Study Reveals 10 Most Terrible Office Behaviors

[Masterj]

I hate when people insist on using speaker phone and then leave their office door wide open for the world to hear. Close your damn door already b/c I certainly don't want to hear your conversations!

 

[eve]

I think schools often heat up popcorn as a snack for the class so I don't think much complaining could be had there...
Why not bring something else to work rather then running out? There must be something healthy and warm you can cook other then seafood?
Like soup or a frozen meal?


About the child thing... I thought that one was odd as well....
But then I thought about it and decided it must mean ... the boss brings in their child and the child is a total brat!
Kind of like ...... "My dad is the boss, so you can't tell me anything!"
Or employees afraid to correct the bosses child?

Not at our school, there are some who feel like Jeana - hate the smell of popcorn at work. There's even one teacher who can't eat it (health reasons) and LOVES it so he has a fit if he can smell it! I have brought all kinds of things and someone about just about everything, I swear, if it's cooked. The kids do too, it's always "ewwww what is that?" You are probably thinking I eat strangely but I don't, in fact I am quite a good cook:blushing: actually and eat a wide variety of things. But people if it smells like garlic, they complain about broccoli's odor, they complain about so many things, I just get outta there! Maybe it's a strange group. We do eat among the kids and they are at-risk kids. To them the only "normal" food seems to be mac and cheese, ramen noodles and McDonald's. Oh, and I used to have a boss who brought in her stinky dog! Give me garlic any day, jeez!

Eve

 

[Paladin]

Here's a few more from my personal experience that bother me, mind you I work in a cubicle farm:

People eating crunchy type foods in their cube. Save your potato chips, popcorn, and carrot sticks for the cafeteria where it's okay to eat as loudly as you want.

People who take a sip of hot coffee or tea, and go "AHHHH" after every sip.

Loud talkers. Yep, you know who I'm talking about. A person can be in their cube 2 feet away but they still talk to them at the top of their lungs.

People who have nothing better to do than hang out in the entrance to your cube trying to talk to you about non-work related things while you're doing work. Normally I don't mind this but when the person has been there for more than 5 minutes it's a bit much. I've seen people shooting the breeze outside of a cube for up to an hour.

People who complain CONSTANTLY about their work situation. I don't want to hear it. If you hate your job so much find another one.

Office know-it-alls. Come up with a solution that isn't theirs and they're threatened, and will offer up their way of doing things. I haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaate these people.

Fast walkers. There are people are my office who literally speed walk, jog, or run so fast to get from point A to point B that 1. They almost bowl people over trying to get where they are going, 2. They scare the crap out of me as they run past my cube or surprise me coming around a corner. How much time could you possibly be saving by doing this?

People who take their work too seriously. Don't confuse this with me taking a stab at people with good work ethics. But when I go out to lunch with you that is my time, and if it isn't a "work lunch", then I don't want to talk about work. This is my time to relax. I work hard and work and I leave my work at the office.

People who come to work sick. This is what sick days are for. If you're sick, STAY THE FRIG HOME. I don't want your cold. The business won't collapse if you stay home a day or two.

People who don't wash their hands in the bathroom. I've seen it all. People go to the bathroom, and walk right out. Others put their hands under the water for NOT EVEN A SECOND and think that counts as washing their hands.


** Eve, about the seafood thing, I don't mind it when they do it in the cafeteria. Only when they eat it in cubicles, which can disrupt other's work.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

This thread makes me appreciate my staff and the fact we have a small office!!

I could never make it in the corporate world! Working in a tiny cubical would drive me insane! I applaud those of you that must.

 

[TaylorJ4]

People (women) who pee on the toilet seats in the employee restroom-and leave it there!

 

[reportertype]

Seafood reminds me. We used to have a coworker who brought frozen shrimp dinner and stored them in his desk during the day. Then he'd eat them in the evening.

We had one guy who pawed thru desks looking for food, pens, etc.

One woman who would walk by a bank of desks where people were working and announced she smelled liquor, pee or whatever else.

One guy who always tried to play footsies under the conference table.

One woman once had her entire paycheck stolen that she had just cashed. She had it in her purse and hidden away in a drawer. Someone had to look for it.

We couldn't keep any food in the fridge at one office because it was always stolen.

One coworker used to cry if she didn't get her way.

 

[CaliKid]

Stealing food out of the fridge was a big thing in one of the offices I worked at.

Another was an office manager who decided to buy a very expensive Christmas presents for the boss "from everyone" and just expecting people to pony up with contributions when many employees obviously couldn't afford it.

 

[capps]

Or how you learned not to ask people if you could pick them up something from the deli for lunch that you were going to,because you'd then have an order from eight people.And these same people would then get perturbed with you,when you didn't get their order just right.Also these same people would hurry and sneak out when they were going to the deli,so they wouldn't have to pick up anything for anyone else.

Another pet peeve of mine ... when people will leave two drops of coffee in the coffee pot,because they refuse to make a fresh pot of coffee for the next person.

I know this all sounds so petty,but when you start adding it up,it gets frustrating,also it usually are the same people always trying to get away with something.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

I always kept my own small mini-fridge in my office. I could never eat food that was in a shared fridge. GROSS!!!! :hand:

 

[Utopia]

This thread is starting to make me chuckle - you have to laugh or you would cry (very good idea not to cry at work). I work in a hospital and have an inner office within a larger one shared with 3 or 4 others. There are 20-25 others that I work with and I've experienced most of what has been posted here - and I agree with all! (well I like the smell of popcorn but wouldn't make it at work unless it was a special occasion).

Jeanna alluded to it but people who leave things to rot in the shared fridge or don't clean up after themselves really annoys me.

 

[BarnGoddess]

7. Littering or spitting
:waitasec:
That made me laugh. I worked in an office and never saw anyone litter or spit.

Hey, Philamena! I have a personal story about just this person. Years ago, working as an office manager in a car dealership, we had a Toyota salesman who we (in the office) named "Pigpen", after the character in Snoopy who always had a cloud of dirt around him. He would take a piece of gum out of his pocket and as he walked, he'd discard the wrappers as he walked, right on the floor. He also had a habit of going into the communal refrigerator and grabbing whatever seemed to take his fancy. That was bad enough, but he left the wrappers on the floor, or even left our containers on the table. We finally got him, though. We all decided to "doctor" our lunches with some horrible tasting ingredients. I had overlooked some sandwich meat in my fridge, so it had grown some green slime and looked awful. I added some mayo and lettuce to the "sandwich" and others put tons of red pepper, etc. on their offerings and of course everything was scattered about with one bite taken or just discarded after bags were opened. Fortunately, he left the dealership after his manager caught him verbally abusing our cashier.

I could add a few really good ones to that list. Nothing like the car business to come up with some good "Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll" stories.

 

[twinkiesmom]

Burnt popcorn or old seafood in the microwave.

People going through my desk and taking Kleenex or feminine products without asking. (The Kleenex is in a drawer because it disappeared too quickly when left on the desk.)

A coworker who has to be the center of attention...if you don't pay attention to her, she just gets louder and more dramatic. Said person believes she is smarter than everyone else and her time is more valuable (even if our take-home pay is higher).

A person with a medical degree and windowed office who asks me to do his secretarial work (not my job) rather than his own administrative assistant just because I am a cube dweller.

A person with an advanced science degree who makes nitpicky changes in my English (thereby creating new grammatical errors :banghead: ) rather than reviewing the science (his actual responsibility).

Mentally unbalanced coworker who believed she was playing "Survivor" and tried to get the rest of us voted off the island by emailing bogus complaints to supervisors.

 

[philamena]

Hey, Philamena! ...

BarnGoddess,
So you had a real PigPen in your office. :crazy: Glad he found other employment.

I have a story to share though I'm not sure which category it goes in. lol
Years ago I worked in a small medical office. The front desk and the reception area were only inches apart. One man that came to the practice was just as nice as he could be but he had a terrible habit of --hocking--. :waitasec: And I mean loudly. He never, ever excused his loud noise nor did he excuse himself and go to the restroom to spit. lol When I first started working in the office, I'd gag whenever he came in. lol

 

[pedinurse]

nevermind. LOL... not the place to vent!

 

[Amraann]

I never minded the smell of popcorn BUT one Monday Morning I opened the office and found that the weekend receptionist had burnt popcorn so badly that the microwave was ruined.....
The entire office reaked! There was a layer of burnt grime covering the entire kitchenette counter area....
Not even an attempt to clean up the mess!

No one ever fessed up to it but the chances of anyone other then the receptionist being the last person in the office on a Sunday were about slim to nothing.

Another bad office behavior............they installed a new computer program and although we all went to training for it only about 4 of us actually knew how to use it. Of course we wound up doing the work for most everyone else..
I did not mind that so much as some of them did make an effort to actually learn the program while I would be showing them... But then you had others who would simply just rely on me to do the work for them.

 

[GlitchWizard]

What about the employees who really don't carry their weight, but bring the boss souvineers from their vacations and get away with being slack because of it? Personal use of the computer, the phones, the paper and pens... Oh wait... that's all me.

(Nevermind.)

 

[Amraann]

What about the employees who really don't carry their weight, but bring the boss souvineers from their vacations and get away with being slack because of it? Personal use of the computer, the phones, the paper and pens... Oh wait... that's all me.

(Nevermind.)

LOLOLOL!!!!

 

[Pocono Sleuther]

7. Littering or spitting
:waitasec:
That made me laugh. I worked in an office and never saw anyone litter or spit.

Why am I know picturing someone sitting at their desk spitting at others as they walk by??
Yuck. :waitasec:

 

[philamena]

Why am I know picturing someone sitting at their desk spitting at others as they walk by??
Yuck. :waitasec:

bawaaaaaaa
For some reason the mental picture of that cracks me up.

 

[meowy]

People who microwave their pork rinds during office hours should be fired.