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Theo: You do the boss a
favour, staying at your desk over your lunch break to field an important call
for him, and, whilst you're captive, in what's generally your own time, you
surf the net. It's company policy that you can do this during your lunch break,
provided you don't enter inappropriate sites, of course. You come across an
article you've been wanting to read; research for a private project. So,
without the time to read it there and then, you print off the five pages with
the colour illustrations, on the firm's laser printer so you can take it home
to read in comfort. Is that theft?
Dave: What, taking five
sheets of office paper and a bit of ink they'll never even notice? You're
kiddin', right?
Theo: The question is
this: Is it yours to take?
Dave: Hell, man, you're
doing the boss a favour in your own time. He owes you, doesn't he? Any case, I
bet you waste more paper and ink than that nearly every day by mistake.
Theo: So, you don't think
it counts as stealing?
Dave: No way.
Theo: The same, I suppose,
goes for those odd paper clips, rubber bands and envelopes you take for
personal use?
Dave: Look, everyone does
that. You can't call it stealing. The amount they pay for stationery, they'd
never even notice, would they?
Theo: And the private
letters placed into the post tray to be stamped or franked?
Dave: Maybe in an emergency.
You know, when it needs to go today and you don't have a stamp or you can't get
out the office for some reason. Once in a while won't do any harm, will it?
Theo: What about that
photocopying of the club's agenda for that meeting you've arranged tonight as
secretary? A copy of three pages for each of thirty seven members. How about
that?
Dave: It's for a good
cause, isn't it? I mean, I know the boss doesn't give to that cause, but the
firm chooses a charity every year to support, so they don't mind a bit of
giving, do they?
Theo: Not, then, a matter
of principle? More one of expediency, I suppose?
Dave: Horses for courses,
mate. What harm's it do. That sort of thing doesn't hurt the company. Any case,
everybody does it.
Theo: And because everybody
does it, that makes it acceptable, or right?
Dave: Well, you can't
really call it stealing, can you? I mean, stealing's important things, things
that cost, not little bits and pieces like that.
Theo: So, just to get this
right: everybody does it and they're only small things?
Dave: That's right.
Theo: So. A hundred
employees take a hundred sheets, together with the accompanying ink, what,
every week, month, year?
Dave: Now you're being
daft. Not everyone does that much, do they? I mean that's ten k sheets and a
lot of ink. No. It's not like that; it's just occasional and not all the staff
do it, do they?
Theo: Not everybody, then?
Dave: Well, no. Some folk
aren't interested in that sort of thing. They take other things instead.
Theo: Ah, you mean time?
For example, the quarter of an hour they spend talking at the water cooler when
they're being paid to work? Or the few minutes each day they arrive late? Or
maybe those odd minutes they need for shopping over lunch? That sort of thing?
Dave: That's right. Most
people do that sort of thing.
Theo: And that's not
stealing, even though they're paid for that time?
Dave: You think the bosses
work every hour of every day? Think they're working when they have a 'meeting' on the golf course? Think they're
working when they fly business class to some conference they could do by video
call?
Theo: I understand your
point. So, what you mean when you say the everybody does it, is that the
practise of petty theft is rife throughout the structure of the workplace and
is accepted simply as a part of daily life?
Dave: Well, I wouldn't put
it like that. But, yeah, I suppose that's really what it is when you look at
it. I mean, no one works every minute of every day doing what they're paid to
do, do they?
Theo: I expect not. In
fact, I suspect it would be bad for their mental health if they did. But, my
point here is more about what we call such things. What we label this activity.
The bosses see their own small thefts as 'perks', the natural reward for their
level of commitment. How do the ordinary workers see their own small acts of
stealing?
Dave: Most of them see it
as getting something more out the bosses, if they think of it at all. You're
making more of it than it really is, Theo. It's just part of working life.
Theo: You're probably
right. But what that means in reality is that workers, and their bosses,
actually approve, even if only by not disapproving, the daily general theft
we've discussed.
Dave: Life's too short to
worry about things like that.
Theo: But, what concerns
me, Dave, is whether the casual acceptance of such petty theft allows some
people to consider rather more valuable items taken to be also acceptable. We
don't have time to discuss this now. But I'd like to plant the notion that it's
the general acceptance of small theft as unimportant that allows some folk to
go on to steal the work of others, to see such theft as something normal and of
no harm to anyone.
Dave: It's a thought. But,
like you say, we best get back to work. The boss is looking over here and
glancing at his watch.
