Daily Times

For everyone who works in an office, they are the little things that simply drive us around the bend. From vanishing milk to stationary that disappears whenever you leave your desk, a working day isn’t complete without such minor gripes. But now a survey of 2,000 British workers has revealed there is no shortage of ways in which our colleagues can infuriate us. In fact most offices are a simmering catalyst for petty theft and in-fighting – with biscuits, tea bags and stationary among the most likely to be swindled. Security experts ADT revealed that 31 percent of workers have reported their favourite mug as stolen, and 29 percent their lunch.

So-called “petty pilferers” are serial criminals and usually men, the survey found. It revealed that one in six workers revealed they had been targeted in the last week, and half in the last month.

Some four percent of victims said they had been forced to stop buying nice things for their desk, fearing they will inevitably be stolen.

Far from harmless, the survey showed stealing from co-worker’s desk can have serious consequences.

Ten percent reported trust issues with colleagues, while such theft has exploded into an argument with a colleague in 19 percent of cases.

The issue has become so severe that five per cent of workers admitted booby trapping their belongings to get back at their tormentors.

Unsurprisingly, most of us prefer to deploy a typically British response. A fifth of victims admit they don’t do anything about it, one in 10 chose to give a cold shoulder, while five per cent chose to leave a strongly-worded note. Some workers are resorting to purchasing alarms fitted with motion-triggered cameras to catch the perpetrator in the act.