22 per cent of pens which are taken by colleagues in offices are done in full knowledge, according to a new study.
Despite 78 per cent of those interviewed for the Paper Mate survey saying they have taken a colleague’s pen by mistake the answers to some of the other questions makes this figure seem suspicious.
The seemingly innocuous reason as simply needing something to write with was cited by 51 per cent of respondents, but it appears other culprits have pen envy.
Around half of the 1,000 office workers who took part said they took a pen because they like the way it wrote – smoothly and effortlessly, to be precise.
For 36 per cent of people the relationship is more superficial and they have stolen a pen because of the way it looks and for 34 per cent it is as simply as being a nice colour.
Scott Crist, global director of marketing for Paper Mate, said: “I am surrounded by people who have ample access to pens and still my own pens go missing. There are always those who claim it was a mistake or that they absent-mindedly walked off with it, but since we launched our new InkJoy pens, I’m questioning motives.”
Paper Mate is now encouraging those who have been victims of pen theft to out the suspected offenders of their Facebook page and are provided with a tool to create a wanted poster in order to crack down on the crime.
The survey also found that if the lid of the pen had been chewed then it would deter would be thieves from taking it, which could be one way to keep hold of a favourite scribbler.
Last year a survey conducted by Samsung found that slow technology and print delays were the biggest bugbear for office workers with 68 per cent of people saying these issues irritated them on a daily basis.
