Office Thieves: 1 in 6 Steal Food From Their Coworkers

Lawyers have the highest rate of office theft, with a quarter of workers admitting to stealing from work

Research reveals more than 2.5 million Brits have stolen from their workplace, including food, electronics, and even cash – with lawyers the most likely offenders. With a rise in return-to-work mandates, office furniture suppliers, Furniture At Work asked 1,000 Brits about office theft, with the data suggesting it is on the rise, with almost 1-in-8 (12%) having had something stolen from them at work.  

The most common stolen items were pens and stationery, but one-in-10 (10%) have stolen money and 8% even confessed to taking a phone. A quarter of workers revealed they had stolen items because their colleague stole something from them first. 

Which professions are most likely to steal from their workplace? 

‍Law – 25% 

Marketing and PR – 20% 

Leisure, sport, tourism – 17.6% 

Transport and logistics – 17.5% 

Retail – 15.7% 

Accountancy & banking – 13.8% 

Teacher training and education – 13.5% 

Information Technology – 12.3% 

Energy and utilities – 11.5% 

Engineering and manufacturing – 11.3% 

Why do we steal? The behavioral science behind office theft 

Art Markman, PHD, Professor of Psychology and Marketing, said: “Human behaviour is focused on doing things that feel right in the short term rather than things that feel right in the long term. If you need to eat right now, then available food will feel good to eat, even if it is wrong to take food from someone else. 

“People also tend to do what is easy for them to do in a particular environment. If you leave your new noise-cancelling headphones out on your desk in a cubicle farm, you are making it easy for people to give in to the temptation to acquire a new pair of headphones without paying for them.” 

You can find more about office theft on the Furniture At Work blog.