As everyone knows, when you work in an office your cubicle is your only personal space.  Even though it is a stretch to say it is yours, and that it is personal, when Bob the office idiot is talking so loudly that it’s like you are the one that can’t please his wife.  There is something nice about having your own office supplies safely in your cubicle.

Even with the security of your own cube, it is true that someone else in the office might just need something and not feel like going “all the way to the office supplies room”.  So how do we generally get around this?  Well there are a few trains of thought on this:

1. 1.  Label everything with your name
2. 2.  Lock your supplies in your desk drawer
3. 3.  Who gives a rats ass 

Now personally I’m a #3 on this subject.  If I happen to have 10 pens on my desk and someone walks by my cube that is searching for something to write with – I say go ahead and take one.  Hell even if it is my last pen, most likely I can make it to the supply closet to get more – in fact, I would love to do it because that is probably going to take me at least 15 minutes, and the boss can’t argue with getting office supplies.  They don’t have to know that I got the pen, got a coffee, talked to every single person I saw, and then came back to my desk.  Nah – that information isn’t necessary.

But let us take a look at the other options.  Say you're an option #1 type of peson, chances are when you first got to your cubicle you took a good hour to label everything with your name.  For that, I commend you because hey - it's better to be labeling than to be looking into your computer screen wondering what you can Google next.

After everything is labeled, though, I always wondered what would happen if someone did take your favorite stapler.  I mean, if they took it with the intention of keeping it I bet they can peel off that sticker with your name on it pretty easily.  However, let’s assume that some how you knew that it was your stapler – what do you do now?  Do you confront them?  Do you tell your boss that fatty mc-fat-fat stole your stapler?  I mean, sure, a cubicle is a bit better than the desk you had your books in when you were in Grade 3 but I don’t think the work place equivalent of a teacher can do a whole lot.

There is always option #2 though – locking things up in your desk.  This is my favorite to hear people complain about.  It was only two weeks ago I was sitting at my desk and heard the guy in the cubicle behind me slamming his desk drawers and telling his only friend how someone came into his cubicle and stole his pencils that were locked in his desk drawer.  He was very adamant about it too – he honestly believed that someone stole them right out of his desk.

Yes, you idiot, last night at twenty-two hundred hours I snuck into the office with a ski-mask on and made my way into your cubicle.  After breaching the security of your cubicle walls I removed my lock picking kit and forced my way into your desk drawer.  Once I gained entry into this drawer I found the sacred, invaluable, No. 2 yellow pencils.  Quickly, I put everything back just as I found it, and made my way back out of the office a free man with your pencils.

As much as I wish I did do that, sadly after about two hours of bitching and complaining he finally found them under some papers on his desk.  I was happy that he had stopped yelling and complaining but, I was also a bit sad that someone didn’t steal the damn pencils.

I think we all can agree that being able to have your own things in your cubicle without worry of them being stolen is nice.  But if someone needs something, I say lets try trusting them and hoping that they will use it and return it or at least leave a note saying they took it.  Plus, don’t we all need an extra 15-20 minute break to get some more pencils?  I think so.