Office buildings
While offices can be built in almost any location in almost any building, some modern requirements for offices make this more difficult. These requirements can be both legal (i.e. light levels must be sufficient) or technical (i.e. requirements for networking). Alongside such other requirements such as security and flexibility of layout, this has led to the creation of special buildings which are dedicated only or primarily for use as offices. An office building, also known as an office block, is a form of commercial building which contains spaces mainly designed to be used for offices.
The primary purpose of an office building is to provide a workplace and working environment primarily for administrative and managerial workers. These workers usually occupy set areas within the office building, and usually are provided with desks, PCs and other equipment they may need within these areas.
An office building will be divided into sections for different companies or may be dedicated to one company. In either case, each company will typically have a reception area, one or several meeting rooms, singular or open-plan offices, as well as toilets.
Many office buildings also have kitchen facilities and a staff room, where workers can have lunch or take a short break.
Office robbery statistics
Theft in the workplace is a common occurrence. Surveys indicate that the majority of office workers (58%) have admitted to having taken office supplies for their personal use. The most commonly stolen office supplies include pens/pencils (78% admit to this), followed by self-adhesive "sticky" notes (44%) and paper clips (40%). Some employees are even taking decorations like plants, paintings and office furniture (i.e. stools, chairs, shelves) (2%).[1]
In fact, in the U.S. state of Ohio, approximately 45% of all stolen equipment in 2004 was office equipment.[2]
To minimize the effects of robberies of office buildings, the company which leases the office space will often invest in office burglary and robbery insurance.[3] This insurance often covers both monetary theft by employees and physical robberies, such as stealing office furniture, equipment, or information.