Petty things that start wars in every office

[camlan]

Has no one else experienced supply room drama? In one office, the receptionist was in charge of the supply cabinet and mailing supplies. She checked everything twice a week and ordered replacements before we ran out of things.

But sometimes people had big projects that used up a ton of folders, or labels, or envelopes or whatever. They'd empty the supply room of whatever they needed and stash it at their workstation. Meanwhile, the rest of the company would be looking for supplies and not finding them, would complain to the receptionist, who had no idea there was a problem. Or they'd just expect to have enough supplies on hand to finish their project and were stunned to discover that we didn't, as a rule, have 1,000 extra large manila envelopes on hand (because ordinarily, we went through about 10 a month)--and their project had to ship that day, so someone needed to run out right away and get some.

Because apparently notifying the receptionist that at the end of your three month long project, you were going to need 1000 mailers was just too much work.

To say nothing of just running out of basic supplies and people never notifying the receptionist. Then there'd be tons of complaints that we never had any red pens, when the poor receptionist was ordering 2 boxes a week. Some people must have been hording office supplies at their workstations.

It got so bad there, that I had to include "when to notify people that supplies are running low" as part of new employees' training.

[Giggity]

Pen clickers. It's terrifically annoying.

[Pippen]

Pen clickers. It's terrifically annoying.

They should be publicly flogged in the town square!

[Sirius]

Where I used to work there were two issues that we kept having to deal with.  At least twice a year one or the other of these (and sometimes both) would happen: 

1.  I had a dedicated high-capacity printer for my one-person section.  For some reason, whenever new departments and/or offices opened up in the hospital, they'd make a beeline for my printer and try to take it.  Fortunately my boss and the squadron commander both knew that I had a completely legitimate reason for having it (I printed out huge numbers of medical records documents) so always backed me up, and in the ten years I did the job no one got my printer.

2.  Any new offices/departments that were attached to the command section were always trying to take our records storage room for office space, since it happened to be right across the hall from the hospital commander's office.  My boss had a brilliant way of handling this situation:  She'd tell the people who wanted our records storage room that if they could come up with somewhere else we could put all those records that didn't involve us having to hike all over the hospital and that wouldn't involve the personnel in our section having to be the ones to move everything, and the new place conformed to records storage and earthquake standards, then she'd consider their request.  Never happened. 

[bansidhe]

I'll start off by saying that I love my job and the people here are great. Every place has some faults, though: I am surrounded on three sides by people who have absolutely no clue about the concept of using an "indoor voice." Everything they say is at top volume, always - in a cubicle environment. Two of these four people are major talkers, too. I clocked the one guy talking nearly nonstop for just over two hours once.

I'm pretty good at tuning stuff out, but some days I just want to yell SHUUUUT UPPPPP!

[Hillia]

I work in a small satellite office space.  I am the only person from my division of the company in this space; everyone else has worked together for 8-25 years.  Since they all work for the same division and share a lot of the same duties, it's common practice to take conference calls on speaker, often gathering several people in a cubicle to do so (instead of in one of the myriad small 'huddle rooms' available in the suite).

We also have a very small kitchen area in the suite.  A few of the ladies bring in exercise videos and use them in the kitchen space during lunch, so getting to the microwave means dodging 3-4 people marching in place and waving their arms.

[Thipu1]

I once shared an enclosed office space with a woman who drove me nuts. 

She hardly ever spoke.  She didn't even say 'good morning' unless I said it first and then, her answer was almost inaudible.

She was a constant sniffler.  Even when I moved the box of tissues between us she wouldn't use them. 

She would type furiously for twenty minutes or so.  Then she would stop and meditatively crack every knuckle on every finger.  After that, she'd crack them all back again and continue her furious typing. 

She also commandeered my good, stand-up stapler. 

I was happy to retire. 

[oz diva]

I once worked with such a disagreeable woman that in a non approved ehell manner I actively encouraged her to smoke, outside, because it would mean she'd die sooner.  >:She was just awful, she called me a 'f***ing Pollyanna' once.

[KimberlyM]

Mostly the fridge here.  We have the typical food thieves (which I am convinced is actually the boss!), but the bigger problem was the one woman who keeps her entire months groceries here leaving no room for anyone else.  She has 3 drawers labeled with her name and instructions to keep out, then uses 3/4 of the condiment storage racks in the door and at least 1/2 of the shelves.  The woman pulls out her crock pot and makes full meals here regularly.  She is insane.  After many years of trying to cram my lunch into the butter tray in the door, as it was the only clear space, I gave up and bought a mini fridge that now lives under my desk.  I still have to use the big freezer in the kitchen for my blueberries (the freezer in the mini fridge doesn't actually freeze anything, just keeps it super cold).  Life is now good again, the fridge wars continue, but they are no longer my problem.

Now if I could fit my own coffee pot in here.....

[SoCalVal]

Mostly the fridge here.  We have the typical food thieves (which I am convinced is actually the boss!), but the bigger problem was the one woman who keeps her entire months groceries here leaving no room for anyone else.  She has 3 drawers labeled with her name and instructions to keep out, then uses 3/4 of the condiment storage racks in the door and at least 1/2 of the shelves.  The woman pulls out her crock pot and makes full meals here regularly.  She is insane.  After many years of trying to cram my lunch into the butter tray in the door, as it was the only clear space, I gave up and bought a mini fridge that now lives under my desk.  I still have to use the big freezer in the kitchen for my blueberries (the freezer in the mini fridge doesn't actually freeze anything, just keeps it super cold).  Life is now good again, the fridge wars continue, but they are no longer my problem.

Now if I could fit my own coffee pot in here.....

If she takes her cooked meals home, I'm wondering if she lives somewhere with no fridge and no stove.

Another one I'm surprised no one has mentioned -- people adjusting your chair.  It takes me awhile to get my chair set just right so it's a huge annoyance when I find out someone has adjusted it for him/her (we all have our own chairs).  Fortunately, it's only happened to me twice in the almost four years I've worked for my current employer, but it's still one of my biggest pet peeves and, frankly, would cause a war if I knew who did it.

[HermioneGranger]

ROTF, the burnt popcorn brought back lots of unpleasant memories.

Warning, discussion of morning sickness.

Augh.  We had a guy in my first office who loved to make extremely fragrant tuna-based meals and bring leftovers to work for lunch.  The smell would radiate from the breakroom microwave throughout the rest of the building.  The office would reek for the rest of the day, if not part of the next day.  It was awful.  And nothing we said could dissuade him from doing it, because "tuna's my favorite!  And it's healthy for me!" We went to the boss who said we needed to find more productive uses for our time than complaining about a coworkers lunch.

One of our other coworkers was pregnant at the time and very sensitive to smells.  She tried to suffer in silence because she didn't want to be a drama queen.  Tuna Guy would heat up his lunch and she would run to the bathroom as quickly and quietly as possible to be sick.  Well, one day, she didn't make it.  He brought his lunch to his desk, which happened to be right across from her desk.  She stood to run to the bathroom, but knew she wouldn't make it and dropped to her knees over her wastebasket and was very very very ill. 

Tuna Guna yelled and carried on as if she'd been sick on him directly.  She was sooooo disgusting, he said, and she should just stay home if being pregnant was going to make her do that.  We pointed out that he wouldn't have been "traumatized" if he'd listened to us and been considerate about his stinky lunches.  He insisted he should be able to eat whatever he wanted.  He continued to bring the tuna meals for a few more days.  Pregnant coworker got sick a few more times in her cubicle. Tuna Guy was so disgusted that he "magnanimously" agreed to bring less offensive meal options.

For the record, I believe that public bathroom behavior, coffee supplies and birthday cakes are also huge sources of workplace contention.

He got off lucky.  It could have been his trashcan she was ralphing in.  Poor thing. 

[Outdoor Girl]

^ Or on his shoes...   

[Hillia]

I had a boss who was so sensitive during her pregnancy that we weren't allowed to eat anything at our desks.  I could understand fragrant items, like Tuna Guy above, but we're talking about saltine crackers, lettuce-tomato salads, turkey sandwiches.  She had an office with a door while we all sat in cubicles.  There was limited lunchroom space, too, so unless you wanted to go out to eat all the time, lunch was rushed and unpleasant; you couldn't relax at all.

Our company had work from home available, and I always thought she should have chosen that option if her sense of smell was that sensitive.

[MindsEye]

My office used to have a problem with people leaving their dirty dishes on the counter or in the sink in the kitchen.  They dealt with it by telling housekeeping to throw away any dishes/mugs left in the kitchen after hours.

Dirty dishes/mugs attract bugs and mice, which can cause health issues, so I don't blame them for taking the nuclear option of dealing with the problem. 

[NotTheNarcissist]

Pen clickers. It's terrifically annoying.

Ah yes, my pencil drummer was also a pen clicker. He wore headphones & drummed & clicked to his fiesty upbeat music. It was a nightmare. Lots of complaints against him. I think 4 of us told him to quieten down  and 3 of escalated it when he wouldn't.