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Annoyances in the workplace
- Thread starter CortexRock
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Forgot to mention. My desk shares a wall with the men's room. I can pretty much hear everything that goes on. Fortunately, I'm good at tuning out random noises.
That reminds me of friends who have had dorm rooms that border banks of showers or staircases. There seemed to be either a constant "whooooosh" (and maybe some...other...noises late at night on the weekends), or thundering, booming footsteps constantly.
Customers who come in right before closing time are killer, especially if closing out takes a long time and you try to get a head start by turning off and cleaning various appliances that, of course, the last-minute customer orders something from. (ie espresso machines, blenders, grills etc). I actually had some last minute customers tonight, some guy wandered in at 8:59 (we close at 9:00), ordered the biggest, fanciest sundae we sell. Then he decided to sit in the shop and eat (can't lock the door!), while more and more people noticed the lights on and dropped in. Wound up locking the door at 9:40.
-Women that don't show up to work on Monday's ("not feeling well" my ass)
-Thermostat set to 75, should be set to 72!
-Weekly meetings
-Vegetarians cooking things in the microwave that smell worse than a skunk lying dead in a sulfur pond
-Soda/Candy machine stealing my money, and then the vendor failing to refund me!
-Wet floors around toilets
-People answering personal cellphone calls while at work
-People standing between me and my fan! This really drives me nuts, because the office is too damn hot I have a small fan on a chair about 3 feet from me, and people coming into my cubicle will get right in front of it. My nice cool breeze instantly disappears and gets replaced with whatever odors happen to be emanating off of their pelvis.
One thing I take offense to others taking offense to is clipping fingernails. I don't see anything wrong with it. It especially bothers me that women take offense to it, when they think nothing of filing their nails, doing their make-up, or using hand/skin lotions.
-Thermostat set to 75, should be set to 72!
-Weekly meetings
-Vegetarians cooking things in the microwave that smell worse than a skunk lying dead in a sulfur pond
-Soda/Candy machine stealing my money, and then the vendor failing to refund me!
-Wet floors around toilets
-People answering personal cellphone calls while at work
-People standing between me and my fan! This really drives me nuts, because the office is too damn hot I have a small fan on a chair about 3 feet from me, and people coming into my cubicle will get right in front of it. My nice cool breeze instantly disappears and gets replaced with whatever odors happen to be emanating off of their pelvis.
One thing I take offense to others taking offense to is clipping fingernails. I don't see anything wrong with it. It especially bothers me that women take offense to it, when they think nothing of filing their nails, doing their make-up, or using hand/skin lotions.
It's okay if guys do it?
Another pet peeve - 2 hour meetings 3 hours from my house (by car) that I need to attend. And that I need to carpool to with my boss' boss.
Lovely.
I guess I have it pretty good. Other than sometimes having to navigate a labrynthine documentation/approval process (we're a government contractor), things are pretty smooth. Having to inform your boss when you get tickets or are going to be leaving the country can be a bit annoying, though.
my top 10 pet peeves over the years
1. people/entire workgroups with really bad BO that don't understand deodorant.
2. Administrative assistants next door who play really really bad rap with the bass turned way up. Ask it to be turned down, it goes up. Boss didn't care. Don't worry she found another way to get "fired"
3. People with really really annoyingly loud voices and grating laughs that you can hear through closed doors, while playing really bad music. (Different person than in point #2)
4. Same people who have maintenance staff in their office from 2:30 onwards, engaging in God knows what, and participating in point #3
5. Co-workers that choose to continually ignore their office line unless you specifically say something about it.
6. Co-workers with insanely co-dependent "significant others" who call, ring three times, hang up, call back, ring three times, hang up, etc. Urm... they're not in! Get the friggin point! Leave a voicemail!
7. Friends of co-workers who ask you where worker X is. Urm I'm not their keeper and besides they're on vacation, I told you yesterday.
8. Co-workers who talk to you like you're stupid/didn't graduate kindergarten. Urm... I am a native speaker and did go to school.
9. Co-workers who steal your supplies, reagents, chemicals, etc. Thinking they magically reappear when empty or that you don't need them for your projects.
10. Co-workers who never do work, show up to work for 2 hours a day, don't get anything done, and self-promote their job titles. Yeah I know it happens. Well in that case... I run this institution and I'm going to Fiji for 6 months.
Ahhh... Thank you all for getting me all stressed out and worked up. Now I'll get a great run and workout it.
1. people/entire workgroups with really bad BO that don't understand deodorant.
2. Administrative assistants next door who play really really bad rap with the bass turned way up. Ask it to be turned down, it goes up. Boss didn't care. Don't worry she found another way to get "fired"
3. People with really really annoyingly loud voices and grating laughs that you can hear through closed doors, while playing really bad music. (Different person than in point #2)
4. Same people who have maintenance staff in their office from 2:30 onwards, engaging in God knows what, and participating in point #3
5. Co-workers that choose to continually ignore their office line unless you specifically say something about it.
6. Co-workers with insanely co-dependent "significant others" who call, ring three times, hang up, call back, ring three times, hang up, etc. Urm... they're not in! Get the friggin point! Leave a voicemail!
7. Friends of co-workers who ask you where worker X is. Urm I'm not their keeper and besides they're on vacation, I told you yesterday.
8. Co-workers who talk to you like you're stupid/didn't graduate kindergarten. Urm... I am a native speaker and did go to school.
9. Co-workers who steal your supplies, reagents, chemicals, etc. Thinking they magically reappear when empty or that you don't need them for your projects.
10. Co-workers who never do work, show up to work for 2 hours a day, don't get anything done, and self-promote their job titles. Yeah I know it happens. Well in that case... I run this institution and I'm going to Fiji for 6 months.
Ahhh... Thank you all for getting me all stressed out and worked up. Now I'll get a great run and workout it.
My cube is right next to a conference room, the door is, like, right behind me. So shut the f*king door if you're in there. I don't want to hear all of you babbling on about something I don't care about and then hear the guy on speakerphone who for some reason is calling from a cell phone with a ton of static.
We've got one we refer to as "the perfume lady". I have no idea what her function is, but the stench of "Fluer du Dow Chemical" follows her down the hall. If she enters any office, the smell lingers for about an hour after she leaves. This stuff would make you retch if you got too close. I have no idea if anyone has complained officially or not.
I've got another one...
Trying to have a conversation with colleagues who appear to have not watched TV or any films in the last ten years.
You can't make 'pop-culture' references, because they have no idea what you're talking about...
Trying to have a conversation with colleagues who appear to have not watched TV or any films in the last ten years.
You can't make 'pop-culture' references, because they have no idea what you're talking about...
Ugh, seriously? You don't find silence punctuated by a constant split-second version of that nails-on-a-chalkboard sound annoying when you're trying to focus?
Lots of people do things they can't possibly think others would find annoying. Guess what? You're part of the problem. Unless you do it just to spite your coworkers... but that's still kinda lame.
I've got another one...
Trying to have a conversation with colleagues who appear to have not watched TV or any films in the last ten years.
You can't make 'pop-culture' references, because they have no idea what you're talking about...
I guess I would probably annoy the heck out of you. I haven't watched TV regularly since 1997. It always annoys me when people bring up all kinds of TV references and act like I am a lesser being because I don't know who won American Idol or anything about Jack Bauer (spelling?). I do enjoy movies and music, so I am not completely without 'pop-culture' awareness, it is just that TV really tends to suck up a lot of time that I would rather spend doing something else.
Okay, one that happened to me today:
People poking LCD screens with their fingers or in my case, a pen! Arrgh!
Not only was it the screen on my PowerBook which I'd brought in to work to complete a job I couldn't do on my nasty works PC, but when I said "Please don't poke my screen with your pen" I got a funny look and a comment about not being so sensitive about my precious computer.
People poking LCD screens with their fingers or in my case, a pen! Arrgh!
Not only was it the screen on my PowerBook which I'd brought in to work to complete a job I couldn't do on my nasty works PC, but when I said "Please don't poke my screen with your pen" I got a funny look and a comment about not being so sensitive about my precious computer.
People who drone on and on about their personal baby mama drama for 15, 330, 45, even 60 minutes.... despite NO eye contact from me, NO responses from me, and me typing a document or email and staring intently at my screen. WHAT IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE, AND WHY MUST THEY BE BORING!?!?
My new office is near one of the side entrances to our building, which a lot of people use, so I'm still getting used to the constant foot traffic and hallway chatter. I hate it when people heading in opposite directions down the hall happen to meet right in front of my door, then stop and have a loud conversation - when I'm clearly trying to work.
The worst, though, was at a past job, when one co-worker insisted on conducting all of her phone conversations on speaker phone (and she was a sales manager, so she was on the phone a lot.) The worst part was that she had an office, with a door, which she did tend to close - unfortunately, she insisted on talking so loudly that you could still hear her!
The worst, though, was at a past job, when one co-worker insisted on conducting all of her phone conversations on speaker phone (and she was a sales manager, so she was on the phone a lot.) The worst part was that she had an office, with a door, which she did tend to close - unfortunately, she insisted on talking so loudly that you could still hear her!
Holly Molly, you guys are putting up with so many BS. Have you ever crossed your mind moving to a new company? Some of the stuffs mentioned on this thread are so bad that I would pack up and move on to a better one.
Every office has BS. You're not going to get around it by moving from place to place to place. The only thing you'll accomplish is a resume that screams "can't play well with others"
What I meant was people should move on to another company if the BS is too much to take for a position. Of course, you (I am referring to people in general) need to take the potential future opportunities with the current company into consideration. I know it does not look good on your resume if you come across to a new potential employer as a non-team player or job hopper. I have done enough job interviews in my careers and I know you would need to tread carefully if you take that option. But, if the BS factor is too high for the position you are paid for, it would be better to ditch that post and move on to the greener pasture. So far, I have been lucky enough to move up to the better position each time I changed my job.
