Here's something I've been applying more in my life of late, it helps remove the guilty conscience aspect ...
Rule 1. If you didn't pay for it, it's NOT YOURS.
And I mean, paid for it from your
actual money, your BANK ACCOUNT, not "I've done x hours unpaid overtime so the company
owes me xx dollars so I can justify taking this pen home". Did the staff member pay for the biscuits? No? Then the biscuits did not belong to him or her. Getting fired for a couple of biscuits seems very strange, but if they're taking a hardline approach then they're going to get some attention with this! It seems strange especially seeing as the person doing the inspection probably wrote the charges out using a company-supplied pen, which they probably put back in their pocket which then went home,
Rule 2. If something is given to you, but it wasn't theirs to give, it's NOT YOURS.
If it wasn't theirs to give, or they weren't authorised to give it to you (for example, a promotional person is authorised to give company polo shirts to non-clients, they may not be authorised to distribute them to staff!), then accepting it from them =
receiving stolen property!
And you can't take the "ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies" approach with the second one - if you can't beyond a shadow of a doubt establish that "yes, it was theirs to give", then you may very well lose your job or worse go to prison for accepting whatever the item is. Think about it.
Where I work there's a line in the Employee Handbook that states:
The Organisation's resources may be used for personal purposes as long as the use is not excessive.
Now this has led to all sorts of abuses by people unable to determine for themselves what is excessive and what isn't. I'm sitting at work reading PPRuNe and typing this response, something I do regularly when there isn't anything else demanding my time, and I have no outstanding job requests. I don't consider it excessive, and my manager agrees with me, however there are others who would consider just browsing the internet to check your bank balance grounds for dismissal. I consider that my manager is authorised to determine what is acceptable use of my time while I'm not actively carrying out tasks.
If you're talking about material things though, refer to my handy Rules above and you'll never find yourself in trouble ... even if it is "just two biscuits".
