I have a co-worker who moved into my work space last January. For a year, I had been quietly listening to the radio at my desk. Once my co-worker moved in, that stopped because music is too distracting for her to do her job. It didn’t matter that I used music as white noise to do my work. For the past several months, she has taken various things from my desk and lost every single item.
Since she rarely asks my permission, I get to sit down at my desk and try to do my work until the point when I realize I can’t staple, tape, order, or make a FUCKING PHONE CALL because the necessary object is not on my desk. So, I ask about the whereabouts of the item and I get the usual hemming and hawwing which eventually leads to an admittance of borrowing and losing. I haven’t tallied up how much of my department’s budget I’ve used up replacing things she has lost - yet. I’m not anal and I usually love to share but it’s not asking permission and losing that drives me nuts. It’s getting so bad that if anything is missing in the office, I automatically question my co-worker.
She loses things she takes off your desk? In minutes? Bullshit – she’s stealing them. Keep everything in your desk and lock it, and see if there’s a way to catch her taking stuff home.
I agree: this is stealing, and you ought to do something about it: glue your things to your desk? Rig up a video surveillance cam or a loud alarm-type thingy? Hire a private detective to follow her and find out who she’s selling your stuff to? Get a guard dog to sit under your desk?
I’d just tell her to keep her filthy fucking hands off of my fucking desk.
Before anyone asks- Workplace diplomacy is not my stronger suit. I expect adults to behave like adults in professional situations, and taking objects that belong on my desk and aren’t meant for general consumption, and “losing” them(aka stealing), is unacceptable. It’s not proper or professional, and it would make me downright uncomfortable being aroudnt hat person.
Does she not have her own desk with her own stapler, tape, etc? If not, why not? If so, next time she “borrows” something and “loses” it, take hers as your replacement and make her be the one who has to keep going to (the boss, the office supply fairy, whoever) for a new one.
