You're stuck with your co-workers 40 hours a week. You may be friends with a few of them, but chances are, there are some people in the office that just drive you completely nuts. And when you're trapped all day in such close quarters, with just a cubicle or two between you and your co-workers, it is easy to get annoyed with all the little things, fast. Most of these problems stem from a lack of respect between co-workers. People get annoyed not only by their co-workers' work habits, but also issues like their hygiene and personal lives. Anyone who wants to get through a day at work has to try to come up with a way to deal with all their co-workers' quirks.
Everyone has their own pet peeves and a list of things that they cannot tolerate, but there seems to be several annoyances that no one wants to put up with. Here is a list of the top ten things that bother us most in the office.
10) People who never answer their phone/don't respond to emails
Making yourself unavailable isn't just rude, it's annoying. I understand that people have their own work they need to get done and that it's easy to get in the zone and not want to stray, but you should help other people too. Business improves when employees work together to provide customers with the best service possible.
9) Loud people
When you work from a desk in a cubicle, you can hear everything that's going on in the office. So when someone smacks their gum or sniffles non-stop, it gets old fast. And it's not just people's disgusting habits. When a co-worker starts humming or whistling, it breaks your concentration and makes your eyes bulge out in rage. There's also the more subtle office noises, such as loud typers or people who talk really loud on the phone (especially on speaker phone).
8) Strong-smelling lunches
Everyone takes their lunch breaks at different times. Some people even work right through their breaks. Nothing is more distracting than a pungent food smell wafting through the office. Especially the people who go out to go out to get food. The last thing you want to smell is Chinese food when you're working at your desk, munching on a plain turkey sandwich. If you're going to bring back or cook something odorous, at least offer it to everyone.
7) People borrowing items from your desk and not returning them
When you spend months tracking down the perfect stapler or the sharpest scissors, if someone takes it away and keeps it, it gets personal. It may not seem like a big deal if someone occasionally walks away with a pen, but if it was one of your favorite pens, it can cause quite a bit of tension, as well as a distraction. It's not too hard. If you borrow something, return it, and in a timely manner.
6) People taking food that isn't theirs
Everyone should probably label their food when they put it in the communal refrigerator. But if you don't, or if you forget when you're in a hurry one day, it shouldn't be snatched up. It's not like you can't remember what you brought (or didn't bring) that morning, so don't steal food that isn't yours. It's rude.
5) Boring meetings that start late or run over time
When you have an endless amount of your own work you need to get done before the end of the day, the last thing you want to do is be stuck in a meeting. So higher management should have the common courtesy to start on time, get to the point and conclude on time. It's even worse when your boss gets there late, doesn't apologize and runs the meeting late, wasting your precious time.
4) Constant complainers
Complainers bring down everyone else in the office. If one person is having a bad day and lets their employees in on every little detail, everyone starts to feel the negativity. It's fine if you need to rant about small things every once in a while, but every hour of every day is way too much.
3) Dirty common areas
If your office has a kitchen, chances are that you will stumble upon a gross mess your co-workers left from time to time. It's not a hard concept: if you spill something, wipe it up quickly. If you use a napkin, throw it away. But still, somehow, the tables, sink, refrigerator (full of old and moldy food) and microwave always end up dirty.
2) Bad email etiquette
There's always someone (usually a big group of people, actually) who hit the “reply all” button on mass employee emails. Is it really that hard to push “reply” to a single person? It's only one icon away. And anyway, why must you be CC'd on those long email strings that don't even involve you in the first place?
1) People not taking ownership of their actions
Blaming a co-worker for something that went wrong in the office is the most annoying habit. If you forgot to do a a task or completed a task incorrectly, own up to your mistakes. Being honest and apologizing is so much more respectable than blaming other people in the office.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
