The Most Annoying Office Habits.

[RobbO]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 8:26am

Despite the laundry list of complaints, the loud talker wins the award for most annoying. Of 2,318 people surveyed in March 2006 by Harris Interactive and Randstad, 32% say an office loud talker is their biggest pet peeve. Coming in a close second at 30% is using an annoying cellphone ringtone; 22% said speakerphones are their No. 1 peeve.

Other pet peeves: leaving the kitchen a mess; bringing potent-smelling food for lunch; and leaving the sound on the computer so everyone hears the ding of an instant message.
Yes. I'm talking to YOU.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 9:45am

I worked in an office with a prototypical loud talker. She would just gab and gab on the phone with her clients, and she gave away all kinds of ghastly personal information in these conversations (one really memorable one involving a sex party where people made plaster casts of their genitals), and she had a hideous high-pitched falsetto voice, and it was just torture. Polite requests to her and complaints to management didn't work, she simply couldn't help it.

And then the loud talker started finding transcripts of her conversations in her inbox, word for word write-ups of her ceaseless chatter, with the really embarassing bits in bold caps.

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 9:49am

I KNEW it!

I call the one near me "the mouth".

[DG]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 9:50am

Most annoying office habit?

From the perspective of a business owner, I would imagine it's people that you're paying to work for you who spend most of their time trolling the internet.

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:27am

I HATE the loud talkers!

I also hate the office grouches. Of course work can suck and we all need to vent once in a while, but I'm talking about the ones who constantly find someone or something to complain about (from work to participating in a holiday grab bag to contributing a frigging dollar for someone's birthday cake) and are ALWAYS negative. If you're that miserable, just quit.

[RobbO]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:28am

dg, i would have thought you would have said drinking on the job.

Updated On: 7/24/07 at 10:28 AM

[shameless]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:28am

That's it, DG! You've finally crossed the line with me. I am offended!

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:30am

I've never encountered that.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:31am

I have a coworker who thinks we need to know *everything* about her life -- how her boyfriend is, how much fun it was to cut her lawn, what her parents think of her upcoming vacation. She's a lovely person, but there are times when I just wish she'd STFU.

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:36am

Sean, I agree. The peppy cheerleader type can be as annoying as the grouch.

[brdlwyr]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:55am

I think being ugly is an annoying habit.

For me, the petty sniping between my staff.

Bad breath is annoying also.

[RobbO]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 10:56am

fire 'em all, brd! do it!

[DG]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 11:48am

The only problem with people who drink on the job is if they won't share.

Fortunately, I don't have to work, nor rely on the kindness of strangers.

[RobbO]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 11:54am

turning over a new leaf then?

[DG]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 11:56am

"turning over a new leaf then?"

Never. Bitter, annoying, alcoholic fag works just fine for me.

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:02pm

There's a woman whose cubicle is diaganally opposite mine. She wears open-toed sandal thingies. Her feet stink.

'Nuff said.

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:04pm

How about a control freak? Like the ones who always need to answer the phone, and go into hysterics if you take a stapler off her desk and don't put it back in the same spot next to the picture of her dog dressed as Batman. One time, I took it upon myself to go get the mail and sort it for her. I should have just shot myself.

[Lavieboheme3090]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:05pm

Our ASM director talks into his cellphone like the person on the other end of the line is acoss a football field.

[shameless]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:06pm

Awww, DG, I don't think you're annoying!

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 12:11pm

I think Total Abject Stupidity may be the most annoying office habit. I worked with someone who was so utterly stupid she managed to alienate a department of 8 people, whose workloads were increased the longer the Stupid One stayed there, because the Stupid One simply couldn't handle her duties.

And of course, the company couldn't fire the Stupid One, because reputedly the Stupid One was having an affair with a VP. The whole ugly situation just got worse and worse, and by time the Stupid One finally got a job elsewhere nobody was on speaking terms with her.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 2:28pm

I have MANY pet peeves, which is why I dont like people in general....having stated that, my pick is:

people who clip their nails at their desk.

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 2:48pm

We had a temp who used to pluck her chin hairs and eyebrows at her desk.

[SorryGrateful]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:01pm

There's a person I work with who is really a lovely woman, but she insists on checking her voicemail with her speakerphone and her speakerphone's volume is really high. I don't get why it's so hard to just pick up the phone and listen rather than spread her messages all over the office.

[blueroses]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:05pm

You should politely ask her not to do that, SG. Nothing wrong with that.

[Love4Cheno]

Posted: 7/24/07 at 3:09pm

I haaaaaaate when I'm eating at my desk and people stop by and say, "oooooh, that looks/smells good! What you eatin'?" and then stare at my food.