Ask the expert: Petty theft is still theft

Q: I work in a large international office and our mail envelopes are prepaid. I was late paying a bill and had written out the cheque. Not having an envelope with me at work I used one of the firm's and put the sealed envelope in the out tray to be collected by our mail person.

My manager spotted the envelope, guessed that it wasn't being used for company business and opened it to find out who had used it.

It seems a little petty to make an issue over one envelope and I would have happily paid if there was a system in place to do so.

A: Sorry - theft is theft, petty or not. If the bill was already late, then you weren't going to rack up any more charges by waiting a day to send the bill in your own envelope with your own postage.

At a minimum, you could've asked your manager to use the company mail this one time as the bill was late and you had forgotten your own supplies at home.

Assuming your office has petty cash, you could've paid for the privilege this way.

Without petty cash, either get permission or don't do it, and certainly if you are caught out, take it as a warning and don't complain about it.

Businesses can lose large amounts in stationery, photocopying, postage and phone charges, as well as "shrinkage" of their products and services. It may seem petty to you, but it's an important policy issue for businesses and their managers.

And it's perfectly within the manager's rights to check outgoing mail, particularly when it appears there may be a problem with it.