Annoying Habits Around the Office

[susans]

What are three annoying habits you see around the office?  (Doesn't have to be the same person)

[msmarieh]

Talking on a speaker phone without closing your door...

Marie

[JessW]

Gang standing in middle of office obviously gossiping about someone they know can see them do it (including pointing at said person) - not me in that particular instance.

Jess

[Katie G]

1.  People coming up and starting to talk to you when it's clear that you are on the phone.  (I'll never understand this thinking -- is it somehow not quite as rude to interrupt if you can't hear the conversation?)

2.  People insisting on using a speakerphone in an open floor plan.  Especially for PERSONAL calls!  Yikes!

3.  People shouting across an open floor plan to get someone's attention.  "Hey, Bob!  Did you see that email from Elaine?"  We all have phones.  Use them, please.  Nothing like working in a room that sounds like a high school cafeteria.  

[peaches2160]

1.  People leaving copiers without toner or jammed.  

2.  People leaving meeting rooms in disarray after a meeting.  Papers, chairs not pushed in, Food on the tables, empty cups and empty water bottles.

3.  Poor planning, lack of communication in regard to meeting needs.  Wait until after a meeting starts to tell me we need polycom, dial in capabilities for offsite attendees.

4.  GOSSIP.  IF you have time to stand around chit chatting and talking behind someone's back, you obviously do not have enough to keep you occupied.  Gossip is like kudzu, a fast growing hard to kill weed that grows primarily in the Southern US.  Once it gets started it is hard to get rid of and can damage the landscape.  I try to stop it before it starts.

I heard a saying once, "poor planning on your part, does not constitute an emergency on mine".  I add this to it, "unless it concerns my boss and his schedule!"

[gee4]

I have to say the above habits are common and will continue to happen no matter what.

The thing that annoys me most about working in an open plan office, is not being able to control temperature to suit everyone.  Where my colleage and I sit we are not near a window unless we open a window in a director's office and the person is question is not in for a time.  Therefore we are at stuck trying to compromise with others who are took hot or cold.  

[raindance]

Lack of consideration for others: this covers a multitude of sins from leaving the bathrooms or kitchen in a mess to shouty conversations on the phone and immoderate laughter.

Gossipers should be shot or sentenced to pick up litter and sweep the streets for three months.

As for me: I am practically perfect in every way (just like Mary Poppins).

[itsme_calista]

The photocopier and the kitchen are my biggest annoyances.  I dread to think what some peoples houses look like when they leave the kitchen here in such a state!


Callie

[gee4]

The reason most people leave a kitchen in work in a mess is, there are usually cleaners who come in to clear up after them.  A mess at home is a different matter altogether.  No excuse I know but I believe that is the reason behind it.  The solution would be to stop the cleaners from clearing up the mess and just stick to emptying bins!

[laurafmcdermott]

1. Chomping on gum when speaking to me--and not just discreetly chewing, but chomping and smacking and swallowing loudly.  Awful.

2. Taking copy paper out of the box and leaving the lid and the little plastic strap that holds it together in the middle of the floor.  If you don't know where it goes, at least put it off to the side so the rest of us aren't tripping over it.

3. Temperature.  This is a modern office building and the system keeps it between 72 and 75 degrees.  That means sometimes it will blow hot, and sometimes it will blow cold.  This is the way that it is, and no amount of me fiddling with the thermostat will change it.  Accept it and bring a sweater!

[sammix]

People who talk to their computers as they type as "it helps me concentrate", but it doesn't help me!!

[raindance]

The difficulty with your suggestion, Gee, is that cleaning up the kitchen then becomes a "suitable task for admins".  I have already been there and done that!

Our cleaners are paid to clean up kitchen, wash up etc, but people are still inconsiderate - simply because they are inconsiderate.  One can see that sort of rudeness everywhere.

[spitfire78]

Not cleaning up your mess when you leave a common room.  Two weeks ago I had a meeting scheduled in the conference room, with another meeting to end just at the time mine was beginning.  I got the conference room and there in the middle of the table were dirty pans, plates, and silverware left from the previous meeting!  I was really frosted over that one.  Fortunately, I was the first to arrive and had 5 minutes to tidy the room before everyone else arrived.

Next has to be cell phones ringing (and ringing and ringing and ringing).  Put the darn things on vibrate or at the very least have the courtesy to answer it immediately, so that silly tunes aren't heard all the way up the hallway over and over again.

[cheryl6508]

My biggest one - I'll only mention one. A neighbor who SNIFFS all the time. Loud, long, annoying and every 10 minutes!!

[theresa_granados]

1. People on their cell phone in the bathrooms
2. A recap of every word on the phone call when a coworker completes a call
3. Complaining!