The ‘reply-all’ and other office pet-peeves
A recent poll indicates that office workers have plenty of gripes, and most of them are about the behaviour of their co-workers. The list has plenty of tech complaints, but the biggest annoyance is also one of the oldest.
A recent poll indicates that office workers have plenty of gripes, and most of them are about the behaviour of their co-workers. The list has plenty of tech complaints, but the biggest annoyance is also one of the oldest.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the number one office beef is gossip. The full top-7 list breaks down like this:
- Gossip (60%)
- Poor time management (including personal calls and non work-related web surfing) (54%)
- General messiness in shared spaces, such as dirty dishes in the sink (45%)
- Strong or offensive smells like perfume, smoke or food (42%)
- Loud noises such as speaker phones, raised voices or obnoxious ringtones (41%)
- Overuse of cellphones, BlackBerrys or PC’s during meetings (28%)
- Misuse of e-mail e.g. hitting ‘reply-all’ unnecessarily or putting people in the BCC line (22%)
The study was conducted with 2,429 respondents, all of whom were in the U.S. It would be interesting to see if the top seven were the same in Canada. Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but my personal top peeves are actually the last 3 on the list. Having worked exclusively on websites for the last 10 years of my career, poor electronic etiquette drives me crazy. That said, here are my contributions to the office pet-peeves line-up:
- People who don’t take the time to read your emails thoroughly before replying (and yes, I’ve been guilty of this myself)
- Meetings that don’t have a specific goal or agenda and end up with nothing concrete being decided
- Conference calls on which people in a boardroom forget that others are on the phone
- People who carry on loud conversations as they walk down the hall (especially in open office environments)
- Poor spelling. I know, I’m showing my age on this one. Call me old-fashioned, but if you’re going to communicate in writing, please, at least use the spell-check!
Ok, I can feel you absolutely shaking with the desire to add your pet peeves and vent your frustrations with the office… have at it… try to remain civil :-)
Update: I really should have provided a link to the original article, mentioned that the study was done by staffing firm Randstad USA. Sorry, my bad.
Also, you may be interested to know that people’s willingness to address their peeves with co-workers varied with the irritation in question: 42% were willing to address loud-talkers, 34% would confront the gossipers among them and only 25% would hold people accountable for their e-mail faux-pas.
i hate when people take super long breaks and their 10s are halfs and thier halfs are 45mins to an hour. but i quit my job so now i have nothing to complain about. Im a full time crim student and going to be a cop!!! P.S. i read all the comments and to those people who talk about thier family at work, keep doing it cuz it shows that you are a loving person and it makes you more approachable to the new employees. i love my family too!!!
I'm consistantly irritated with people who walk around talking about how much work they do for so little pay. It's getting really old!
I hate that smokers who take like 40 smoke breaks a day are not looked twice at, but when non-smokers look like they are not doing something for a second all hell breaks loose.
pet peeves *LoL*
try defending yourself once being accused of making fun of co-workers ratial differences unjustifiably!
I'm at wits end. Missing a co-worker off on sick leave, I commented on the high quality of work performed and how she can not be replaced. The new fill-in took it wrongly (once she finised eaves dropping on my conversation) and twised what I had said to suite her needs of desiring going to a government legal service and accusing me of making fun of her because of her nationality.
I can't even sleep anymore. All I want is to be able to work hard and find rest.
re- pet peeve? how about co-workers having enough work not to bother other people?
To everyone who keeps commenting on loud talkers (phone conversations, face-to-face with co-workers, whatever), make sure you've actually TOLD the person s/he is being loud, before griping about it. Many people don't know they are being heard throughout the office and would probably appreciate it if someone stopped by and made a polite suggestion that perhpas s/he could lower her/his voice because the office is so quiet everyone can hear her/him. If that doesn't help, *then* you can complain about it. Don't berate someone because they talk loudly unless you know the person is doing it on purpose.
Talking about your family (or socialising in general) is fine, but do it during your break(s). Talking about your problems at home, is not. That's what friends are supposed to be for (or even other family members if you have them). If your co-workers are your friends, then take the conversation outside the workplace (or do it during a break, away from everyone else).
My major pet peeve (and this is actually more for the internet than the workplace): spelling (and grammatical) errors. As someone pointed out, spell check is a button away (although if you've graduated high school you should be capable of basic spelling and grammar without resorting to spell check).
i hate it when your on break and like a group of people start talking in there own language when they all know how to speak english, i dunno i just think thats rude, and really lame music being played really loud ha ha
First, I totally agree with the spelling thing. Second, I work in a family business. As one of the non-family members I find myself annoyed constantly by their bickering over non-work related issues, like debt management and christmas gifts. Also somehow out of the deal I gained an extra mother without the benefits of gaining a boyfriend. Nagging bosses are the worst, especially when they act like nagging mothers-in-law. I, like many others, would like a boss who knows what they want, when they want it, and how they want it done. I really get sick and tired of the 'well what do you think?' and the 'how would you do it?' questions. If I am not making a managerial salary then I don't want to be making managerial decisions!
PEACE
Peter maybe you should take a reading course,Nadine was giving exampels of silly peevs people have, and her main foccus subject is going with the flow.
Jesse sounds like she is defending Kelly bashing Cheryl because shes another bitter single. get a real life not fake little single life that crashes and burns when your in your 30s its called growing up, have some kids you will see the importance of growing up,and learning lifes not all about you and your little circle of friends.
I agree with a lot of the comments & have to admit I'm guilty of a few…I have a couple peeves to add,though..managers talking shop at coffee with a 'select few' and making the rest of us feel like we shouldn't comment but sit & listen how important they are! Also, the thin people commenting about having to lose weight & not eating this or that and usually making these comments in front of the manager when there is an over weight person nearby….heck, 'usually' size doesn't matter as long as you do your job & the people who make these comments either don't know or don't care how they make others feel.
i cant stand it when co-workers, supervisors or management complain that others are being slow or to talkative and then spend the whole day either standing in one spot or trying to find different ppl to chat with! this drives me crazy!its easy to tell ppl to hurry up when all you do is stand in one spot and count stuff or blab. all that leaning must be hard on the spine.
Hypocrites, i hate hypocrites.
p.s- i think kristin might be a crazy 16yr old! grow up and move on.
Too anny of u that have probems w1th spell1ng peevs, 1 say get an 1Q spell1ng means noth1ng to l1ttle of a person's 1ntelegence. Rather people that compla1n about spell1ng, have less 1ntelegence because they can not f1gure out or 1nfrence the top1c be1ng presented,AKA they don't take t1me to read. Last time some one was perfect he was na1led to the cross. My po1nt people are not perfect and m1ght have learn1ng problems that cause spell1ng problems so make fun of that 1f your so h1 and m1ghty/pathet1c, also Albert Einstein and many other soc1ally dubed Gen1ous that could not spell for the l1fe of them, spell1ng is for secretarys to f1x. If you want spell1ng to be f1xed on a large scale standerd1ze spell1ng, rules no except1ons to the rules and take out the var1at1ons of sounds in words. other wise stop complane1ng. If you need to send letters out of your off1ce then spell check or get someone to proof read yes other w1se stop being P1ssy about spelling, Just My Op1n1on.
My major pet peeve in the work place is a manager who expects you to do all the work on a project, then invariably 'forgets' to mention your name once the project is completed and recognized by upper management. Taking credit for someone else's hard work is soo not cool!!
On the topic of spelling and grammar, I have just one comment. It reflects an education.
Poor spelling and poor grammar is unprofessional, regardless if the communication is internal or external.
Make the effort.
i get vexed when people whistle to get your attention like your some dog or pet like i am your slave. next time someone whistles at me i will punch them.
WHATEVER!
Geoff there is no "alot" because you spell it "ALLOT"
Hey, Ghost, there's more than one way to have a life . . . Biased a little?
My peeve involves sleepy colleagues who forward your delicate/compromising work-related email to another concerned party without checking the email trail (which they should've been reading in the first place). Having been burned in a big way by this a couple of times years ago, I now militantly protect myself in the e-trails. Remember that the dopiest person on your e-trail makes you vulnerable to political snafus in the workplace.
Pet Peeve – Too many of my co-workers fight change and innovation. If they would just go with the flow and participate, they would appreciate the change.
Incorrect spelling of names. Whether the name has 15 or 5 letters, it is rude and displays laziness to spell a person's name incorrectly. Get it write or keep asking until you do.
Wow. Good thing the spell-checker is not active on this chat. We'd all see a lot of underlined words. Worst offense is a smoker returning from a smoke break and standing close to me. yuk…change your clothes or don't smoke in a confined area.