The Biggest Annoyance in the Workplace

Before you were a manager, what bothered you in the workplace more than anything? For me, it was the habitual complainers or those took no pride in their work. Even your most devoted and motivated employees can get ticked off, and many times management is unaware of the types of behaviour and situations that create resentment amongst colleagues.

In a recent survey of 1,000 people, poor time management is now the king of the hill as the biggest annoyance in the workplace, supplanting office gossip. According to Randstad’s Work Watch Survey, the top three workplace annoyances include poor time management (43%), gossip (36%), and messiness in communal spaces (25%). As you can see, in all of these instances there are traces of co-workers being inconsiderate or less committed than their peers.

When time management was examined in closer detail, the survey discovered that the greatest resentment was aimed toward co-workers who take excessive breaks, such as smoke breaks, long lunches, or using long periods of company time to surf. Other annoyances described include employees who abuse sick days or miss deadlines; meetings that lack structure or have no apparent agenda or cut into personal time; or people who are distracted by their Blackberry or text during meetings.

There’s a prevalent sense of injustice when less committed co-workers enjoy the same benefits and rewards as those who offer their best effort every day, which is why it’s important to keep a pulse on the types of inconsiderate behavior being practiced within the work environment you provide.