Let’s face it: working in an office—including a remote office—is rarely the peak of human social interaction for most participants. We don’t necessarily like everyone we work with. In fact, some of our colleagues might down-right annoy us. But we suck it up and do what we can to cope in order to get the job done and get that paycheck.
But that doesn’t mean employees and employers shouldn’t do what they can to mitigate and eliminate sources of office tension and conflict. After all, happier workers are more productive, engaged, and loyal workers.
Identifying Behaviors That Annoy
A great first step in combating annoyed employees is to understand what behaviors and actions set those employees off in the first place. A recent survey by Kickresume reveals the most annoying colleague behaviors. The findings showed that 85% of people have dealt with an annoying coworker, with 58% saying these behaviors significantly affect their productivity. Here is the list of the top 15:
| Behavior | % of employees who find these behaviors annoying |
| Credit stealer | 33% |
| Micromanager | 32% |
| Chronic complainer | 30% |
| Personal space intruder | 30% |
| Lunch thief | 27% |
| Non-stop chatter | 27% |
| Loud talker | 26% |
| Know-it-all | 24% |
| Procrastinator | 21% |
| Underperformer | 21% |
| Email spammer | 20% |
| Sick but shows up to work | 17% |
| Ignore-my-headphones talker | 17% |
| Corporate over-optimist | 16% |
| Tech illiterate | 15% |
| Late arriver | 15% |
Some of these behaviors may be more challenging to avoid than others. Attempting to address some behaviors could have unintended negative consequences. For example, dealing with a corporate over-optimist may be annoying, but few companies are likely interested in efforts to dampen corporate optimism. And companies already spend a lot of effort identifying and addressing underperformers.
Raising Awareness
But, to the extent companies can help make employees more aware of the types of behaviors their colleagues may find objectionable, it’s likely to help mitigate at least some tension.
For example, people who show up to work even when sick might think they’re demonstrating commitment to the job without realizing that 17% of their colleagues find this practice objectionable.
Employers don’t want to be in the business of mediating employee interpersonal disputes. But the reality is that, left unchecked, mildly annoying office behaviors can build until they become genuine drains on morale, effective collaboration and productivity.
To the extent employers can mitigate those downstream effects by addressing “annoying” behaviors early on, it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.