No shortage of pet peeves around the office: study
If hell really is other people, particularly those that are pigs, then the fact that one of the top complaints among professionals is dirty shared microwaves or refrigerators won't come as much of a surprise.
That's one of the findings of an admittedly non-scientific survey conducted by LinkedIn, a high-profile social network for professionals, to find just what gets under office workers' skins.
To undercover these irritants, the study polled over 17,000 LinkedIn users in 16 countries, including 1,228 in Canada.
Other top pet peeves include:
1. People who don’t take ownership of their actions
2. Constant complainers
4. Boring meetings that start late or go way too long
5. People who consistently seem to miss your email
Among this group, 78% said they were driven to distraction by those who refused to hold themselves to account or own up to mistakes – the top issue in every country, LinkedIn found.
Out of 16 countries surveyed, Canadians ranked fifth in terms of the number of pet peeves among the 38 choices.
Americans are more peeved than those in other countries when it comes to taking food from the refrigerator that isn’t yours, it seems. 65% of respondents pegged it as a significant office annoyance, versus 52% worldwide.
But not all pet-peeves are equal when it comes to gender, the survey suggests. Women reported being more annoyed than men by “clothing that’s too revealing for the workplace.” That bothered only 29% of the men surveyed, but 62% of women.
What's your biggest complaint when it comes to coworkers? What have you done to improve the situation?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
Posted by: pete | Oct 14, 2021 7:25:25 PM
It's the one up story teller that a lot of offices have. You know, the person that always has the bigger, better, story than the one you just told. If you said you hit a home run in Sunday's softball game, they once hit five in one inning. We have a guy that is just relentless. He has had 20 different jobs, even though he has worked at the same company for 34 years. He has seen and done everything or personally knons of someone who has. Doesn"t matter what the subject, his story is bigger and better. And his kid, holy crap, i would think he was the second coming of the Almighty. Blow it out your briefcase, loser!!
Posted by: Jack | Oct 15, 2021 10:22:29 AM
I work out of my home, so I miss a lot of ofice dynamics. When I do go to viist my company's sites, ususally for meetings, my biggest beef is people who show up very late to meetings, or not at all. Then there are many who (mostly managers) just sit there and read their emails on their BlackBerries, or send messages. These are the same people who then compalin a while later that they were not informed of design changes, or whatever was discused in that meeting. Another peeve is when you are in someone's office having a discussion, the phone rings, and they pick it up. That is utterly rude and unprofessional. This issue was even brought out as a problem in an open discussion at our department meeting once, yet most people still do it. The acceptable exception here is if you are expecting an important phone call, then make that known up front, otherwise, what is your voicemail for?
Posted by: Tough Chic | Oct 15, 2021 11:59:04 AM
My biggest pet peeve in the office is women who are constantly trashing and gossiping against other women. It seems these particular women are simply jelouse, feel threatened, or intimidated.
Posted by: Elmo | Oct 15, 2021 1:12:21 PM
Gotta love those dirty shared microwaves and refrigerators. Who's idea were those anyway ?
THE 200-lb HEIFER WORKFORCE !!! Male workers never needed a micro and fridge on every floor. And who doesn't relish the lingering smell of DIET Swanson and Michelinas pasta lunches every noon. The diet-conscious femalia also need fridges for their leftover casseroles from the night before, which usually stay and gather moss in the office fridge for 2-3 weeks 'cause they forget 'em, all the while going out to lunch with the rest of the herd. And less we forget about those all those pot-luck get togethers... another female invention... and another pile of krap to infest the office fridge for a month. Bag a sandwich and a cookie biitches !!
Posted by: Heather | Oct 15, 2021 7:07:17 PM
yeah, I'm a girl and I believe myself women could be more useful.
and less like sensitive, diet needy, pretty dress wearing whores!
I hate all feminism, tomboys rule.
Posted by: Sara | Oct 18, 2021 9:31:52 AM
Women with rude comments who are jealous because they weigh more than some one else and can't handle it. Stop eating so much and exercise then! Gossiping, acting like high school and forming a group so you can single someone out, ever heard of workplace bullying? Ass kissers who act totally different in front of management staff than they do with coworkers. New employees with a sense of entitlement, can't get over that one! They think they deserve the same amount of vacation time or other perks that long term employees worked hard for. Offensive food odours, (don't eat fish at work), the uber fashion conscious woman that never wears the same thing twice in 2 months and has different jewelry to match her outfits. I could go on but thank goodness I am no longer work in an office environment so I am no longer dealing with this crap.