I’m sure anyone who has worked in an office setting has dealt with a co-worker (or two) getting on their last nerve. Well, here’s your opportunity to vent. What’s on your list of “Office Pet Peeves”? I’ll get the ball rolling- my annoyances include open windows, people who are all up in your computer screen, must (as in you smell like you’ve never heard of deoderant), invasion of personal space, and nasty kitchen/common areas.
According to the “Office Pet Peeve” survey conducted by temporary staffing firm Randstad USA, condescending tones lead the list of biggest office annoyances at 44 percent. Public reprimand, micromanagement, loud talkers and cell phone ringing completed the top five. The cell phone situation is also one I will add to my list. If you’re guilty of forgetting to leave your signature ring tone off at the office, you’re not just annoying your co-workers, you may be sending the wrong message to your boss by your ringtone choice and inviting neighboring cube dwellers to eavesdrop.
Stephen Viscusi, author of “On the Job: How to Make It in the Real World of Work,” and contributing workplace guru for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” advises handling most office annoyances head-on, by confronting the person and the situation.
“Annoying co-workers sometimes feel as if they can get away with more because they are in the workplace and they feel the workplace gives them amnesty,” Viscusi says.
That’s pretty ignorant to think you don’t have to treat co-workers with respect just because you think you can get away with it. Then again, if you are being an irritating co-worker on purpose, then you really are being ignorant. Not a good look.
Fredric
i get peeved by cats who hum while listening to their music.
oh wait….that’s me. whoops!
on the real, the ring tone thing here is no-joke. i mean, white people DO NOT CARE. lol.
March 13, 2007 at 6:15 am
Brittania
I am definitely most annoyed by the loud talkers. Can you really get anything done around them? Nope!
March 13, 2007 at 11:41 am
Angela
OMG! This article came at the perfect time. I’ve been pretty ok at work and working with coworkers UNTIL they hired “The Smacker.” She sits at her desk and eats candy, chips, etc all day. Now while eating at your desk is unprofessional all on its own, to add to the insanity she SMACKS her food…..loudly! It is the most irritating thing in the whole wide world and it has taken an exercise in restraint not to go over to her and tell her to keep her mastication to herself! Sigh…thats my two cents.
March 14, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Fredric
thats pretty damn funny.
i think you should get a really smelly sandwhich and just eat it near her. then exlaim “im sorry, i know that is annoying. don’t you hat it when people do annoying things while eating?”
March 14, 2007 at 3:17 pm
YBP Guide — weekly roundup: 3/17
[...] Irritating Co-Workers [...]
March 17, 2007 at 8:19 am
Karen
Right now I’m dealing with the most annoying knee jerking co-worker. He feels the whole world revolves around him and his need to understand what everyone else already does. He standing over, asking questions, interrupting my work, my thoughts….damn excuse me I need to go to the restroom and pee. Can I have a second?
March 29, 2007 at 1:41 pm
I 'hate' these people
i think that i have the trifecta: micromanagement, disrespect for my education/skills, belief of their own PR. if i began to list the absolute treatment i receive from these people, it would be a dissertation, a 4000-page dissertation. with a phd and mph (2 graduate degrees! that i am still paying off loans for), they tried to have me making folders for a meeting! yes, copying documents, collating papers, and filling folders! then tried to tell me that it was a mistake to hire me because they have had to spend too much time reviewing and revising the work i do: i’m filling folders! this is your taxpayers dollars hard at work y’all!
March 30, 2007 at 9:09 am
Kimberly Michelle
I feel you. That’s a painful feeling to be overqualified for a job.
March 30, 2007 at 10:43 am