Annoying Coworker Habits: Tell Us Your Least Favorites…
Here's a fun little question today: Which annoying coworker habits have you experienced over the years? Which are your least favorite? Do you think any of them are going to be gone for good (for one reason or another) thanks to the changes over the past few years?
For my $.02, some of the annoying coworker habits that stand out in my mind include:
The Loud, Bombastic Talker: When I got my first office of my very own, the guy in the office next door was much senior to me, and his work involved a ton of Very Important Calls. I know this because he had a habit of taking them on speakerphone, shouting at the top of his lungs like a frat bro in a crowded bar at 2 a.m. We had an open door culture, too — and after a while I learned that if I needed to get focused, intense work done, I had to reserve a conference room, work from home, or work after he'd left for the day.
The Drama Llama: Do you ever have a friend who stops by for a “quick little hello” at your desk, and after three minutes gets into an hour-long story that requires your full attention? Usually with some variation of drama that has been going on for a loooong time such as an on-again, off-again relationship or a family squabble? It's especially funny to me because looking back, every person I've known like this has no interest in being your friend once you change workplaces. (A few of these people inspired our discussion on how to handle chatty coworkers.)
{related: do you keep your personal life private at work?}
The “Too Important for Basic Self-Care”: Another coworker habit I've seen a few times: the person who feels so important that they will not take care of themselves in basic ways. This is the person who comes to work sick and/or is back in the office working again the day after major surgery. The person who is up all night perfecting things that… probably would've been better corrected after a few hours of sleep. The person who can't be bothered to eat lunch on busy days, but then turns into the Worst Version of Themselves after they get hangry.
(On the flip side, I have no problems with messy coworkers — as long as it doesn't extend to my/public spaces — and I'm usually the person who can stand to work with the difficult coworker, whether it's a dude who thinks he's The Next Big Thing, or the actually brilliant boss who throws temper tantrums.)
{related: how to deal with extreme coworkers}
What are some of the most annoying coworker habits you've seen, readers? Which are your least favorite? (Stories, please!!!)
Stock photo via Deposit Photos / iofoto.
I can never stand the women with a cloud of perfume so strong you can smell it down the hallway (usually paired with loud jangly bracelets)
also, people who think you can microwave fish
People who should wash their hair but insist on trying to go several days between washings. If you have the type of hair that doesn’t need to be washed daily, then it won’t get greasy and smelly and no one will notice that you haven’t washed it. If your hair is the kind that “needs” dry shampoo, then guess what? You really should wash it.
Also people who never have their wool overcoats dry-cleaned. Those things get stinky, especially when you take public transit.
My parents don’t believe in cleaning coats. Ever. Shockingly, their coats smell terrible BO. Every time they’re at our house I either spritz them with febreeze, vodka, or throw them in with a load of wash when I run one. Granted I have a VERY sensitive nose but I just don’t understand how you can go noseblind to that extent.
I also make it a part of spring cleaning – the winter coats get dry cleaned and packed away and the summer coats (light rainjackets) are either washed or aired out depending on what they need.
Mansplaining.
I’m an actuary. I work with underwriters. I used to work with one underwriting manager who would regularly plop himself into the guest chair in my office and said “see, what an actuary does is ….” and mansplain to me, an actual actuary, what actuarial work is and how it’s done.
“Yes, Bill, I know. I passed ten exams on the subject. Maybe you should take one” was not a sufficient enough hint to stop him. I finally had to tell him extremely directly to leave my office. Then I was the b1tch.
I’m an actuary too! Thought I was the only one in this community.
Also, I can totally relate to this!
Not strictly a co-worker issue, but more a people with whom I work issue: If I have to hear one more judge or lawyer tell me “I went to law school because I am bad at math, tee hee!” I will scream. Yes, I know you hate math. My job is to explain this very important math that you need to know in a non-threatening, comprehensible way. I am very good at it. Shut up and let me do my job.
“People who won’t shut up long enough to understand what they are asking you to explain” is… ugh.
I work within HR in a data/math/analytics/finance capacity and SAME. Do not whine to me about not being invited to the table / people not taking us seriously if your eyes immediately glaze over when I start talking numbers. Most of the time the work I am doing is to make it better for employees by exploiting the data and finding ways to do the most with the money we can get.
I swear we have the same job
i’m a lawyer and hard same.
I’m struggling with annoying noises from coworkers in our open-office floor plan. One leaves both his phone and computer volumes cranked all the way up so every teams message dings on the phone and then dings on the computer. Joy. Another coworker had been savoring a large glass of ice since lunch. AirPods to the rescue.
I work from home, so if I could count my downstairs neighbor as my annoying co worker, I would say that his worst habit is his constant farting all day long. The insulation is non existent in this building so I can definitely hear it. Jury is out on whether my co workers can hear it over Zoom. I also posted on the earlier thread about looking for a single family home. I find it hard to take myself seriously when my workday is interrupted by random farts.
Co-workers who don’t understand when to stop asking personal questions. It is annoying in a social situation, but you have the option of leaving or “returning awkward to sender.” In a work environment, you’re much more limited in terms of appropriate responses.
How ’bout clipping your nails at your desk? yes! I want to hear it all! I want to know those little clippings could end up any where in the office!
I realize this is extremely specific, but one of our directors is way out of step with his formality and old-fashioned demands (men must be clean shaven and have no hair below the collar and not wear jewelry, women must wear natural hair colors, that sort of stuff) and I have no idea how he gets away with it. The part that really bugs me is that the one engineer has gauged ears and (due to this director) has to take out his earrings for work, so he spends the entirety of every meeting fidgeting and fiddling with his stretched earlobes. It grosses me out so much I have to avoid looking at him or I gag.
A coworker that tells me way too many details of his kid’s fever/trip to the hospital/what color her throw up was. I don’t need to know that.
A coworker would wear stacked bracelets and jingle jangle them as she would tsk repeatedly – I swear the tsk-ing got worse the louder her bracelets were that day. She would also stand over me and poke my computer screen with her finger. I had to practice so much deep breathing at that job.