What are some pet peeves that you have with your co-workers? For me, it's when someone takes the last cookie, donut, slice of pizza, whatever, from the box and doesn't throw the box away. You go to open the box and ... NOTHING! Come on...
There is a guy who sits beside me who picks his nose, puts his hand down his pants to scratch himself, constantly sighs to himself, whistles, eats his lunch at his desk everyday, pounds his mouse buttons and many more.
Everyone at work thinks we get on well with each other, but really, I think he's an absolute bastard.
I'm a manager at a billion-dollar company, so boy do I have some pet peeves :D
Not owning up to your mistakes when they are genuine mistakes: it's like, dude, I'm not pissed; just tell me you screwed up so we can talk about what you did wrong, resolve not to do it again, and move on. I guess some people's egos won't let them own up to their mistakes, like it wasn't their fault, it was the system that allowed them to mess up.
Making stupid and/or repeat mistakes is another. I honestly think that learning through your mistakes is a good thing, because most people only do that single screwup and learn from it well. But some people just. Keep. Messing. UP! And here in California, it is really really hard to fire people, even though it literally says in our contract "we can let you go for no reason at all" or something like that.
Laziness. I don't ask people to give 110% all the time, that is ridiculous and unsustainable. But I do expect people to give at least 90% all the time, with a solid amount of 100%, and some extra if the time calls for it. But if you are just cruising along punching the clock, I feel like you should quit. You're insulting me, the rest of the people here, and acting like a fool by being here. Go find something that makes you happy; you're spending a solid chunk of your life doing this, find something you care about.
Being a grouch or unhappy at work. I keep reading articles like "Why it's OK to be sad" or "You need to let yourself feel bad" and that's fine, I get it. We all need our go-cry-emo-kid moments, but leave that shit at home. When you come in, you impact the people around you whether you mean to or not; you don't have to be all "la-de-da" happy, but at least be neutral or somewhat positive. For me, work is escape from my home life, and home is an escape from my work life.
Small problems. Don't come up to me asking me to resolve your interpersonal issues when you have not made an attempt. Figure that shit on your own, you are grown-ass men. If it feels like you are about to fight eachother, then come to me. I will escort you off company property and then you can fight.
the most annoying thing for me is when I'm trying to take a leak and a co-worker sets up in an adjacent urinal and strikes up conversation.
the CEO of the company does this (about a 150 person company) and I feel compelled to try and converse with him but god its such a challenge to finish your business while trying to make intelligent conversation with the damn CEO when you are a relatively junior employee such as myself.
I'm a laid-back kind of guy and so are my coworkers. Keeping the shop tidy and accomplishing the items on the shift checklist is a cinch. We're normally too busy to notice each other's idiosyncrasies. We're all experienced in our field. None of us have any annoying habits and even if we did, we're also quite tolerant. We work as a team and that means being able to put up with a lot of BS.
There's no privacy in the work area. Whatever I'm doing on my workstation can be scrutinized by anyone on shift for content and correctness. We don't have time to surf the web or make personal correspondence.
No politics at work and no set lunch hour. We eat when we can.
When you have several Containers to fill up with gods and tools strapped to pallets, and secure them with straps in accordance to set regulations, Having them stop in the middle of it cause someone commented on Facebook or Twitter really makes me start to lose patience with them. You don't have to be available all the goddamn time, let people get a chance to miss you a little and focus on your work.
1. No accountability. I don't need a story on why you're late, or you need to leave, or why so-an-so department is unfair. Stop being the victim.
2. People eating their food at their desks/out of the break room. This drives me nuts, especially if I'm trying to eat light and smell something really good. It completely distorts my focus and is annoying. I make it a habit to only eat in breakroom or out of office on my lunch for that reason.
I work remotely and over IM frequently. When I do work in an office, it's for short durations (no more than a month or two) and often the people I work with from my own company change from project to project. As such, I don't get into a "routine" the way a normal office worker does so stuff like "someone ate my lunch" doesn't really apply. Also, in my role when I have someone on my team who isn't doing a great job then that's no so much as a pet peeve as much as "this is an area where I need to coach this individual" since it's not something I have to put up with so much as it's my job to deal with it.
One that I have is when someone pings me on IM and I answer, and then they vanish right after saying "hi". Every time someone does that I'm like:
Disorganization. I work in retail and we all have specific departments we're all assigned to manage. Nothing gets to me more than when I walk in and see that someone made an absolute mess of my department which is going to take me hours to clean up, getting my manager pissed at me for taking so long, and usually receiving a bad grade on my evaluation because my department was a mess. Even if it didn't get me in trouble, it's so much easier to actually do the work when things are organized.
In my lunch room at work it pisses me off when people come in and turn the t.v. on and turn the volume way up.I want to have my breaks t.v. free. Old bitch's come in and turn the t.v. on every time,without fail.
1. No accountability. I don't need a story on why you're late, or you need to leave, or why so-an-so department is unfair. Stop being the victim.
2. People eating their food at their desks/out of the break room. This drives me nuts, especially if I'm trying to eat light and smell something really good. It completely distorts my focus and is annoying. I make it a habit to only eat in breakroom or out of office on my lunch for that reason.
Oh yeah, number 2. We have someone who brings in Carl's Jr all the time and puts it on the desk as we work on morning delivery and the smell drives me crazy because I don't eat breakfast and it makes me so hungry. I just wish she'd put in the breakroom.
1. No accountability. I don't need a story on why you're late, or you need to leave, or why so-an-so department is unfair. Stop being the victim.
2. People eating their food at their desks/out of the break room. This drives me nuts, especially if I'm trying to eat light and smell something really good. It completely distorts my focus and is annoying. I make it a habit to only eat in breakroom or out of office on my lunch for that reason.
What are the rules about eating on the job? If there are rules that say employees must eat at the break room only, enforce it.
We have SOPs that state no food or drink near the workstations. We see somebody eat by his computer, we yell at that person.
None of us are in the mood to stay late after work and be lectured. Better us yelling at him than the boss.
I can't stand it when people can't own up to their own mistakes. Some people have a real hard time accepting mistakes and in most cases admitting to them is a sign of strength and willingness to get better over the cowardly way of trying to evade them.
I have a vendetta against people in management positions that abuse their privileges in ways that are malicious to lower-grade workers. There's been times in my life working in lesser positions and either a manager tries to step on me or I witness it happening to others, and there's been several times especially in my early years when I was in retail and a higher-up thought they could step on me for unjust and malicious reasons and I've been in spots where I had to bite back to protect my own integrity in the work force and I had instances that resulted in managers either losing their positions or losing their jobs completely.
^ The above part ties into my other issue, which is when anyone have issues with following ethics. If I ever pick up ethical issues that get in the way of other workers, I'll usually have a problem with that.
I hate pessimists. I don't like to be around workers that are always just moping around and complaining about their daily lives and they're too lazy to take initiative and instead insist in pushing their negative outlooks onto others.
When new workers get mistreated by the entitled veterans. I don't want to see a new worker getting thrown disproportionate amounts of work because the veteran worker arrogantly said "good luck" without proper training or support so they can just slack off and laugh with their other veteran workers while a new guy suffers. That just tells me that people that worked at some place longer than a new person, they got too comfortable they really believe they can just get away with dropping the ball while being unfair to others.
OMG, so many!! Right near the top of my list is cooking smells. Who the hell takes fishy things into work and microwaves it? It frickin stinks out the kitchen and office! Bleurgh!
When my male co-workers go into the mens washroom, make a mess, and don't clean up after themselves. Particularly when they piss all over the place (Leaving the bathroom smelling like strong hot piss), including on the toilet (Constantly got to wipe up dried piss stains on a toilet seat if I need to take a dump). Seriously, if you don't know how to aim, sit your ass on the toilet and piss sitting down...
1. No accountability. I don't need a story on why you're late, or you need to leave, or why so-an-so department is unfair. Stop being the victim.
2. People eating their food at their desks/out of the break room. This drives me nuts, especially if I'm trying to eat light and smell something really good. It completely distorts my focus and is annoying. I make it a habit to only eat in breakroom or out of office on my lunch for that reason.
What are the rules about eating on the job? If there are rules that say employees must eat at the break room only, enforce it.
We have SOPs that state no food or drink near the workstations. We see somebody eat by his computer, we yell at that person.
None of us are in the mood to stay late after work and be lectured. Better us yelling at him than the boss.
There are no rules in writing about eating at one's desk, only that people must have a top/container for drinks. We do have a nice break room w/ a TV, books, and seating, however, to encourage usage.
the most annoying thing for me is when I'm trying to take a leak and a co-worker sets up in an adjacent urinal and strikes up conversation.
the CEO of the company does this (about a 150 person company) and I feel compelled to try and converse with him but god its such a challenge to finish your business while trying to make intelligent conversation with the damn CEO when you are a relatively junior employee such as myself.
A lot of people would kill to be in your position. You are in a prime potential promotion position peeing beside your boss and you don't even see it.
In an open office layout (which is scientifically proven to reduce productivity), I have people walking around me, talking to people through me, past me, over, loudly laughing around me and when you get a phone call, you can't hear the caller, and when you want to do something personal on your PC, everyone can see it, and people cut the corner near me which impinges on my personal space and my workspace.
There's an endless list for me but the biggest niggle at the moment with one particular young lass I work with is her habit of bellowing loudly down the phone and at the woman who is sitting just a few feet away from her. She seriously has no volume control on her voice of any kind. It's deafening. [She doesn't have any hearing problems herself so I can't even excuse her on that basis] I don't think she needs to use a phone - she could just open the window and bellow out, they'd hear her.
I think the biggest problem where I work is managers micromanaging and not doing much work of their own - just constantly changing things when they don't need changing. Oh, and a good percentage of the people they do hire suck, and they don't want to get rid of them right away because it impacts the managers' bonuses.
indecisive people..sheesh the amount of time my boss changes his mind...ask me to do this...I completed it...then change his mind "can you change to that .."...wtf???...
People who are secretive about too many things, especially managers or department leaders. Now of course some things have to remain confidential for certain reasons, but to keep everyday work knowledge a secret is just wrong and creates mistrust.
Example: If you are part of a team, everyone on the team should have a sense of what everyone else is working on. That communication should come from the manager him/herself. If people have to side-chat with each other to find out what the manager has him/her working on, there are problems.
Example 2: When the leaders of departments put up a defense or retaliation, when all you are asking for is some information or processes that the department specializes in.
@heathen75: agree with that, every place I've worked smokers get same breaks as non smoker with added smoke breaks varying in frequency.
Sometimes hourly (normally off the job for 5-10 mins per smoke )
This doesn't bother me that much. I've had some small brushes with addiction that were decently hard to overcome, and judging from that I would probably be a wreck without smoke breaks if I were addicted to nicotine. What really bothers me is when they get in other people's faces about doing enough and it's just like "you do realize you spend close to an hour per shift smoking, right?" I wouldn't even want the extra breaks if they offered them to me most of the time, as long as the smokers aren't giving me attitude I'm fine.
@heathen75: agree with that, every place I've worked smokers get same breaks as non smoker with added smoke breaks varying in frequency.
Sometimes hourly (normally off the job for 5-10 mins per smoke )
This doesn't bother me that much. I've had some small brushes with addiction that were decently hard to overcome, and judging from that I would probably be a wreck without smoke breaks if I were addicted to nicotine. What really bothers me is when they get in other people's faces about doing enough and it's just like "you do realize you spend close to an hour per shift smoking, right?" I wouldn't even want the extra breaks if they offered them to me most of the time, as long as the smokers aren't giving me attitude I'm fine.
Yeah, I'm kinda the same way. If it's not impacting anyone else's jobs, stepping away for five or ten minutes here and there is something I'm OK with. I myself take five minute snack breaks when I feel my blood sugar low (although that's a bit different than needing to smoke).
Biggest pet peeve by far is people taking credit for other people's work. I repair computers full-time and we use a ticket system. It kills me so much when I'll do 90% of a repair, then find out one of the other techs closed the ticket while I was in the bathroom or out for lunch. My boss is smart enough to know there's more to our productivity than the closed tickets, but it sucks having them snatch credit from right under my nose like that. Thankfully I only have one coworker who's bad about it.
I work remotely and over IM frequently. When I do work in an office, it's for short durations (no more than a month or two) and often the people I work with from my own company change from project to project. As such, I don't get into a "routine" the way a normal office worker does so stuff like "someone ate my lunch" doesn't really apply. Also, in my role when I have someone on my team who isn't doing a great job then that's no so much as a pet peeve as much as "this is an area where I need to coach this individual" since it's not something I have to put up with so much as it's my job to deal with it.
One that I have is when someone pings me on IM and I answer, and then they vanish right after saying "hi". Every time someone does that I'm like:
-Byshop
i hate it when i want to ask someone a ? on IM and they disappear 2 seconds before i finish typing my question. happens all the time. need to get in a better habit of just saying hi first to catch them before they leave
I work remotely and over IM frequently. When I do work in an office, it's for short durations (no more than a month or two) and often the people I work with from my own company change from project to project. As such, I don't get into a "routine" the way a normal office worker does so stuff like "someone ate my lunch" doesn't really apply. Also, in my role when I have someone on my team who isn't doing a great job then that's no so much as a pet peeve as much as "this is an area where I need to coach this individual" since it's not something I have to put up with so much as it's my job to deal with it.
One that I have is when someone pings me on IM and I answer, and then they vanish right after saying "hi". Every time someone does that I'm like:
-Byshop
i hate it when i want to ask someone a ? on IM and they disappear 2 seconds before i finish typing my question. happens all the time.
need to get in a better habit of just saying hi first to catch them before they leave
I stop what I'm doing to answer them, and then they stop talking, so I go back to what I'm doing, only to get interrupted again, and again, and again.
I get stuff like this:
Co-worker (11:00AM) : Hey
Me (11:00AM) : Oh hey! What's up?
...
...
...
Co-worker (11:15AM) : Yeah, so I had a question.
Me (11:16AM) : Sure, what's up?
...
...
...
Co-worker (11:40AM) : Yeah, so remember that project we were on together?
I work remotely and over IM frequently. When I do work in an office, it's for short durations (no more than a month or two) and often the people I work with from my own company change from project to project. As such, I don't get into a "routine" the way a normal office worker does so stuff like "someone ate my lunch" doesn't really apply. Also, in my role when I have someone on my team who isn't doing a great job then that's no so much as a pet peeve as much as "this is an area where I need to coach this individual" since it's not something I have to put up with so much as it's my job to deal with it.
One that I have is when someone pings me on IM and I answer, and then they vanish right after saying "hi". Every time someone does that I'm like:
-Byshop
i hate it when i want to ask someone a ? on IM and they disappear 2 seconds before i finish typing my question. happens all the time.
need to get in a better habit of just saying hi first to catch them before they leave
I stop what I'm doing to answer them, and then they stop talking, so I go back to what I'm doing, only to get interrupted again, and again, and again.
I get stuff like this:
Co-worker (11:00AM) : Hey
Me (11:00AM) : Oh hey! What's up?
...
...
...
Co-worker (11:15AM) : Yeah, so I had a question.
Me (11:16AM) : Sure, what's up?
...
...
...
Co-worker (11:40AM) : Yeah, so remember that project we were on together?
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