151 Quick Ideas to Deal With Difficult People

134Where’s My Stapler?

The cubicled office reflects different things to different people. Consider office supplies. To chronic borrowers the wide openness of a cube farm represents a veritable self-serve bazaar of office supplies. It doesn’t matter that the supplies reside on some one’s desk.

Assignment

Create a file online or index cards to keep track of items colleagues borrow.

Serial borrowers don’t see boundaries. Plus, they swear to themselves that they will return the items promptly. Of course they never do. That’s the root of the problem.

A colleague was so chronic with unauthorized borrowing that when people couldn’t locate items, she was suspect No. 1. She was notorious for borrowing staplers and tape and not returning them. She had ...