Does your workplace neighbor have bad habits that make you want to escape the cubicle jungle? According to a workplace survey conducted by LinkedIn and reported by ABC News (link here), there are certainly a great number of annoying habits people bring to the office.
According to the ABC News reporter, Susanna Kim, “LinkedIn conducted the research in 16 countries and collected data from 17,653 professionals. In the U.S., LinkedIn surveyed 1,953 people.” See the results below:
Top 5 Pet Peeves in the U.S.:
- People who don’t take ownership of their actions
- Constant complainers
- People who don’t clean up after themselves when using the fridge, the microwave or other common areas
- Boring meetings that start late or go way too long
- People who consistently seem to miss your email
Before you get too comfortable and cozy with yourself, there’s a bigger list. Just in case you are not guilty of the top 5, below is the complete list of 38 office pet peeves found in the survey:
- Loud typing
- Loud talkers / people who take calls on speakerphone
- Loud or irritating mobile phone ringtones
- Listening to music or videos without headphones
- People chatting by your workspace
- Humming/whistling/tapping
- Chewing gum
- A pungent-smelling lunch
- Taking food from the refrigerator that isn’t yours
- Dirty common areas (such as a dirty community microwave or refrigerator)
- Not putting things in the office kitchen/pantry back where they belong
- People throwing things in your garbage
- Messy desk
- People borrowing and not returning items from your desk
- Too much perfume
- Grooming (filing/clipping/polishing nails, tweezing, etc.)
- Clothing that’s too revealing for the workplace
- Constant complainers
- Eavesdropping and then chiming in
- Excessive gossiping
- Too much talk about health issues, spouses, children
- Colleagues who make too many personal phone calls
- Office pranks
- Too many meetings
- Starting meetings late or going long
- Showing up late for meetings
- Using phone or laptop during meetings
- Hitting “reply all” on mass employee emails
- Being CC’d on a long email string that doesn’t pertain to you
- People that don’t respond to emails
- People who send too many unimportant e-mails
- Not filling an empty printer with paper
- Overachievers that pander to the boss
- Overuse of workplace/industry jargon
- Trivial interruptions
- People who are first in and last out “just because”
- Coming to the office when sick
- People not taking ownership for their actions
If you are having issues with people in your office, this might be a good article to share in one of those boring meetings. I can assure you this meeting will not be boring.
