Annoying things our coworkers do

[CocoCamm]

I barely have one foot in the door in the morning.  My purse is still on my shoulder.  I haven't even put it down, let alone got a cup of coffee or sat at my desk.  I am greeted with "When can we get X done?  Is it on the schedule yet?  How much will it cost?  I told customer we could do it right now for X amount- that's ok, isn't it?"

I have to admit one of my pet peeves is the opposite. It really bugs me when people dont come into work ready to work. There are several people in my office that come in at 9 but dont actually start doing any work for at least another 20 minutes meanwhile I'm being held up because I actually started working at 9. IMO you should bet at your desk ready to work when work begins.

[magicdomino]

Bugging me on break or lunch. A big no no. I mostly leave my desk at these times but today I haven't and I've had two people so far, that interrupted me when I was trying to read this site actually with the "I know you're on lunch......" I just stared them down and they got the hint. I have a big sign that says "On Lunch". I do not and short of anyone dying, never will bother others on their breaks or lunches. I don't like it when people do it to me, so I attempt to show by example.

This is why I refuse to eat my lunch in the office.  Not even in the conference room, although that is partly because those who eat in there watch TV, and I prefer to read a book.  I carry my lunch to the food court on the lower level of my building.  It is a bit more expensive, because I buy my drink down there (I feel guilty using their space otherwise) and it limits the things that I can bring for lunch (microwaving stuff is inconvenient).  But if I hear, "I know you are eating lunch but . . . " one more time. 

[catsrme7]

The co-worker who if she has to take an unscheduled day off (sick or, as has happened twice lately, unable to come to work because flooding or wind damage in her town made the roads impassable) refuses to use her accumulated sick leave or vacation.  Instead, with her boss's OK, she'll come in over the weekend or stay late a couple of days to make up the time.

True - she gets her work accomplished.  But the rest of us get to cover for her twice - once when she's off and then again when she uses the days she saved for her vacation.  Yes - her boss lets her use sick leave time for vacation if she needs more time!

[EvilAlice]

I have to admit one of my pet peeves is the opposite. It really bugs me when people dont come into work ready to work. There are several people in my office that come in at 9 but dont actually start doing any work for at least another 20 minutes meanwhile I'm being held up because I actually started working at 9. IMO you should bet at your desk ready to work when work begins.

I agree, but let me GET to my desk!  I'm not talking about coming in late- I'm usually early.  But I mean literally one foot in the door, purse on my arm.  It can wait the 30 seconds it takes me to put my purse down, pour a cup of coffee, and sit down.

[Raintree]

The retail store I worked at for several years had the punch clock at the northeast corner of the store and the lunchroom and bathrooms in the southwest corner of the store. We were required to punch out for lunch, and then had to cross the whole store to get to the lunchroom. Stupid way to get free customer service out of people.

I learned to check aisles for customers so I could avoid them while crossing the store. Most "quick question" customers were no big deal, but some thought we were their personal shoppers and wouldn't take "I'm sorry, I'm off the clock. I've just punched out for lunch" for an answer.

Oh...that's bad. I know what it's like too. You answer a question for a customer on your break, and someone else sees you talking to them, and next thing you know you are surrounded by customers with questions.  When I worked in a retail store I learned very quickly never to walk through the store on a break without my coat on. I suppose in your situation you couldn't even GET to your coat without crossing the floor on your off time.

[Raintree]

On the subject of lunch, I hate it when people comment on my food. Like, "Oh, what IS that?" (These are usually people who have no imagination when it comes to food, and don't have a broad knowledge of the types of foods out there). Especially when they lean right over and peer at what you are eating. Or, worse, when they think they know everything about nutrition and begin to lecture you on the evils of certain foods. There was a girl who was on Weight Watchers (she wasn't fat, just paranoid and thought she was heavier than she was) and she saw me eat a bread product on the first break and another on the second break. She told me, "You sure do eat a lot of breads. About half of one of those is my whole bread allotment for the day. If I ate that many breads, I'd be out to here."  (Well I don't count my portions and I don't have a weight problem, which I think added to her annoyance).

[Yarnspinner]

I have to admit one of my pet peeves is the opposite. It really bugs me when people dont come into work ready to work. There are several people in my office that come in at 9 but dont actually start doing any work for at least another 20 minutes meanwhile I'm being held up because I actually started working at 9. IMO you should bet at your desk ready to work when work begins.

I agree, but let me GET to my desk!  I'm not talking about coming in late- I'm usually early.  But I mean literally one foot in the door, purse on my arm.  It can wait the 30 seconds it takes me to put my purse down, pour a cup of coffee, and sit down.

I have to side with Alice here...I've been guilty of being late to work, but even when I am twenty minutes early (and my boss is late) once she gets there, everything comes to a dead standstill while she tries to decide what I should have been doing while I was doing the work I had to do.  Some days it's been "Well, I would like you to find X, then I want you to do Y, but before either of those I need you to do Z..."  Hey, I'm just getting started on B.  We are good friends, but honestly, I get more accomplished on the days she's out sick!

Bugging me on break or lunch. A big no no. I mostly leave my desk at these times but today I haven't and I've had two people so far, that interrupted me when I was trying to read this site actually with the "I know you're on lunch......" I just stared them down and they got the hint. I have a big sign that says "On Lunch". I do not and short of anyone dying, never will bother others on their breaks or lunches. I don't like it when people do it to me, so I attempt to show by example.

This is why I refuse to eat my lunch in the office.  Not even in the conference room, although that is partly because those who eat in there watch TV, and I prefer to read a book.  I carry my lunch to the food court on the lower level of my building.  It is a bit more expensive, because I buy my drink down there (I feel guilty using their space otherwise) and it limits the things that I can bring for lunch (microwaving stuff is inconvenient).  But if I hear, "I know you are eating lunch but . . . " one more time. 

Oh, spare me from this.  It's one of the reasons my boss and I are dreading our transfers to a different library.  While we will be glad to be back in the thick of things, one of the nice things about our little branch was that we take our lunch at noon, she reads the paper and I read the book or write or whatever.  Downtown, it's going to be " Oh, how are you two settling in?"  "What's that?"  "Don't you WANT to socialize?" and so on.  And, of course, there's a PA system, so even if you CAN find a quiet nook away from the lunchroom, they can still find you.  And while eating out once in a while is nice, it's awful pricey to do it every single day!  Several of us used to put a sign on our lunch table that read "Readers Only".  It didn't stop everyone, but it kept the noise to a dull roar.

On the subject of lunch, I hate it when people comment on my food. Like, "Oh, what IS that?" (These are usually people who have no imagination when it comes to food, and don't have a broad knowledge of the types of foods out there). Especially when they lean right over and peer at what you are eating. Or, worse, when they think they know everything about nutrition and begin to lecture you on the evils of certain foods. There was a girl who was on Weight Watchers (she wasn't fat, just paranoid and thought she was heavier than she was) and she saw me eat a bread product on the first break and another on the second break. She told me, "You sure do eat a lot of breads. About half of one of those is my whole bread allotment for the day. If I ate that many breads, I'd be out to here."  (Well I don't count my portions and I don't have a weight problem, which I think added to her annoyance).

AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!   Once upon a time one of my co-workers actually dared to take my frozen WW meals and poke.  his.  fingers. into. them.  "Is this ALL you're going to eat?"  "No, S.  I'm not going to eat any of it now that your grubby paws have been  in my frozen ravioli, thanks awfully." 

[Sirius]

Second top peeve:  I barely have one foot in the door in the morning.  My purse is still on my shoulder.  I haven't even put it down, let alone got a cup of coffee or sat at my desk.  I am greeted with "When can we get X done?  Is it on the schedule yet?  How much will it cost?  I told customer we could do it right now for X amount- that's ok, isn't it?"

This sort of thing drives me nuts.  One morning when my office was down by the Admissions office I went up to the Records office.  I still had my hand on the doorknob when half a dozen people bombarded me with things to look up.  I said, "What ever happened to 'Good morning, Sirius' before everyone starts asking me to do things?"  Everyone in the office chimed in, "Good morning, Sirius!"  Then they hit me with everything they wanted me to look up again.

[nicetooths]

I agree that the 'martyr' coworker is very annoying.

I worked with a lady who would say she wasn't feeling very well. We would all tell her to stay home the next day if she still felt that way. She wouldn't do that. She would come in and complain about how horrible she felt and how she shouldn't have come in to work.

We had plenty of paid sick leave. This also wasn't a case of waking up feeling ok and then becoming worse as the day wore on. She was feeling pretty terrible the day before.

[twinkletoes]

I hate being asked a number of things right when I get in the door as well. It was worse when my former manager was here - she'd see me walk in (and fwiw, I was *early*) and she'd demand to know "what's going on with this project?" and "has Joe sent you the files yet?"  Then, she'd stand by my desk and fire off questions while I was turning on my computer and would stand there until I had checked my email, put my stuff away, gotten a cup of coffee, etc.  In those five minutes, *she* could have done a few things at her own desk. 

As you can probably guess, she was the sort of person who liked to complain that she never got anything done.

[Twik]

Argh! Here's one that just happened today.

This week my schedule included the following - Training, off-site on Tuesday, 7 - 3. Training, off-site on Wednesday, 3 - 11. Training, on-site on Thursday, 8-4.

So, I get home around 12, up at 6 to get to the office. Stop to buy donuts for the class, which I do not get reimbursed for, but I find makes everyone in a better mood. Get to the office, and discover ... the class is cancelled.

When did this happen? Yesterday. How was I notified? By e-mail.

Sorry, guys, I don't have a blackberry, and although I can access the office e-mail while on the road, it takes about half an hour to get through, so I don't usually do it when I'm expected to be putting in a full day's work off-site, particularly if I don't expect anything important. I have a feeling that they expected, "Oh, yeah, she'll be putting in a full 8 hours tonight, but why can't she do a good 4 or 5 hours here first?"

Worst of all, the person in charge of cancelling the course couldn't get in to the office today, so I can't find out WHY the class was cancelled. Bleah.

[J.D.]

My biggest pet peeve about co-workers? Four words: "It's not my job".  I have quit two different jobs in the last three years because this was the general attitude of the staff, and the management at both locations did nothing to address this.  Maybe it has something to do with the nature of the work or the ages of the employees, I don't know. 

My last job was at a well known dollar store, part of a chain.  For some reason, a huge number of our employees were the laziest bunch I had ever worked with.  Every time they were asked to do something, their answer was, "it's not my job".  Yes, it is your job - you are an employee and you were hired on do exactly these task.  You were told so in the interview, and by accepting an offer of employment, you agreed that you would perform these tasks.  And if they did do whatever they had been asked to do, they did a poor job, at best, leaving other staff to correct the mistakes.  Other times, some of us would be working our tails off, and we would come around a corner to find one staff member or another standing in an isle picking at their nails or talking on their cell phone.  Ultimately, I would end up doing whatever they had been asked to do, in addition to my own tasks.  And the store manager did nothing to stop this, because so many of the employees were children of her friends. 

Another issue I had was personal questions at work, with one staff member in particular.  Yes, I just put a sanitary napkin in my pocket and I am going to the washroom.  You can connect the dots; you do not need to ask me questions to confirm anything.  Nor do I want to hear anything about your cycle.  Yeesh.

Quitting that job was one of the best decisions I ever made. 

[twinkletoes]

Oooh! One more:

I am in charge of finalizing my reports, and I also edit them.  It's not unusual for a coworker to stop by when I'm finalizing a report so they can make changes to it.  However, there are a few who are "backseat editors."  I might be reading through a sentence on the top of the screen, and they'll point out a spelling error or whatever near the bottom of the screen.  Or, I'll start typing a word and realize I fat-fingered it, and as I'm correcting it, they'll *yell* out "oh, you spelled it wrong!"  Once, I got so fed up that I walked away from the computer.  It was incredibly condescending, and I am really trying to put a stop to it.

I'm also looking for a new job!

[snoopygirl]

I have this co-worker who has started to talk about her personal life with her customers. That is just not done. I might respond if they ask me how my day is going or if they ask me if I am still in school but that's it. Usually I talk about the weather or the covers of like People and Star. And they don't even ask her about these questions. She just tells them. I have heard her tell about her martial status, her religion, and her various illnesses. Um I don't think so. I am thinking of saying something to my boss. I know this women has issues but trust me I know several people who have what she has and they don't blurt out personal info to complete strangers.