Workplace Theft in the Remote Work Era: The 2025 Reality Check

NOTE: This is a comprehensive update to our 2021 case study analyzing workplace theft patterns among 700 employees and 300 managers. Since our original research, remote work has fundamentally transformed how, when, and what employees steal. The pens and sticky notes that dominated our 2021 findings are still disappearing, but they’re no longer the main story. This 2025 analysis examines how distributed teams, digital surveillance, and economic pressures have created an entirely new landscape for workplace theft.

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You’re scrolling through social media while “working” from home. Your timekeeping app is running, clocking billable hours while you fold laundry between Zoom calls.

You grabbed some pens and printer paper from the supply closet before leaving the office. Last month, you added an extra 30 minutes to your timesheet because you worked through lunch on Tuesday.

Are you a thief?

According to 2025 data, you’re in the majority. 67% of employees admit to stealing from their current workplace.

But here’s what changed since our 2021 study. The stuff people steal looks different. The reasons they justify it have evolved. And the ways companies try to catch them have transformed completely in the remote work era.

Workplace theft costs U.S. businesses $50 billion annually as of 2025, with 75% of employees admitting to stealing at least once from their employer. Time theft has surpassed physical theft as the primary concern, with remote workers adding an average of 4.5 hours per week to their timecards.

When we first surveyed workers about theft back in 2021, the biggest concerns were office supplies walking out the door. Today, the landscape looks completely different.

The home office has become the new supply closet. The line between work time and personal time has blurred beyond recognition.

How Remote Work Transformed Workplace Theft

Back in 2021, 42% of employees admitted to stealing pens and pencils. In 2025, that percentage remains about the same.

But it’s no longer the main story.

The real action is happening on screens, not in supply closets. The shift to remote work didn’t create workplace theft. It just changed what’s easy to steal and hard to catch.

When your office is your home, the line between “company time” and “personal time” becomes much blurrier than it ever was in a physical office.

Physical theft is holding steady. Pens, paper clips, and sticky notes are still walking out the door at roughly the same rates we documented in 2021.

But the headline story is digital.

Data breaches, intellectual property theft, and expense fraud have jumped significantly. More employees work from home with less oversight. Time theft has become the number one concern for employers.

Traditional monitoring methods don’t work in remote settings. You can’t watch who’s at their desk anymore. You can’t check who left early.

The result? Employees now steal an average of 4.5 hours weekly through inflated timesheets.

And then there’s the monitoring boom. According to Business.com research, 96% of companies now use time tracking software. That’s up from roughly 60% in 2021.

The surveillance state has arrived in corporate America. Workers are not happy about it.

What 2025 Employees Are Stealing:

On the physical side, the usual suspects remain popular:

Pens and writing supplies still top the list at 42%

Printer paper and ink continue to disappear as employees print personal documents at work. Office supplies like paper clips, sticky notes, and staplers make their way home in laptop bags. Free coffee, snacks, and lunch items get consumed or taken home.

But the digital and time theft categories tell a more interesting story.

67% of employees admit to performing personal tasks during work hours. That’s two out of every three workers.

Among remote employees specifically, 55% acknowledge completing household chores during the workday.

Falsified timecards have become a major issue. 24% of workers overreport hours by an average of 4.5 hours weekly.

Company data theft has entered the picture in ways we barely tracked in 2021. Now 10% of theft cases involve intellectual property or sensitive data.

Expense fraud rounds out the list at 4%, with employees submitting fraudulent reimbursement claims.

Interview Guys Take: The shift to remote work didn’t create workplace theft, it just changed what’s easy to steal and hard to catch. When your office is your home, the line between “company time” and “personal time” becomes much blurrier.

The numbers that matter most:

• $50 billion in annual costs to U.S. businesses
• $145,000 median cost per fraud incident
• 9 billion fraudulent person-hours added to timecards annually
• 60% of inventory losses due to employee theft
• 75% of employees have stolen at least once

This connects directly to trends we’ve observed in how the workplace is changing with AI. Technology creates both new opportunities for theft and new tools for prevention.

The $63 Billion Problem Nobody Wants to Talk About

Time theft has become the elephant in the virtual room.

With 96% of companies now using time tracking tools, you’d think the problem would be under control. It’s not.

Time theft in 2025 comes in two flavors: the honest version and the dishonest version. Both cost companies money.

The honest version looks like this:

Among remote workers, 55% complete household chores during work hours. People make personal phone calls and schedule appointments.

75% admit to texting friends or family on company time.

Extended coffee breaks happen that nobody monitors. Workers start late or end early without adjusting their timecards.

Most of these workers don’t think of themselves as thieves. They’re folding one load of laundry between meetings. They’re stepping away for 15 minutes to deal with a delivery. They’re scrolling through social media while waiting for a file to upload.

It feels harmless because nobody’s watching.

The dishonest version is more deliberate:

Buddy punching still happens. Coworkers clock in for absent employees.

Timecard fraud has workers adding 4.5 hours weekly on average. Ghost hours appear on timesheets with no productivity to show for them.

And increasingly, employees are working two remote jobs simultaneously. They collect full-time paychecks from both.

The math is staggering.

Embroker’s 2025 analysis shows remote workers clock about 1 hour less work per day than in 2019. That doesn’t sound dramatic until you multiply it across millions of workers.

24% of workers admit to timecard fraud, adding 4.5 hours weekly they didn’t actually work. Over a year, that’s 9 billion fraudulent person-hours.

Companies responded with surveillance.

78% of employers now use monitoring software. By 2025, 70% of large companies are expected to monitor employees. These tools are remarkably invasive.

They track keystrokes and mouse movements to detect when you’re actually typing. Active screen time and app usage get logged minute by minute. Website visits and time spent per site are recorded.

Email and chat communications are monitored for 50% of employees. Productivity metrics measure your output against benchmarks.

But here’s the problem. 59% of workers say digital tracking damages trust. 56% feel stressed knowing they’re being watched.

Even worse, 54% are willing to quit over excessive monitoring.

The cure might be worse than the disease.

Interview Guys Take: Companies save an average of $11,000 per remote employee on overhead costs like rent and utilities. But if that same employee is stealing 4.5 hours weekly, the company is paying for 234 hours of non-work annually. That’s roughly six weeks of paid vacation at $30/hour wages. The savings might be an illusion.

There’s a productivity paradox at play here.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, despite working fewer hours, remote workers maintain similar productivity levels.

How? They’re working more efficiently during the hours they do work.

But employers still feel cheated when they’re paying for 40 hours and getting 35.

This connects to research we’ve done on workplace burnout in 2025. When 82% of employees are at risk of burnout, maybe taking an extra hour here and there isn’t theft.

Maybe it’s survival.

Maybe it’s the way humans maintain sanity in an always-on digital workplace that never truly lets them clock out.

From “The Company Won’t Miss It” to “I Deserve This”

Back in 2021, 18.3% of employees thought stealing from work was acceptable. In 2025, that mindset has evolved.

The justifications have gotten more sophisticated. More desperate. More tied to broader economic trends.

Economic pressure tops the list of justifications.

34% of millennials believe stealing from employers is justifiable. That’s a staggering percentage that would have shocked workers a generation ago.

Rising inflation combined with stagnant wages has created financial desperation. The logic goes like this: “I need this more than the company does.”

Retail and restaurant workers get hit hardest by cost-of-living increases. When you’re choosing between paying rent and eating, those pens and printer paper suddenly look like necessities you can’t afford to buy yourself.

When your employer is posting record profits while you’re struggling to make ends meet, taking what you need feels less like theft. It feels more like survival.

Perceived unfairness drives another major category.

75% of workers justify theft when feeling underpaid. This isn’t just about absolute wage levels. It’s about the gap.

The gap between what workers earn and what executives take home. When companies post record profits while denying raises, resentment builds. When executive compensation packages run into millions while front-line workers get 2% annual increases, the social contract frays.

The logic shifts from “theft is wrong” to “they’re stealing from me first with low wages.”

Digital rationalization has created new mental frameworks.

60% of employees admit they would steal if undetected. The shift to remote work creates a feeling of invisibility. Nobody’s watching. Nobody will know. The risk feels minimal.

There’s also a “borrowing” mentality at play. In our research, 60% of employees who steal justify their actions as temporary loans. They plan to return the items or make up the time later.

Most never do. But the initial rationalization makes the first step easier.

Lack of in-person accountability weakens ethical guardrails. When you’re sitting alone in your home office instead of surrounded by coworkers, stealing feels more abstract.

You’re not taking money from Bob in accounting. You’re just adjusting numbers in a timekeeping system.

Workplace disconnect creates the final major justification.

Employees who feel undervalued are significantly more likely to steal. Toxic company culture increases theft rates.

Remote work decreases emotional connection to employers. The reasoning becomes: “The company doesn’t care about me, so why should I care about them?”

The generational divide in theft is stark:

• 56.8% of millennials engaged in employee theft in controlled studies
• 40.5% of Generation Xers committed similar offenses
• Only 2.7% of baby boomers engaged in employee theft

Why the massive gap?

Younger workers face unprecedented economic pressure. Student debt averaging $200,000 or more creates financial strain baby boomers never experienced. Housing unaffordability means many millennials will never own homes despite working full-time jobs.

But it’s not just economic. Younger workers grew up with different attitudes about employer loyalty.

Baby boomers often stayed with one company for decades. Millennials know they’ll switch jobs every few years to get meaningful raises. When loyalty runs one direction only, ethics follow the same pattern.

Interview Guys Take: Before judging employee theft too harshly, consider this: when companies work employees through lunch without compensation or contact them outside work hours, that’s employer time theft. The street goes both ways.

The return-to-office resentment has added fuel to this fire.

As companies force employees back to offices in 2025, Gallup research shows that 51% of workers would resign if confronted with non-negotiable return mandates.

This resentment creates a “get what I can while I can” mentality.

Our analysis of the psychology of job interviews shows that workers model the behaviors they see rewarded. When they see executives taking lavish perks while denying worker raises, the message is clear.

Taking what you can get is how the game works.

The Real Price of Internal Theft

The numbers are staggering:

• $50 billion in annual costs to U.S. businesses
• $145,000 median loss per fraud case
• $1.7 million average cost of major fraud incidents
• $18 billion in annual retail losses to employee theft
• 5% of global revenue lost to fraud

But those aggregate numbers hide the variation. Some sectors get hit much harder than others.

Retail takes the biggest hit by far.

60% of all employee theft cases occur in retail environments. 42% of inventory shrinkage stems from employee theft rather than shoplifting.

The average theft per employee runs $1,890. Only 10.9% of losses get recovered. Of retail’s $112.1 billion in lost inventory, 29% comes from internal theft.

Why does retail get hit so hard?

High volume transactions with minimal oversight. Young, part-time workers with low investment in the job. Easy access to merchandise. Wages that often sit at minimum levels.

Healthcare has a hidden problem that’s growing.

15% of theft cases involve healthcare fraud. 59% of healthcare data breaches come from insiders rather than external hackers.

Medical equipment, supplies, and billing fraud create multiple theft vectors. The average data breach in healthcare costs $4.73 million.

Healthcare workers have access to valuable equipment and drugs. They also have access to patient data that can be sold. The complexity of medical billing creates opportunities for fraud.

Tech and finance face their own challenges.

12% of tech company theft involves intellectual property rather than physical items. Digital theft and trade secret violations are rising.

Remote work makes it easier to download files and email them to personal accounts. Financial analysts commit theft via expense fraud. Data theft has become more valuable than physical assets.

The indirect costs compound the direct losses:

• Investigation costs average $50,000 per incident
• $8 billion spent on prevention in 2023
• Insurance premiums increase 10% due to theft risk
• 43% of theft incidents lead to terminations
• 25% of businesses experience reputation damage
• Decreased morale affects entire teams

Small businesses face particular vulnerability.

• 64% of small businesses experience employee theft
• 33% of business bankruptcies attributed to theft
• 22% of small business owners personally caught employees stealing
• Small firms lose 5% of annual revenue to theft on average

What’s actually getting stolen:

• Asset misappropriation (89% of cases): Merchandise theft, refund fraud, cash theft, inventory manipulation
• Time theft (21% of cases): Falsified hours, personal tasks during work, ghost hours
• Data theft (10% of cases): Customer lists, trade secrets, financial data, strategic plans
• Expense fraud (4% of cases): Inflated claims, personal purchases disguised as business expenses

This aligns with our research on how AI is changing the workplace. Technology creates both new opportunities for theft and new tools for prevention.

Why the People in Charge Are Stealing More

Here’s an uncomfortable truth. Managers are twice as likely to steal money compared to non-managers.

The people you trust to prevent theft are often the ones committing it.

And yet, only 48% of managers have caught an employee stealing. Of those who did, 85.3% confronted them.

But here’s the puzzling part. Only 22.1% of managers consider employee theft a major concern. Another 35.6% consider it only a minor concern.

Why are the people stealing the most so relaxed about theft overall?

Manager theft patterns explain part of the paradox:

Managers have higher access to financial systems. This enables larger thefts that are harder to detect.

They understand security gaps and audit procedures better than front-line workers. They know how to exploit weaknesses.

They can authorize transactions that would raise red flags if lower-level employees tried them. They design more sophisticated schemes that last longer before detection.

The department risk rankings:

• Operations: 15% of fraud cases
• Accounting: 14% (highest access to funds)
• Executive/Upper Management: 12% (largest fraud amounts)
• Sales: 11% (expense fraud common)
• Customer Service: 9%

There’s also a trust paradox at play.

Employees model their superiors’ behavior. When managers take personal calls, scroll social media, or leave early, workers assume it’s acceptable.

This creates a cascade effect where time theft becomes normalized.

If your boss routinely spends an hour on personal calls, you figure an hour of your own time isn’t a big deal. If executives pad expense reports, lower-level employees assume everyone does it.

The rot starts at the top and works its way down.

The detection problem makes manager theft particularly damaging:

• Only 2% of theft cases get reported to law enforcement
• 43% of cases discovered through employee tips
• Average fraud in retail goes undetected for 14 months
• 34% of companies don’t refer cases to police

Manager responses when catching theft:

• 80% say stealing is automatic fireable offense
• 85.3% of managers confront the employee
• Only 22.1% consider it a major concern

Why so relaxed? Many managers have adequate prevention systems in place. Background checks. Security cameras. Audit procedures. Segregation of duties.

They expect some level of petty theft and budget for it.

Interview Guys Take: The most dangerous employee thieves aren’t the desperate or disgruntled. They’re often well-liked, smart employees with financial expertise and long tenure. They start with “temporary loans” they plan to repay but never break the cycle.

This connects to patterns we’ve observed in how people present themselves in interviews. The most successful fraudsters are often the most polished, professional employees.

They inspire trust specifically because they’re good at managing appearances.

Big Brother Is Watching (And Workers Hate It)

The explosion in remote work created an explosion in employee monitoring.

96% of companies now use time tracking software. 86% engage in real-time activity monitoring including keystrokes, screen time, and app usage.

The surveillance state has arrived in corporate America.

The scope of what gets monitored:

• Time tracking logs clock in/out times, active hours, idle time
• Screen activity captures screenshots, tracks active windows, records applications used
• Keystroke logging tracks what employees type and how fast
• 50% of employees have email and chat monitored
• Web browsing tracked with records of sites visited
• Productivity metrics measure output against benchmarks
• GPS location tracking for field workers

Do these tools work? The productivity debate rages on with mixed results.

68% of managers believe monitoring improves productivity. Most employees disagree.

90% of businesses track work time versus non-work activities. But productivity actually declined 8-19% in some heavily monitored environments.

10% of workers say they perform worse when monitored. 38% report increased stress from constant surveillance.

The privacy backlash grows stronger:

• 59% of workers say tracking damages workplace trust
• 56% feel stressed knowing they’re being watched
• 54% are willing to quit over excessive monitoring
• 46% of companies increased monitoring in the past year

Interview Guys Take: The most effective monitoring is transparent monitoring. When companies are upfront about what they track and why, employees are far less resentful than when they discover “bossware” by accident.

The surveillance arms race continues:

• Workers buy mouse jigglers to fake activity
• Multiple devices hide personal browsing
• VPNs obscure web traffic
• Automation tools make it appear someone’s working when they’re not

Legal considerations:

• 70% of large employers expected to monitor by 2025
• Privacy laws vary dramatically by state
• GDPR compliance required for international teams
• Workers must be notified of monitoring in most jurisdictions

This connects to our research on how AI is changing interviews and hiring. Technology is transforming every aspect of the employment relationship.

Many workers don’t realize the extent of surveillance until they’re already embedded in it.

Beyond Surveillance: Building a Theft-Resistant Culture

Throwing technology at the problem hasn’t solved it. 75% of employees still admit to stealing, even with all the monitoring.

So what actually reduces theft?

What doesn’t work:

• Excessive surveillance that damages trust
• Unclear policies employees don’t understand
• Ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away
• Treating all theft equally regardless of severity
• Creating adversarial relationships with workers

What does work:

Pay people fairly. The single biggest predictor of theft is feeling underpaid. When workers believe their compensation is fair, theft drops dramatically.

Remember that 75% of employees justify theft when they feel underpaid. Fix the pay, reduce the theft.

Build actual culture. Employee recognition programs reduce theft by 25%. Showing workers they’re valued creates loyalty that no security camera can replicate.

Regular feedback and genuine appreciation matter more than surveillance. Involvement in decision-making increases investment in the company’s success.

Clear, consistent policies. Define what constitutes theft explicitly. Communicate consequences clearly before anyone crosses that line.

Apply rules consistently across all levels. Include guidelines in employee handbooks and onboarding.

Smart security measures. Segregation of duties ensures no single person controls an entire process. Regular audits and inventory counts catch problems early.

Security cameras in appropriate areas deter casual theft. Whistleblower hotlines have seen a 20% increase in usage. Background checks during hiring screen out obvious risks.

Research from our analysis of remote work trends shows that companies focusing on output rather than hours worked see better results.

When you trust employees to manage their time, they often exceed expectations rather than game the system.

The work-life balance solution:

When companies respect boundaries and don’t steal employee time through after-hours emails and unpaid overtime, employees reciprocate.

98% of remote workers want to continue working remotely. Give them flexibility and trust, and they’ll give you loyalty.

Interview Guys Take: Before implementing new theft-prevention measures, ask yourself: are we treating symptoms or causes? If your theft problem stems from low morale and poor pay, no amount of surveillance will fix it. You’ll just drive away good employees along with the bad ones.

The ROI reality check:

• Prevention spending: $8 billion in 2023
• Average savings per remote employee: $11,000 (rent, utilities)
• Cost of time theft per employee: $1,890 annually in retail
• Turnover costs often exceed the value of stolen items

Smart companies recognize that perfect prevention is impossible. The goal isn’t zero theft. It’s minimizing significant losses while maintaining a positive culture.

This connects to everything we’ve learned about the changing nature of work. The most successful companies in 2025 aren’t the ones with the best security systems.

They’re the ones with the best cultures.

The New Social Contract

The fundamental relationship between employers and employees is being renegotiated in real time.

67% of workers admit to theft. 59% say surveillance damages trust. 54% will quit over excessive monitoring.

Something has to give.

The data points to an uncomfortable truth. Workplace theft isn’t primarily a security problem or a technology problem. It’s a relationship problem.

When employees feel valued, paid fairly, and treated with respect, theft drops. When they feel exploited, monitored excessively, and squeezed for every possible minute of productivity, theft rises.

The correlation is clear across every study we examined.

Companies have a choice.

They can pay employees fairly and trust them appropriately. Or they can underpay them, over-monitor them, and accept theft as the tax on their stinginess.

But they can’t have it both ways.

They can’t pay below-market wages, treat workers as interchangeable parts, surveil them like criminals, and then act shocked when those workers take what they feel they’re owed.

For workers, the message is equally clear.

If you hate your job enough to steal from it, you’re in the wrong job. Our analysis of the hidden job market shows there are opportunities out there for people willing to look strategically.

Stealing from an employer you resent doesn’t fix your career problems. It just adds criminal liability to your resume gaps.

It puts you at risk of termination, prosecution, and permanent damage to your professional reputation. The temporary satisfaction of “getting back” at a company you hate isn’t worth the long-term consequences.

And you probably will get caught eventually. 43% of theft cases get discovered through tips from other employees. Your coworkers know what you’re doing. Some of them disapprove.

Sooner or later, one of them will report you.

The workplaces that thrive in 2025 recognize this isn’t 2019 anymore.

Remote work, economic pressure, and generational shifts have fundamentally changed the game. The companies still trying to manage 2025 workers with 2019 tactics will keep bleeding money to theft while their best employees walk out the door.

The choice isn’t between theft and surveillance. It’s between building a culture worth being loyal to or accepting that distrust breeds dishonesty on both sides.

The most successful companies we’ve studied don’t have the best security systems. They have the best relationships with their workers.

They pay competitive wages. They offer genuine flexibility. They treat employees like adults rather than children who need constant monitoring.

And their theft rates are dramatically lower than companies that rely on surveillance instead of trust.

The bottom line for companies: invest in your people or invest in security systems. One builds a sustainable business. The other just delays the inevitable.

The bottom line for workers: if you don’t respect your employer enough to be honest with them, find an employer you can respect.

Life’s too short to spend it resenting the place that pays your bills while simultaneously stealing from it.

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