SURVEY SAYS: How Do Your Co-Workers Bug You?

Fine for what it was (see  Watch Your Mouth! Foul Language Worst Employee Etiquette Offense ), but frankly it struck me as a pretty tame list.  

This week, I asked readers to identify the thing that coworkers do that really bugs them…most.

As “extensive” as the list of choices was – 15 choices – the “winner”, being late for meetings, drew the acknowledgement of just 9.2% of this week’s respondents.   The second most “popular”, gossip, garnered just 7.3% – and third place (so to speak) was bad hygiene, though it was cited by just ( 3.6% ).   Eating someone else’s food from the office fridge, bad language, and leaving dirty dishes each drew about 3% , while drinking on the job, cooking smelly food in the microwave, burning popcorn in the microwave, sneaking peeks at their blackberry during meetings, taking the last cup of coffee without making a new pot, and kissing up to the boss were good for about 2% each.

“Others”

Now, those of you who have been keeping count will notice that all of that adds up to much less than 100%.   In fact, it’s not even 50%.   So, what was the top response – by far (about 60% , in fact) – “other”.   As for what constituted “other” this week – well, it covered a lot of ground.

A lot of the “other” had to do with people not holding up their end of things, including comments about wasting time, telling other people what to do (when it wasn’t their job to do so), being late on assignments, being late for work, and being long at lunch (some after already being late for work), and, of course, leaving early (while others continued laboring).    Oh, and there were folks who were there – but shouldn’t be, as one reader noted, “Coming in sick, infecting everyone else, and being self-righteous when they can’t crawl to the office.”  

There were, of course, more “mundane” transgressions, such as ” Leaving a paper jam in the copier or not putting more paper in the copier and just leaving it empty.”

An even larger share was devoted to those who seemed unaware that common workspace didn’t belong to anyone but themselves – instances such as:  

Speaker phone and ringing cell phones (however I did want to check many others you had on the list)

When their radio is playing softly the employee sings, and don’t know the words.

But the largest share of other comments, while arguably related to bad hygiene, ran the gamut (caution, if you are eating, you might want to stop before proceeding):

Co-worker picking nose while I'm talking to him

Spitting on you while they talk.

Wearing bad perfume

Passing gas in shared offices

Scratching their private area in public and clipping their nails while on a phone call.

Let's just say that that I find it annoying to have to ask my co worker if he needs a tissue. (It is apparent he does) Unfortunately sometimes I offer the tissue box a little too late.

This may fall under the category of "bad hygiene". We have a colleague who regularly clips his finger nails in his cubicle. I shudder every time I hear the snip, snip, snip of clippers.

Responses

I also asked readers what, if anything, they did when confronted with these bad behaviors.   Roughly a third ( 32.1% ) said they didn't do anything, while one-in-ten complained to others, half that number told the boss - and 15% said they confronted the individual/problem.   However, a plurality (nearly 37% ) again chose "other" - which, for most, meant either that their response depended on the specific circumstances, the specific individual, or the particular "transgression."   And sometimes, of course, their response was - - - more than one of the above.

Not everyone was confronted with such behaviors.  "I must work in an office with really great people," noted one.   "Either that or we have policies in place that prevent these things . . . everyone gets to spend a week doing the dishes for all, meetings start on time whether you are there or not, everyone empties their own garbage on garbage days and we aren't allowed to make popcorn in the microwave. We are all too busy to sleep, drink or gossip and cell phones/Blackberrys are not allowed to be on when at the office."

Of course, as one reader noted, "Since I am the boss, I have to point out the great things about where they work. What I'd like to tell them is to close their yap and get back to work."

But this week's Editor's Choice goes to the reader who noted, "We are HR. Part of our job is to listen. However, we have now implemented a sanity fund. For every complaint received, we add a dollar to the jar. For every complaint we make, we add $2 to the jar. At the end of the week, we have a lovely happy hour fund."

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey!