is supposed to be weighed separately from the eggs and potatoes which means I have to put the bacon on a separate container. I find this to be an inconvenience and waste of a container so I just bury the bacon/sausage underneath the eggs and potatoes.

Finally, we have a small budget, like $100 per month to take our clients out for coffee or lunch. My good friend happens to be my client so we often get together for lunch and blow the whole thing at once. We'll get cocktails and oysters and he'll bring a dessert home for his wife. We never talk about anything business related. It's a lot of fun.  In the last 15 years I've taken out one real client for a legit lunch.

Before my March 2018 FIRE date, I plan on grabbing a couple reams of paper seeing as I may eventually have to purchase a print/copy machine at some point.

I hope I never own a business because this will surely come back to haunt me someday.

Thanks, that felt good. It was like saying catholic confession when I was a boy although then I had nothing to confess other than the impure thoughts I had about my best friend's hot twin sisters.

Linea_Norway

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2017, 06:15:49 AM »
I have also used the color printer for private use.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2017, 06:20:57 AM »
Nothing.

Cranky

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #11 on: November 19, 2017, 06:32:43 AM »
I’m a teacher. I take stuff *to* work! LOL

CheapScholar

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #12 on: November 19, 2017, 07:21:04 AM »
I would never actually take something I wasn't supposed to.  I work at a univeristy and quite often we have catered events and there's just tons of food left over.  Sometimes I take home more than enough food to get through the weekend.   

aperture

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #13 on: November 19, 2017, 07:27:35 AM »
I try not to lie, cheat, or steal.  I avoid talking bad about others.  There is no added value to anything I could pilfer from work that compares to my peace of mind, and pride of self.  aperture.

misshathaway

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #14 on: November 19, 2017, 07:30:58 AM »
I’m a teacher. I take stuff *to* work! LOL

Laughing

radram

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #15 on: November 19, 2017, 07:39:09 AM »
I’m a teacher. I take stuff *to* work! LOL

Laughing
Crying. Should never need to happen, but is all too common.

FI4good

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #16 on: November 19, 2017, 08:36:03 AM »
I subsidise my workplace with pens.
I think in this life there are biro buyers and biro takers, i am the former and have given up trying to buy 1 and use it till it runs out, i buy bulk.

I have accepted my fate as one of the people who subsidise the hand written in life and see it as some kind of karma or maybe as atonement for my sins against the language, spelling and grammar.

zinnie

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #17 on: November 19, 2017, 08:46:42 AM »
Nothing. Not cool yo.

Yeah, I'm in this camp. If the company paid for it I'm only going to use it the way it was intended while I am at work.

HOWEVER, there was a common practice at my work of putting personal items you no longer needed/wanted in the kitchen. From there I got a desk lamp, a lot of nifty baskets, vases, a digital picture frame, a set of nice pens, lots of books, a glass serving bowl, and tons o' free food.

dreams_and_discoveries

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #18 on: November 19, 2017, 09:07:13 AM »
The odd pen used to migrate with off-site meetings, but since they have started purchasing the cheapest pens ever I now remove them all from my handbag and put them back in my locker.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #19 on: November 19, 2017, 09:12:02 AM »
I am an accidental pen hoarder. I think this happens to a lot of nurses. Pen goes in pocket, see other pen, use it to chart for a while (they're the stylus tip/pen combos), put that one in your pocket, forget you have it... that sorta thing. Every few weeks I see the pile of pens that has accumulated in my work bag, so then I take them all back to work, and it starts all over again.

I also accidentally end up bringing home tons of alcohol wipes. *shurgs* Not exactly useful theft, that. I'm still working through my big box of them at home left over from nursing school!

Askel

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #20 on: November 19, 2017, 09:40:41 AM »
Things I've pilfered from work:

A some of my bachelor's degree tuition.

An entire master's degree. 

And now I'm freeloading a PhD off of them. 

(Free tuition benefit, even if it has nothing to do with my actual job).

As such, I'm thankful enough I'll buy my office supplies on my own nickle.

Dicey

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #21 on: November 19, 2017, 10:03:06 AM »
1. I was a sales rep most of my career. Once a load of samples for a trade show went astray. It was delivered to my porch by a trucking company months later, when I wasn't home. I had since changed jobs. I called the company and they had no interest in it whatsoever. Not worth the return freight, said they. I sold it all at a garage sale. People were thrilled.

2. I always worked out of a home office for a manufacturer far, far away. Most supplies and equipment were reimbursed. When one changed jobs, they never wanted your stuff back. Usually they were willing to pay return freight for their samples. Sometimes they didn't even want the samples. I still felt a twinge of guilt when I sold the stuff.

3. I did a stint as a retail manager. Everyone carried a pen or two in their pocket at all times. Periodically, I'd plan a Pen Amnesty Day and offer a token prize to the person who returned the most. Worked well, because nobody actually wants that many pens; they just forget to empty their pockets at the end of the day.

dreams_and_discoveries

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #22 on: November 19, 2017, 10:52:46 AM »
I also accidentally end up bringing home tons of alcohol wipes. *shurgs* Not exactly useful theft, that. I'm still working through my big box of them at home left over from nursing school!

My brother is a nurse, his house is full of ends of rolls of plaster type tape. He says on a casualty shift he spends most of his time patching up people, and always has a roll of two in his pockets. He uses it as sellotape, and even wraps Xmas presents in it!

teen persuasion

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #23 on: November 19, 2017, 01:24:30 PM »
Pilfer, as in steal?  None.

That said, there's lots of things that get brought home gratis.

Leftover food from an event, or treats given by grateful patrons.
Odd magazines we don't subscribe to, that we don't wish to add to the catalog.
Orphan donated books, unwanted for the book sale but interesting to me.  Sometimes I'm just taking them for a trial run before deciding to add to the collection.
Swag from vendors or system meetings.  One book seller had the oddest goodie bag, including pens, notepads, bookmarks, granola bars, gumdrops, and potted lily plants for each of us.

Like the teachers, I'm often donating things back to work: food for events, craft supplies (often from the recycling bin!), children's things my kids have outgrown, etc.  When DH was teaching, I always bought ~100 of the cheap notebooks for his student journals.

teen persuasion

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #24 on: November 19, 2017, 01:26:30 PM »
One more I just remembered: recycled newspaper, for the rabbit's cage.

Sloeginfizz

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #25 on: November 19, 2017, 01:54:58 PM »
I read at my desk before work and on lunch. I sometimes use a office post it note if I need a bookmark. Less morally objectionable than putting dog ear on a library book, no?

Dicey

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #26 on: November 19, 2017, 02:10:44 PM »
Pilfer, as in steal?  None.

That said, there's lots of things that get brought home gratis...

Swag from vendors or system meetings.  One book seller had the oddest goodie bag, including pens, notepads, bookmarks, granola bars, gumdrops, and potted lily plants for each of us.
Just curious: why is that odd?

ixtap

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #27 on: November 19, 2017, 02:15:34 PM »
Pilfer, as in steal?  None.

That said, there's lots of things that get brought home gratis...

Swag from vendors or system meetings.  One book seller had the oddest goodie bag, including pens, notepads, bookmarks, granola bars, gumdrops, and potted lily plants for each of us.
Just curious: why is that odd?

I have never been offered a potted lily. Can't imagine transporting it all day.

Debts_of_Despair

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #28 on: November 19, 2017, 02:22:09 PM »
Nothing.  Think of the Simpsons episode when Mr. Burns visits and Homer realizes his house is filled with stuff he stole from work.  Not a way to live.

Also reminds me of this:  https://youtu.be/YVkHB3x-uWo

mustachepungoeshere

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #29 on: November 19, 2017, 02:53:57 PM »
I read at my desk before work and on lunch. I sometimes use a office post it note if I need a bookmark. Less morally objectionable than putting dog ear on a library book, no?

That's hard core.

Brother Esau

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #30 on: November 19, 2017, 04:31:57 PM »
Just the usual office stuff...pens, pads, post-it notes, etc

TartanTallulah

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #31 on: November 19, 2017, 08:09:08 PM »
No actual stealing, but I have taken home a set of (out of date) professional encyclopaedias discarded by a colleague who relocated, and the cheap coffee filter machine that I donated to my workplace only for my colleagues, who had made enthusiastic noises about meeting over coffee every day, to come over all, "Oh, I don't do coffee, it doesn't agree with me."

The nurses pass on any out of date dressings and bandages to me when checking the stock cupboard. They know I can use them when providing support at sporting events.

MaybeBabyMustache

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #32 on: November 19, 2017, 08:14:14 PM »
My work has lots of intentional freebies: snacks, breakfast, lunch, drinks, etc, to be consumed at work.

You aren't allowed to put fruit back after you take it, for obvious reasons. So, I've taken grapes or a banana in the morning with good intentions, to get derailed by a crisis. Rather than toss them, I'll bring them home & add them to the kids breakfast in the morning. 

Oh, and I will say that I'm in love with a work highlighter pen, available only in our London office. I brought it with me all the way to my California based office. It's the perfect size.

ElleFiji

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #33 on: November 19, 2017, 08:44:01 PM »
I buy and donate pens. I steal individual post it's. I forage for snacks.

Zola.

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #34 on: November 20, 2017, 04:58:15 AM »
Nothing. Thieving is bad :)

sequoia

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #35 on: November 20, 2017, 06:24:30 AM »
Nothing. Thieving is bad :)

+1.

While I understand this is MMM, and everyone is trying to come up with some clever trick to save a couple of bucks so they can FIRE a few days earlier (and brag here), stealing is never ok.

If you really want some cheap pens and stationary instead of spending couple of bucks, I know local banks and businesses usually give away these. Heck a lot better than stealing stuffs from work. In my previous job I know one guy who was fired due to stealing.

In another job, we were moving to different office, and was told we can take home the stationary, keyboard, mouse etc, but not the furniture. One dude took this rolling cabinet/drawer that we have in our office. The office manager sent out email to everyone asking whoever took it to please return it. This guy got to fess up that he took it hahaha... I can not imagine the embarrassment of admitting it, and have to take it back to the office.

teen persuasion

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #36 on: November 20, 2017, 06:38:08 AM »
Pilfer, as in steal?  None.

That said, there's lots of things that get brought home gratis...

Swag from vendors or system meetings.  One book seller had the oddest goodie bag, including pens, notepads, bookmarks, granola bars, gumdrops, and potted lily plants for each of us.
Just curious: why is that odd?

I have never been offered a potted lily. Can't imagine transporting it all day.
Yeah, it was the 2' tall plant that struck me as odd, on top of all the other semi random stuff.  Maybe it was in the way he presented it - he'd spent the morning with the director, I wasn't part of the deal at all.  As he was wrapping up, the director pulled me aside and said he (the seller) wanted to talk with me.  He offers me the swag bag with compliments, and then says he has something else for me out in his car.  That's when he brings in the huge lily.

lizzzi

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #37 on: November 20, 2017, 06:42:23 AM »
Have been out of the workforce since Dec. 2012, but the years I was working I decided to take nothing. As some have mentioned, pens would go home with me, but they always came back to the office. I just decided early on that work stuff was work stuff, and home stuff was home stuff.

FLBiker

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #38 on: November 20, 2017, 07:20:28 AM »
I took 4 or 5 big binder clips to use as chip clips when I first moved down here, and I probably still have them at home.  Other than that, I can't think of anything I've intentionally stolen.  I may have taken a pen or two over the years, but maybe not because I typically change at work (thus my pockets don't come home with me).

That said, I've definitely used work time for non work things.  And I've definitely printed non work things at work.  I don't do too much of that, though (mostly because I don't print things very often).

Dicey

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #39 on: November 20, 2017, 07:25:29 AM »
Pilfer, as in steal?  None.

That said, there's lots of things that get brought home gratis...

Swag from vendors or system meetings.  One book seller had the oddest goodie bag, including pens, notepads, bookmarks, granola bars, gumdrops, and potted lily plants for each of us.
Just curious: why is that odd?

I have never been offered a potted lily. Can't imagine transporting it all day.
Yeah, it was the 2' tall plant that struck me as odd, on top of all the other semi random stuff.  Maybe it was in the way he presented it - he'd spent the morning with the director, I wasn't part of the deal at all.  As he was wrapping up, the director pulled me aside and said he (the seller) wanted to talk with me.  He offers me the swag bag with compliments, and then says he has something else for me out in his car.  That's when he brings in the huge lily.
Yup. That's odd.

When I was with my last company, we had biannual major client trade shows at a fancy resort in CO Springs. In addition to reams of reports, we always put together care kits, which were a lot of work. Except for live plants, they sound kinda like what you described. We didn't particularly want to do them; it was just expected of us. I asked, because I wondered if that's what our customers thought, too.

Schaefer Light

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #40 on: November 20, 2017, 08:05:22 AM »
Internet access ;).

Miss Tash

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #41 on: November 20, 2017, 08:26:47 AM »
I don't know if it qualifies as stealing, but one of my tasks at work is to keep the machine shop stocked with tools.  Sometimes I over-spec the tools with a bent toward what I need for my next DIY project.  We're allowed to borrow tools if we don't abuse them.  When the corded drill died I replaced it with the super-light, powerful cordless (and got the trim saw in the package!), which came in quite handy on my new deck.

Dezrah

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #42 on: November 20, 2017, 08:29:31 AM »
I take home scrap paper and printer paper boxes. 

My office goes through an ungodly amount of paper.  I will take home a stack of paper that would otherwise go in the recycling bin for my bird (see profile pic).  I leave it on the counter and he enjoys destroying it a few pages at a time and knocking them over.  It keeps him from destroying the furniture.

The printer paper boxes are the perfect size and strength for moving files or miscellaneous items.  My parents recently did a cross country trip to drop off some of my brother's stuff.  I gave them about 5 boxes.  They fit the stuff, stack well, small enough to carry by hand, and you can toss them when you're done.


Catbert

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #43 on: November 20, 2017, 11:15:27 AM »
When I worked a few pens migrated home not on purpose but just because I always left a trail of pens behind me.  Other than that, nothing.  I always said that if they ever wanted to fire me they were going to have to work at it - not nab me for stealing office supplies or cheating on my time card.

As an HR person I saw people fired over the years for stealing.  Sometimes it was b/c of the theft itself.  Other times the person was a dick who did other things that mngt couldn't prove, but stealing can be easy to prove

partgypsy

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #44 on: November 20, 2017, 11:31:54 AM »
Nothing, that's stealing.

NoraLenderbee

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #45 on: November 20, 2017, 11:35:20 AM »
Time.

PoutineLover

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #46 on: November 20, 2017, 11:44:33 AM »
I don't steal stuff but sometimes I get to clean out old offices and take whatever won't be used. I've gotten some mugs, a filing cabinet, magnets, a boomerang, obsolete paper money, and some posters including a huge world map. Figure it would have all been thrown in the trash so no harm done.

Acastus

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #47 on: November 20, 2017, 02:38:30 PM »
My rule of thumb is never steal less than your annual salary. If you are going to get fired for being stupid, you need money to live on in the mean time.

spicykissa

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #48 on: November 20, 2017, 02:55:18 PM »
Stool softener capsules. Not on purpose, but these always come home in my pockets because my patients don't want to take them! I once took a bottle of wound cleanser for a non-work related injury of mine--the stuff is that good, and I couldn't get it anywhere else. A coworker takes syringes to feed her rescue kittens with. We also got all our moving boxes from the stock person, and I occasionally use the printer for personal stuff when needed. 

My husband has whiteboards, an office chair, and computer peripherals from a recent office move, but he had permission to take them.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: What items do YOU pilfer from Work?
« Reply #49 on: November 20, 2017, 03:10:58 PM »
Thought of another one! Not "pilfering" per se, since everyone knows about it... but when a patient has a supply change, they can't send back the old stuff. And if it's pretty obvious they won't go back to that size/item/etc before it expires, then it's just taking up room. So I coordinate with my former nursing school instructors and get the excess supplies hooked up with medical missions. Also with stuff that the supply companies just send way too much of, like gauze.

I prefer to think of that as recycling, rather than pilfering.