When Airlie Rose finally quit her toxic job, she did it in style – taking her office chair with her as she exited the building for the last time.
The 36-year-old had been in her job for six and a half years, and was thrilled to find something new.
“I was pretty stoked when I handed in my resignation,” she told news.com.au, explaining it hadn’t been a healthy place to work for a while.
But like for many workers, she didn’t realize how “bad” it was until she was finally free, leaving her wondering why she “put herself through it” for so long.
On her final day, Rose didn’t want to leave the job she’d put so much effort into for years empty-handed.
“I was like, I’ve been sitting here and taking all this bulls**t for years and the only thing they’ve ever given me is a comfortable chair,” she said.
“I was like, I’m going to do it, and I walked out with it.”
Rose said that despite the fact she was fleeing with a very large chair, no one said anything to her as she exited the building.
“I don’t think anyone saw me do it. I just wheeled it out at the end of the day and chucked it in my car,” she said.
She admitted her partner thought her chair-swiping antics were “ridiculous,” but didn’t think it was a big deal at the time.
“It felt like a victory. Although a hollow one,” she said.
“It felt like I was getting something back and I didn’t feel like I’d gotten anything from that place other than a paycheck.”
Sadly, her victory was short-lived.
“They emailed me a week later, and asked for the chair back. I took it back the next week, and I left it in the staff car park, you’re welcome,” she said.
When Rose shared her story online, other workers were keen to reveal the stuff they’d taken from their old workplaces.
“I stole my chair too,” one admitted.
“Same! But I [still] have my chair three years later,” another admitted.
“I ended up with dozens of binder clips that I’m using to close food packets in my pantry,” someone else said.
“I worked at a super toxic call centre sales job. A bunch of us quit one after another and my boss just took the two PS4s in the chill out areas because the company owed him,” one wrote.
“I still have the stapler and sticky tape dispenser from my first ad agency job back in 2005,” another shared.
Recruitment expert Roxanne Calder told news.com.au that taking things from a workplace isn’t uncommon behavior.
“People have stolen milk and toilet paper and it isn’t even because they can’t afford it. It is just because they can’t be bothered,” she said.
Calder said she’s seen people claim their phones or laptops are broken after they quit a job to avoid giving them back and she’s even seen client lists stolen.
She said handbag-sized stuff often doesn’t really matter, such as taking a stapler from work or a pen.
In fact, Calder said she always assumes when employees leave with stuff like that, it isn’t “deliberate”.
People taking big-ticket items, though, can come back to bite them.
Calder said she’s done reference checks, and ex-bosses have told on former employees who took things from their office.
“When I’ve done reference checks, and the person’s integrity comes up, it has come out that people have stolen things,” she said.
