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'm good at keeping the same pen for a long time when it's on my desk but if I use one in another area of the building I always lose it before I get back to my desk. Weird!

I was once in a meeting with my boss and he absentmindedly clicked the end of his pen on the desk and it suddenly lit up. I just burst out laughing because he looked so bewildered. Apparently it was a free one and he didn't realise it had 'special features'.

I steal pens and pencils but don't mean too, honestly.
If it's any consolation when I end up with too many I do donate them and share them with others.

companylovesmisery

Yes, I have found my people

My dh had this problem so I bought a label maker and put labels on them. Being engineers they have no nails so can't remove the labels

I really can't understand why people don't carry their own pens. It's part of my "leaving home" routine to make sure I have a pen, in the same way I check for car keys, money, packet of tissues, pack of elastoplast, etc. But then again, I'm always having to lend money to people and give them tissues too - so perhaps they're just generally disorganised or lazy assuming someone else will sort out their shortfalls!

I always pick up freebie pens, i.e. at exhibitions, courses, etc., not to use for myself, but to give to people wanting to borrow one. That way, if they steal it, I don't care. I have a pot of these pens on my desk which is what clients get offered if they're too lazy/disorganised to bring their own.

I always write with my own pens, usually fountain pens, but I also have some "quality" ball points and fibre points. Hell would freeze over before I lent any of my "best" pens to anyone. Not even OH or DS would get their grubby mits on those.

headinhands - how condescending. and wrong of course!

There's one man in my choir who people always ask to borrow pencils from. He got fed up with them going walkabout, so now if you ask him for a pencil he'll hand you one he's used till it's about 5 cm long. Workable, but no one wants to keep it!

I've lot a pot of those short pencils which I've accumulated from Argos and Ikea. They're great for handing out to people who've forgotten their own - they're good enough to "do the job" but also inconvenient so gets the message across. I play golf and am always being asked for a pencil by playing partners who never seem to be able to organised themselves to bring their own.

I'm at home looking after a sicky kid today. I know when I get back all of my best inkjoy planning pens will have been given out to pupils, never to return.

I keep them in a special pot on my desk, and the cheap ones in a big pot. Supply teachers never give out the cheap ones.

I have unfortunately bred a pen stealer. She will sit in front of me and go through my pen box and take whichever take her fancy.

I have hidden my nice fountain pens in my handbag so can’t see them.

In her defence she is only 11 and has a stationery habit like her mum.

My dh labels his, he's a pharmacist so often has coloured pens which are a pain to replace. I remember going to pick up my passport in London and no word of a lie, the man at the counter when I was handing in my docs, had carefully named and labelled every single item of stationary he was using. The scowl he gave to June on the next door counter using a hole punch carefully labelled with 'Robert's hole punch'!

I buy shit pound shop multipacks to lend and no one ever asks twice.

I steal pens from hotel rooms, I can't bring myself to stop. I stay in hotels for work and I have an avalanche of pens. I don't steal them from others though and always give pens back. I have pen issues 😳

I have a Mont Blanc that was a graduation present 17 years ago. I like to use it in meetings but if anyone ever asks to borrow a pen I'll say I don't have one rather than loaning it to anyone.

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.

Oh yes, I've never had anyone asking to borrow mine I have 3 (soon to be 4) in different colours, with different ink and nibs. My writing is better than with a ballpoint. And as I write a lot each day at work, I prefer to use pens that don't leave my hand aching.

Back when I taught full time I had an open plan area as my "classroom" with other classrooms (lucky fuckers who had physical walls) opening onto it. As such my desk seemed to be bloody fair game for any colleagues wandering through who needed to write something down quickly and would borrow my pens and wander off without replacing it.

So I do have hole punches and staplers lying around the house with "stolen from Miss X" on them.

Nice pens with real ink and fountain pens are much more faithful. Cheap biros are just seen as a disposable, communal commodity.

I did toy with personalising a job lot of lending pens with "I love History" or "I love Mrs Pidgey" on them but wasn't sure about the economics of it compared to the constant drip feed of value biros on my weekly shopping bill.

If I were to consider a fountain pen, what would any of you recommend as a good budget brand to look at? I will not be suckered in by the idea of fancy inks just yet

I have a lamy safari which is my second or third choice. My favourite is a Parker I’ve had since school, followed by a Waterman that was a leaving gift.

OP, we have a topic on here called the Stationery Cupboard, some good ideas in there.

I've just bought one from Plooms, a birthday present from my mum. I've also seen The Parson's Essential recommended as a pen. Inks, I get the Diamine brand from Cult Pens.

Inks I get noodlers they flow lovely.

Thanks Mophead, I didn't know that! Will have a look shortly...I'm putting off putting tea in

Blackout, I had a Parker as my very first fountain pen years ago!

Pacer152 I'm guessing you were in the brownies/guides do you also have a safety pin and a "10p for a phone call?" I am also "prepared" at all times still

But.. I'm sorry to confess I am a pen saboteur I like to make my colleagues' lives difficult by ensuring they can never find a pen.

Not really but I don't know how my handbag gets weighed down by the dozens pens I genuinely have no recollection of using never mind stealing

I had a lovely jade Victorian fountain pen. Get an antique one, they can be very reasonably priced.

Fountain pens, I have a couple of cross and a couple of lammy. Lammy I have a lime greenn with green ink and a pink one with red ink.

Cross have lifetime guarantees but can cost a lot, but you can also pick them up on ebay

Pacer152 I'm guessing you were in the brownies/guides do you also have a safety pin and a "10p for a phone call?" I am also "prepared" at all times still

No, I wasn't, but it's always been instinctive for me to "be prepared" - don't know why. I've just always hated having to rely on anyone else - always been a very independent person right from childhood.