The Jerk-Free Workplace: Common Office Employee Pet Peeves That Drive Employees Batty
Do you struggle working with difficult coworkers? One of the simplest and most effective ways to reduce behaviors that drives employees batty is to simply share surveys of common employee pet peeves. Sharing surveys of pet peeves is a safe way to raise awareness around issues that some coworkers just may not realize they were even doing. Here are some of the common pet peeves of employees from my book The Jerk-Free Workplace: How You Can Take the Lead to Create a Happier, More Inspiring Workplace.
What Drives Employees Batty
In my front-line leadership book, The Jerk-Free Workplace: How You Can Take the Lead to Create a Happier, More Inspiring Workplace, I share some of the survey results of what drives employees nuts when it comes to their fellow employees and their teammates.
So, I thought it’d be fun to share some of those that I’ve collected in the book, because a really simple way for you to raise awareness about some of those behaviors that you might be putting up with in your workplace in a safe way, is to survey your employees and share the results. Or, share results like what I’m about to share with your teammates so that people just become aware of some of the things that might be bugging everyone, because sometimes it’s just an awareness issue – people don’t know that their behavior is bugging everyone else because nobody’s ever told them! So this becomes a really safe way to let people know without pointing fingers at everyone, that their behavior might be driving some people nuts.
So let me share some of the top ones in my book:
Leaving a mess in a communal kitchen.
Not arriving on time for meetings.
Coming to work late or leaving early consistently.
Chatting incessantly in open-office work areas.
Speaking too loudly in open-office areas.
Constantly interrupting coworkers with personal chatter.
Speaking too loudly on phone calls.
Using speaker phone when unnecessary.
Spreading gossip.
Chewing gum too loudly.
Forgetting to just say please and thank you.
Grumpiness.
Moodiness.
Never taking any initiative.
Never admitting to being wrong.
Blaming everyone else for your own mistakes.
Taking credit for other people’s work.
Criticizing people behind their back constantly.
Being condescending.
Never chipping in for birthday presents.
Being a seagull and crapping all over everyone’s ideas.
Constantly interrupting or dominating meetings.
And then there’s these very specific ones:
Sniffing colleagues who won’t get a tissue.
Typing so loudly that it sounds like an apocalyptic hailstorm.
Humming show tunes all day.
Clipping toenails during a video conference call.
Repeated pen clicking. (Oh, those dreaded pen-clickers.)
Loudly slurping of one’s coffee.
And yes, one person even complained about peeling a banana from the wrong end. Who does that!?
So create your own survey of just what annoys some of your coworkers. Share that list as a way to remind people to just be aware of their behaviors, be more aware of the attitudes that might be driving people batty.
So what about you? What drives you batty? What are some of your workplace pet peeves? Please leave a comment in the comment box below. And if you haven’t yet subscribed to my Inspiring Workplaces channel, please hit the subscribe button. Join our growing community as we talk about jerk-free workplaces that rock.
Michael Kerr is a Canadian Hall of Fame speaker and the author of 8 books, including The Jerk-Free Workplace and The Humor Advantage. Michael travels the world researching, writing, and speaking about inspiring workplace cultures and inspiring leaders.
