"I'm Hiding My Office Supplies": Employee Slams Co-Workers for Stealing Pens, Candy From Desk

An employee sick and tired of co-workers helping themselves to their pens and candy right from off of their desk vented their frustrations in a viral TikTok, while also sharing how they managed to combat this theft once and for all.

Kat (@kazmarie13) begins their video, which they record from their car, stating: "I need somebody out there to tell me if I am missing an office life social cue here? I went and I bought myself some very nice and very unique pens to put on my desk at work for me to use," they specify into the camera.

Kat continued, "And of course within a couple of days they started disappearing. I kind of very casually mention to some of my co-workers like hey have you seen my pens, if you could bring them back that'd be great. You know, maybe give somebody an out of like, oh they took one and they don't want it but they took it," the TikToker explained.

"They can just say, oh, I found it on so and so's desk. Here it is. But of course, my pens never return. So the other day I see one of my co-workers with one of my pens in her hand and she's writing s--- down. And when I said oh hey, that's my pen, she says to my face oh yeah I had to write something down while I was at your desk and I thought dang that's a really nice pen so I kept it."

Kat leans into the camera at that last part in what appears to be a way of intoning how ridiculous they thought their co-worker's logic sounded: "Try not to make a big deal of it. I told her OK yeah cool, whatever. But, um, if you could, you know, throw it back on my desk at the end of your shift, that'd be great."

The TikToker explained why they wanted their pen back: "Because again I spent a little bit of money on these pens and they're really nice and I don't like that they're just disappearing. And I figure you probably know where this is going. The pen never returns," Kat says, highlighting that their co-worker didn't seem to think they were being serious about bringing the pen back.

"I see her again with it later and I said hey, you still have my pen? And she says oh yeah I have your pen, I'm not done with it yet. Done with it? You're never gonna be done with it, it's a pen. I finally had to just outright ask her to give me my pen back and now I've had to start hiding my office supplies at work," Kat reveals.

But having to implement a counter-measure to ensure other folks in office weren't nabbing their pens wasn't the only thing Kat had to worry about — their problems were compounded once they decided to purchase a candy dispenser for their desk.

"And then I bought myself a little candy dispenser to go on the desk, little M&M dispenser, it's like this tiny little M&M dispenser that everyone as soon as they saw it went ohoo! M&M's! and just like stuck their dirty grubby hands all over it. Not a single person has said oh M&M's, can I have some?" they said, intoning their shock that it doesn't occur to anyone that they should probably ask before they outright help themselves to another person's food.

Kat went on to blast the lack of decorum the other folks in their office display: "Everyone just decided that this M&M dispenser appeared out of nowhere, became community property, and then this morning, I came in with a note on it that said this is broke, please have maintenance fix it ... what?!"

The last point Kat makes seems to suggest that their co-workers are under the impression the pens and even the candy on their desk are somehow communal office property.

Numerous TikTokers expressed sympathy with Kat's plight, but there was one commenter who was interested in knowing what made Kat's so special that everyone wanted to get their hands on them.

Kat addressed the alluring nature of their pens in a follow-up clip: "I'm gonna use this comment to address some questions, finally, sorry. So first, as to the candy jar, OK if you see where this cup is sitting in between my two monitors on top of my computer tower, facing a wall? That's where my candy jar was sitting ... and the candy jar was even smaller than this cup is," the TikToker said, pointing to the cup and illustrating what it would look like whenever someone butted into their personal space to grab themselves some M&M's.

"So I guess that I feel like it wasn't exactly an invitation. Now if people would have asked, can I have some? I would have gladly shared, but I didn't feel like it was an open invitation," Kat explained, before going on to discuss pen-gate: "The company does supply pens. This is the company-supplied pen," they stated, holding it up to the camera.

"It is a red pen. It sucks. I have a decoy jar of pens that I put s---- stick pens into," they said, highlighting the glass jar filled with inky writing utensils meant to divert folks' attention away from their good pens. This stays on the desk all the time. "I do now put my pens away at the end of the day when I leave work for the day," Kat stated, holding up a black, metal netted cup filled with their "good pens."

"No one has figured out quite where I'm hiding them yet. As to what makes these pens very clearly not work supplied pens ... I think the pens speak for themselves," the TikToker said, showing off how the writing instruments are emblazoned with snarky phrases such as: "Per my last email," and "that idea is garbage," and the familiar refrain, "that's not my job."