Why the fuck do people steal pens!?

[lucysmam]

It does my fucking nut in!

I go to work with two...often come home with one & end up chasing it down to someone in First Aid the next day who is happily using it.

I take a flamin' pencil case to Rainbows and Guides so I have everything I might want. One of my other leaders literally brings herself...every week...borrows a pen...and makes it disappear ffs...& then when I ask about it says "oh yes, so I have" but they never re-appear.

I'm down to one pen now.

& yes, I know they're cheap as chips, but ffs BUY YOUR OWN BLOODY PENS! I buy the ones I buy specifically because I struggle to write with some shapes of pen (circular ones in particular I'm a fussy fucker)

I used to suffer from this so bought pens in silly colours so they were clearly mine.

As you’ve got a pencil case what about buying the cheapest pens you can find & just lending people those? Tiger or poundshop biros?

Because they can.

Have you suggested the other leader should bring her own pens?

I also suffer from inability to share pens. I overheard a colleague recently give a good line when someone asked to borrow his pen. He said he sticks them in his mouth so she'd be better off getting her own. It's perfect because even if the borrower days they don't mind that colleague could day "yeah but I don't want a own you've been holding, because I put them in my mouth". It's gross, and I don't do this, but I will say it from now on. It's also cold and flu season so I'm using this excuse too.

I steal pens, I dont do it on purpose. I borrow a pen then put in down and forget to take it back. Or I use someones pen then walk away still holding it as I forget its not mine. But other people do the same with my pens so I think pens are a bit like a community resource where I work, free spirits that one can possess in the moment but not actually own forever.

Surgeons are the worst for this, in my experience. I will now only lend them one if they use it in front of me and immediately return it.

@Bunnybigears try making that argument about my fountain pen or my red polka dot pen that was a present from a pupil and I will hunt you down ;-)

I once hovered over someone who was borrowing my own until they personally handed it back. I am very possessive with my pens...

Same as Bunny here. I wouldn't take a pen I loved to work, but then again I don't have a pen I love, because I'm an adult.

Mhw02 if it was an obviously special pen then that's different but I wouldnt take such a pen to work with me because of the rampant pen stealing.

It isn't stealing - it is absent mindedness. Most pens I use are freebies and I leave them everywhere.

“See a pen, pick it up, all day long you’ll have a pen”

I am the pen lady at work. I turn up with three or so and go home soe days with one. I have a shocking pink on that seems to stay with me, so there may be something in th bright pen theory.
One of our care staff always borrows a pen never to return it, I donn't really mind, she's young and lovely and not even earning proper minimum wage as she's under whatever age it is. We told her she must be running an ebay pen store. Everytime I go on holiday I buy people pens with the location on, they are more likely to hang onto thiise for a while.

Holy hell my typing has gone wild.

Use a fountain pen. No one will nick it and if they try just say no because it’s moulded to my handwriting and you’ll wreck it so sorry.

I second using a fountain pen. When people ask to borrow a pen at work and I get out my fountain pen, quite a few people go off in search of someone else as they aren’t used to them and don’t want to break it. And anyone who actually does use it does it in front of me because they can tell it’s special

I think pens are a bit like a community resource where I work, free spirits that one can possess in the moment but not actually own forever

Yes absolutely this.

But my fave pens are bic black biros because I'm not 12

Third a fountain pen. lamy do great ones for £15 and under. Lots of people also assume they leak. You can also lie and tell them sure but to warn you it does leak / sorry, I’m almost out of ink and it’s got to last me whole day...

I’m left handed. Because of my job I have to take a lot of handwritten notes. Damn right I have a favourite pen. That isn’t because I’m 12 it’s because I need to write a LOT and the pen that makes that easiest for me is an essential tool of my job.

Yeah bic biros are pretty easy to write with.

I can’t write easily with a bic. They’re too thin to hold comfortably all day and because of how I write I dig in to the page too hard with them and my hand aches in minutes.

A fat fountain pen I’ve had since I was at school 30 years ago works best for me.

Because pens are friends.

I hear you OP - I struggle to write with some types of pens so I'm picky about them and if people borrow them and pinch them (DH I'm looking at you) I get very very cross.

I have the opposite problem where I gain pens. My desk is next to the printer/copier so everyone puts their stuff down on the edge of it and forgets. Every morning there's at least one new 'stray' for my bottom drawer and once in a while, when it gets too full, I release them back into the stationery cupboard.

Some people are net pen accumulators, some are donors. Its just a fact of life (I'm an accumulator. Have millions!)

Where I work, teaspoons have a mysterious habit of disappearing permanently. I don't lend anyone pens, something I learned at school when I'd get them back chewed and grim.

Given your pens are specialised to facilitate your writing then Yanbu. If it were otherwise then Yabu. I can get het up over many a petty issue but not a pen.