Workplace Annoyances

COMMON WORKPLACE ANNOYANCES

The topic of workplace annoyances is very relevant because of course, anyone who works is going to be annoyed at times. After reading this article, scroll down to the segment entitled "On The Lighter Side: What Would You Do?". That segment will present 4 real workplace annoyance situations that were experienced by staff at different companies. Your task will be to think about how you've handled similar situations (if you have). Or, if some of these are situations you haven't experienced, how would you have handled them? Then, further down in the newsletter, where it says What Were the Outcomes?, you can read about what the involved employees actually did and what ended up happening.

What are workplace annoyances? Workplace annoyances are exactly what the words state -- things that irritate you at work. These annoyances can range from slow computers to super-long meetings to colleagues who don't bathe often enough. In other words, there are many different types of situations that can be categorized as "workplace annoyances".

Please jot down your response to the following question:

What are 3 things that have truly irritated you at jobs?

Now, Read Through Some Common Workplace Annoyances Frequently Cited by Employees:

Gossiping
Office cliques that exclude (or are rude to) other staff
Colleagues who don't do their share of the work and/or who take credit for other people's work
Talking politics or religion
Staff who don't clean up after themselves
People who use the microwave to cook food that has a strong odor (e.g. fish)
People who wear strong perfume or cologne
Colleagues who have bad personal hygiene
Bad cellphone etiquette -- e.g. loud ringtones and loud conversations that everyone else can hear
People who steal other people's food
Bad temperature control in the building -- too hot or too cold
Supervisors who micro-manage
People who show up sick and expose others to illness
Constant complaining and negativity
Colleagues who arrive late
Computer and network problems
Staff who sit in the bathroom and text (often preventing other people from gaining access)
Meetings that are disorganized or that last for too long

As you look at this list, think about whether you've experienced any of these annoyances. In addition, think about whether *you* may have engaged in some irritating workplace conduct. If so, do you think you might need to modify some of your behaviors?

Strategies for Managing Workplace Annoyances

Where there are problems, we need to find strategies for making things better. However, it's also important to note that not all workplace annoyances require solutions. Some things are irritating, but not particularly harmful -- and after taking time to reflect, you may decide to simply tolerate the irritations.

In this article, we're more focused on the type of annoyances that are detrimental enough to require problem-solving. As already mentioned, one aspect of this process is self-assessment -- each of us needs to honestly assess whether we contribute to workplace annoyances and if so, what kind of personal changes we may need to make. Conversely, if one has a colleague whose behavior is problematic, it's important to decide what to do. How many people are being impacted by the conduct? Is this a problem that colleagues can deal with amongst themselves or should it be brought to management? The goal, of course, is to find the most constructive path towards problem resolution.

In order to further focus on problem-solving strategies, we've divided the above list of 18 annoyances into four general categories:

1. Attitude Issues This includes things like negativity, chronic complaining, gossiping, confrontations about politics and religion, and cliques. One vital problem-solving strategy is to avoid making yourself part of the problem: don't engage in negativity; if people start to gossip or argue politics or religion, don't participate; and don't join or encourage cliques. Set a better example. However, this category of problem can become bad enough to require managerial involvement. For example, cliques are often toxic and can even become cruel. That type of situation requires supervisory intervention.

2. Disturbing Odors This includes everything from staff who have poor hygiene to colleagues who wear overpowering perfumes or colognes to people who cook fish in the staff microwave. These situations can be very personal, thus they may pose some uncomfortable challenges. If it's a situation where you can comfortably talk with the staff member, you might try approaching them nicely and in private. If many staff members are bothered by the same person, and/or no one is comfortable approaching that person, then the problem should be brought to management.

3. Generally Annoying, Odd or Difficult Behaviors This category includes things like poor cell phone etiquette; texting in a locked bathroom; arriving late; coming in sick; leaving a mess in common areas, etc. Note: A person's challenging behavior may be quite "innocent" -- that is, they may not realize the ramifications of their conduct and they might be receptive to feedback. On the other hand, the behavior might also indicate a serious attitude issue. If you feel it's a problem that you can directly discuss with the "offending" colleague, give it a try (diplomatically and in private). However, if you feel it's something a manager needs to handle, then go to management. On occasion, a manager may decide to serve as a mediator between colleagues who are having a dispute, and that can be extremely helpful.

4. Infrastructural Problems This includes computer problems, network problems, heat or A.C. problems, etc. These problems should be brought to the appropriate person or department, whether it's IT, maintenance, or your immediate supervisor.

Please see the next section for helpful links to resources on this topic.

SOME ADDITIONAL ONLINE RESOURCES ABOUT DEALING WITH ANNOYANCES IN THE WORKPLACE

Note: By including the links below, we aren't endorsing every detail that the sites provide (and they may not fully agree with each other on some points). But each of the sites contains a lot of valuable information.

REAL WORKPLACE ANNOYANCE SCENARIOS:

Think about the 4 scenarios below. They are from real events. For each one, answer the following: Have you experienced anything like this? If so, how did you deal with it, what was the outcome, and would you do anything differently? If not, how do you think you'd respond to the situation? If you can, find a partner with whom to exchange ideas and opinions.

Below each scenario, you can read about the “Outcome” – what the actual employee did and what happened afterwards.

1. Your co-worker wears very strong perfume that makes you feel sick. You don't know whether or not to say something. Several other people are also bothered by the perfume.

Outcome: The supervisor of the department ended up asking a staff member ("Rose") to talk with the woman who was wearing very strong perfume ("Kay"). Oddly, the supervisor was too uncomfortable to handle the situation herself. Kay immediately stopped wearing the perfume, but initially, she was upset. She felt embarrassed and a little angry. For awhile, she stopped talking with Rose. But after a few weeks, their relationship normalized, and the overall office environment also returned to normal.

BONUS QUESTION: Do you think the supervisor should have asked an employee to talk with the perfume-wearing colleague or should the supervisor have handled it herself?

2. Your co-worker regularly comes to work at around 8:30 AM, but is scheduled to start at 7:45 AM. It's possible that the manager doesn't know, because the co-worker ("Ray") has spent months falsifying his timecard by writing in phony times rather than punching the clock.

Outcome: You decided to expose Ray's cheating to the manager. The manager ended up talking with Ray -- a man she had personally known for many years. However, the only consequence was that Ray was told he had to punch in and out like everyone else rather than handwrite times on his timecard. And, there were no consequences for the additional income he had fraudulently received. The rest of the staff, most of whom had known about the cheating, ended up angry. They felt that any other staff member would have faced more serious consequences. They also wondered why she had allowed Ray to handwrite his times for so long rather than punch the clock. They concluded that the supervisor had a double-standard because of her friendship with Ray. In the long run, the situation had a negative impact on staff morale.

3. You are supposed to be co-managing a project with another staff member who has been with the company quite a bit longer. That staff member conceals information from you and sometimes even gives you the wrong information. You think it's intentional because the co-worker wants to have more power than you.

Outcome: The employee who felt like information was being withheld decided not to say anything. She proactively focused on learning as much as possible, as quickly as possible, including from a variety of other staff members. Within a few months, she became very proficient at her job and the colleague was no longer able to take advantage of her.

4. Every day your co-worker spills his lunch in the microwave and doesn't clean it up. Most of the time, you end up doing the cleaning.

Outcome: The staff member ("Ella") spoke with the colleague who was leaving a mess ("Nick"). Nick became hostile and said it wasn't his problem. He said a housekeeper or someone else could clean it up, he really didn't care. Ella stopped using the employee area. She bought a little microwave for her office and stayed away from Nick to the extent possible. She also decided not to go to a supervisor. She was nervous about Nick's potential for retaliation.

Follow-up Thoughts/Question: Situations like this are complex, because Nick appears to have some unpleasant and potentially abusive tendencies. Normally, that should be reported to management. However, Ella was understandably nervous about making a complaint. What do you think she should have done? What would you have done?