"Stealing" free things from work

[FickleUsernameChooser]

WIBU to pocket about 6-8 sachets of the free sugar that comes with the free tea and coffee at work for when I go camping next week?

It feels wrong although I'd argue if I was here I'd be using them anyway (and possibly more) and it is offered free anyway. Seems a bit pointless to have to pack a bigger container of sugar.

I am finding it quite interesting how much it is dividing opinion

Am amazed that workplaces even exist where anyone would care about someone snaffling six sachets of sugar.

Take ten OP.

Funny I just posted on a thread about a man who rubbed me up the wrong way who would ask me to frank mail, and I didn't, but it wasn't about the money so much as he was an oily fecker who gave me the creeps and I wasn't supposed to anyway.

If I were you and were struggling with the idea, why not run it by your manager or the office manager or procurement manager or facilities manager or whoever the jeffing heck orders the sugar, if they say no don't do it - chances are they would giggle and say knock yourself out unless they were a jobsworth or you are a bleeder (doubtful)

It would be less "risky" to nick some from a café as others have mentioned, you can't lose your job over it and they damn well wouldn't know or prosecute you for it.

I can't see an employer losing a valuable member of staff over it but you never know in this climate!

Morally, its hard to see anything too wrong with it as a one off to be honest, how many times have you stayed late etc. They must cost pennies.

This thread is MADNESS.

OP, when do you go? I went through a drive thru the other day and got given 4 sachets of sugar I have no use for. PM us all your address and we can get you to a hundred sachets by Monday I reckon

It seems selfish, but ultimately harmless. I'd be a bit sniffy if I saw a colleague partaking in petty pilfering.

I've spent a lifetime trying to wrest condiment sachets out of my mother's hands in cafes. She can't resist a sachet . I find it embarrassing and dread her being caught.

Anyway, I just wanted to recount an event that happened (and yes it was madness, I totally agree but that is some NHS wards for you) and what can happen when workplaces are less tolerant than you think they are.

Am saddened that people are being po faced about my genuine attempt to warn you that not everybody is sensible about these things

I know it's a wee bit daft. It's not life or death by any means and I think I can probably manage to sort something out

Morally, I think you should weigh up the evidence. Look at what the organisation has taken from you in terms of free time, mental health etc. If it has taken the piss out out you more than a few sachets worth of sugar then you can morally take them. However, if you have been ripping the organisation off by coming in late, not pulling your weight etc., then you don't deserve the sugar and it would be morally wrong to take it.

mignotette I do appreciate your contribution. It is a horrific account of things and, while I'd hope it was because the NHS and the grumblebutts involved are special cases, it highlights that wrong place at wrong time can have severe repercussions.

Please don't be sad

mignonette I know where you are coming from - one of our Clinical Leaders was officially disciplined for eating food off the patients' food trolley AFTER all the meals had been given out.

The spare food is only going to be thrown away but eating it is actually a sackable offence!

Best not take the sugar without asking...

Whilst I don't think you would end up in front of judge and jury if you took them, you could end up on a disciplinary or even sacked - is it really worth it? Could you afford that?

Who buys all the tea/coffee paraphernalia? Could you offer them £1/sugar in a Tupperware pot?

Can't believe this thread is still going.

The catering fairy does - it's a centralised thing and I'm not sure who is technically "responsible".

I am also feeling a bit

This thread is MADNESS.

This ^

Fickle

Thank you. and don't feel embarrassed- we've all done it and I probably still would if I hadn't seen what can happen when colleagues are vindictive tattle telling arseholes.

I'll send you some lovely sugar- I have a bag of raw sugar that even Gwyneth wouldn't turn her nose up at.

I think on your way to camping you'll have to go into Starbucks and take a sugar or three (tax avoiding bastards)

mig I think you are being kind warning people.
They may scoff, but what you warn of is a possibility, and one which would leave a person up shit creek without a paddle feasibly.

If they decide to go ahead anyway, its a personal choice, taken with (your good) advice.

Thank you That- I think it looked like I was being sanctimonious when in fact I don't actually have that much of an issue with a bit of sugar liberation. But some bosses do.

Exactly.
Morally I don't give two hoots about a few sachets of sugar.
But I really need my job, and I wouldn't do it, because its sods law I'd get caught and made an example of.

If I saw one of my staff doing this I wouldn't report them to anyone. But I would stop trusting them. Stealing is stealing.

Op have you considered giving up sugar in hot drinks? It'll help your teeth and cut out an unnecessary source of refined carbs

I would just buy some. £1.61 for 50 sachets including delivery at Amazon.

JimBob. I have stopped drinking sugar in tea and have cut down in coffee with a view to giving up. A bit of sugar on weetabix/porridge is a different matter though!

I wouldn't even think twice about taking them. Having read all the warnings on this thread about tattling colleagues and companues looking for any excuse to fire people, I guess I'd be cautious if I worked in that kind of environment. But I never have.

Surely, if you had a boss that was uptight about supplies you would know? When I worked at that job, it had never even occurred to me that it would be stealing since I was using anything I took for work, and not hoarding them.

But I also don't work at the NHS. So...