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Hey Pandas, What Are Some Behaviors You Wish Your Employer And/Or Co-Workers Would Stop Doing? (Closed)
Illegal or immoral things aside, what random or annoying behavior do find at your job that has you on the verge of quitting on a regular basis?
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Just because we work together doesn't mean we have to be friends and hang out.
Just because I don't want to be friends and hang out after work with you, doesn't make me an a*****e. I don't think I'm better than you.
I have to spend 8 hours of my day, 5 days a week, around you and I have my own life to live outside of work.
Yeah, that can be a tough one. Had the same problem: excellent co-worker, but we had nothing in common but the job. Also I'm an introvert, so in a way, the job was my socializing. I hope you get some useful answers.
I am sick of people pretending that emails are not a valid form of communication. If I ask a question via email, people are given a pass for missing it, because emails don't really count(?!?). Followed by "You should really have these conversations in person if it's important." Of course if I ask the question in person and get no response, "Do you have this documented anywhere? You should really try to save any important discussions in email."
Do classmates count? I wish he’d stop *touching* me. It’s never sexual or anything, but it shouldn’t have to be, not when I’ve told him multiple times I just don’t like to be touched, please don’t put your hand on my shoulder, please don’t poke me to get my attention, please don’t sneak up on me and grab my shoulders to scare me. I’ve told him this, I just don’t want him to touch me. It’s not for anything like past abuse or anything like that, it’s just a preference. I tell him “don’t touch me,” and he pokes me and says “touch!” I tell him I need my personal space and he says “f**k your bubble!” There are people who I am comfortable touching me, and there are people who I am not. The former consists of maybe 2 people, if they need a hug or a literal shoulder to lean on, I am more than happy to be their support, I’m okay with that contact. And in a relationship, although I’ve never been in one, I feel like physical affection would be super important to me: it doesn’t show in my daily life, because there’s no one to show it to, but I’m a very cuddly person. The thing is, he’s not my partner, he never will be (lesbian), and he’s not one of those two people who are the exception. I’ve been clear and concise. I’m so tired of it.
Stop worrying about what others are doing. Quit monitoring their bathroom/other breaks.
I can't upvote this enough. I have a coworker (f in her 40s) who's monitoring everything our coworkers she doesn't like do. I normally like her, but that's so annoying and she's bringing me and another coworker-friend down every day. Also she wants to be part of everything that involves an issue I'm supposed to take care of. She wants to know everything about other coworkers issues, but god forbid they know something about her...
I don't mind meetings- it gets us off the floor for an hour and gives us a break. But lately all of our meetings are being held after hours, forcing me to attend during what is supposed to be my time off. It's a pointless meeting and instead of having it in the middle of the day they hold it after 5pm when a lot of us are off, so we have to come back. We get paid for the time we're there but I don't want the money.... I want my time. I live an hour away so when they have these meetings I just have to sit around for an hour without getting paid, waiting to punch back in and have a pointless meeting talking about how we've aquired a new parking lot or how good our sales have been or ....any number of things that could easily be sent in a memo.
Meetings that could be replaced by a memo/group email, etc. have been the bane of one relative's existence! A 1-hour unpaid break sounds long. Is there a brave soul who'd be willing to suggest a shorter break? Or better yet, a very short meeting during the day and a reminder to read the memo? I'm assuming you're not the only one who finds it annoying. Even someone who likes the extra money might at least appreciate a shorter wait and getting to leave 30 minutes earlier.
Employers: You act like You can easily replace me and when I ask for a day off, you lose your mind as if your business will crash in one day.
Co-workers: we're spending 50% of our awaken life together, stop being an A-hole, stop conspiring too much
Employee "I'm taking next week off" Employer "no we need you here!" Employee "so if I'm so essential, can I have a raise" Employer "no you can be replaced" employee "I'm not coming in next week."
If classmates count, I wish all the a*****e boys in my grade would stop thinking they are “all that” disrespecting a teacher isn’t funny and harassing people isn’t funny either. I’m so tired of them thinking they are hilarious for doing dumb stuff.
Your teacher is an adult and a professional. It is up to them to stop this type of behavior. As a retired teacher I usually chose the leader and made an example of them. That usually kept the rest of them in line. If you find class is constantly disrupted by a few kids, go and talk to your teacher about it. Above all don’t give any support to the boys who are doing it. That means don’t smile or laugh (however rolling your eyes at them is ok.)
Do not distance yourselves from a colleague who has mental health issues. We don’t bite. You won’t catch anything from us. We may get upset at the most silly things. We may just want to quietly get on with our work. But you don’t need to shun us. You definitely don’t all band together so that we lose our jobs. Learn about our problems, don’t push us away so that you can forget about us.
I have some serious anxiety issues. If frustration starts coming out of my eyes, or I get cornered for a serious butt chewing, I'm extraordinarily embarrassed and long term it makes people avoid me. You know I've tried everything to curb this. Most of the time I just put in my earbuds drown out everything and just focus on getting things done. Then they give me crap for 'not paying attention'. Like listening to the idle chat around me is somehow essential to getting stuff done.
Having rules that aren't enforced or are enforced inconsistently. If you're not going to enforce a rule, get rid of it!
Yep! Have a manager that will demand you to put your phone away but it doesn't apply to them. They very openly are scrolling their phone.
I wish some of my Co workers would stop trying to be supervisors. It's annoying.
Feel this! Have someone that was a supervisor in their previous job and acts like this. It's like you want to ask, "don't you realize we are equals in regards to job description?"
Allowing certain coworkers to get away with something while reprimanding the newer or weaker team members for the same thing. I've noticed office culture is a lot like high school in the sense that the popular coworkers get treated better and almost never have consequences to their actions. Meanwhile other coworkers get picked apart for everything they do and are often scapegoats to problems that are actually across the board. The newer employees are often treated with such disregard but really the problem stems from poor training, lack of teamwork from other coworkers, and having practically zero support.
i would LOVE it if my coworkers would at least try to think about a solution for their problem before asking anyone else.
So often they know the answer what to do pretty well but ASK to avoid the responsibility for the decissions.
Could just be me but I hate pot lucks, especially work pot lucks. After everyone knows this they should be able to: A) stop inviting me and B) give up on the goddamn guilt trips.
Yes, and the thing is.... you don't know how they keep their house. I don't know what kind of conditions where used to prepare what they brought. Is there a cat in the house? Will I find cat hair in my food? (It is possible...my mom had a cat and the hair got into EVERYTHING and she is a clean freak!) I would just rather not and bring my own lunch.
1. Stop walking into my open office door and plopping into a chair and just waiting to see when I'll stop working to acknowledge the interruption.
2. Stop pushing open the barely-cracked door and doing #1 above.
3. Stop asking me where the guy in the office next to me is right now.
4. I don't support your team. Stop calling and asking me to do things for you because "you'd rather work with me". You put me in a bad position, and I'm not going to do that work for you.
5. Stop telling the person in #4 that you would rather they do things the way I do/do as much as I do - makes our working relationship awkward. We have very different experience levels, and it is understood that I bring a little more to the job than others. I am also compensated to do more, and they are not.
Smoking weed during work hours. I have no problems with people and recreational drug use. You do you, as long as you're not hurting anyone. There's six of us in the office and two of them always go in their car and smoke during lunch and breaks. They come back reeking of marijuana and it's not only annoying but unprofessional. If any of the higher ups ever came in we'd all be in trouble. The room is permeated with the smell. There's about 3 of those oil warmers going at all times to mask the smell. I usually come home with a headache because of the smell, whether it be the weed or the fragrance from the scented oils.
I'm a regular smoker, have been for more than 30 years and I agree. There's a time and a place, and work is just not it.
No I do not want to contribute to someone’s leaving/retirement/maternity gift when I have never met them but happen to work for the same company!!!!!!
Stop writing disrespectful e-mails. Use some etiquette.
If it's a work email sure. But my teachers can read all our emails and we were all yelled at for emailing each other using, to quote my teachers, texting language. It's dumb.
Rules should be equal across the board for everyone. As stated in county employee handbook.
Yes! Very much this! Doesn't matter who you are, your background, how popular you are, etc. We are a team and are equals!
Using an E-mail chain to brief others on a subject. As a communication advisor, this happens A LOT.
People in the back and front office realise (after mailing back and forth on something for 2 weeks) that at some point someone from 'communication-department' is going to have to look at this too. Mainly to figure out how to communicate the issue to customers and the higher ups, get writers and developers on the project etc. etc. So the quickest fix? Just send the chain of 30 emails and tell met that 'it's all in there'.
And I always end up scrolling through 5 emails and calling a group meeting (and finding a time and date that everyone can attend is an issue) so the project just freezes for almost a week.
JUST WRITE ME A COMPREHENSIVE BRIEFING
Stop chewing so loud and please stop smacking your mouth when you are eating lunch at your desk. I don't know if you can hear yourself, but the rest of us can. Go eat in your car instead.
As an administrative assistant, earlier in my career, working for VPs for presidents, they'd have a meeting. Then about 10 minutes later, some dude, I had never met before would come to my desk and say, "hi, I'm so and so and your boss said you would help me with this project we just had a meeting about." My boss walked right by me without giving me a heads up or, gasp, ASKING me if I minded, etc. STOP PIMPING OUT YOUR SECRETARIES!
At my office we are lucky to have an hour paid lunch break. My coworker takes an hour and a half for lunch, but she doesn't punch out until she comes back and sets an alarm for an hour to make it look like she's not committing major time theft. She also punches out at 4:53 every day because it will round up to a full hour of pay. It drives me crazy. That seems to be okay, but my boss gets on me if I'm 3 minutes late once a week.
She also spends her days bitching about how much work she has to do. You can't possibly be THAT busy if you spend all day on Snapchat and IG, Freebird, Etsy, and taking two hour long personal phone calls. We're both supposed to answer the phones and she rarely does. People call, ask for her specifically, she says she doesn't want to talk to them, send them to her voicemail, and doesn't call them back for days.
I mean really?!
Gossip. It creates a toxic work environment where no one trusts anyone.
This! Even if you don't gossip they will gossip that you do in my experience anyways. It's so strange. If you can't say it to their face don't say it at all.
I'm retired now, but years ago I worked where the cubicles were arranged in groups of 4, like a pie. The guy next to me wore headphones but played his music so loud that I could hear it. He also hummed and bounced in time to the music, shaking the cubicle.
I couldn't get myself to talk to him about it, he was such a nice guy otherwise, and was enjoying himself so much. Shortly after, we moved to a new building which resolved the issue.
At this point I just see the humor in it.
Don't gripe at me every time a staff member complains about a conversation I'm required to have with them when they aren't following company policies (primarily about tardiness, uniform, personal phone usage). You know I'm polite, respectful, and professional, that's why you have me do it, so let me do it without the guilt trip.
Buy/wear headphones. I don't need to hear your videos, music, TV shows, be it in the breakroom or out waiting for customers. If you're playing my favorite heavy metal, I don't want to hear it. Be respectful. Also, stop eating in the phone call center. That's why we have a break room. And don't cook smelly stuff.
I wish the corporation I work for would stop being so fake. Management and HR are always boasting that they care about our mental and physical health , that they worry about the environment and that they donate to charity. That they are giving us a wide variety of benefits. That we have flexible working hours.
In fact, the care they give is a weekly newsletter sent via mass email, where they put links to randon websites about meditation and trendy vegetarian food recipes.
When it comes to charity, they make us jumo through hoops, sometimes exercise and record how many hours we did it, so they would donate 5 euros per hour( but with a cap of max 4 hours...don't want to overspend there).
Caring about the environment sums up to opening a brand new office somewhere in the U.S. or the Nordic countries that is entirely powered by solar or filters its own rain water. Yes, it does make a fancy poster, spending millions on 1 adminiatrative building, as long as it takes the attention away from the factories you own in China that are guzzling out your platic products.
Inclusivity and LGBTQ tolerance is the latest thing, they are even giving online courses about it. They hired 3 black guys from Africa and now they are all over the office on posters and fliers, with stupid instagram inspirational quotes on them. Like, inclusivity and acceptance should come naturally and is common sense, the company is instead waving the few people of color like an advertising banner which just makes the whole thing ugly.
Last but not least...the proffits. Oh, our sweet,dear stock exchange rates, how we love you! We will do anything to keep you up, my sweetness! Close down jobs and make people who worked 20+years redundant? No problem! Move thousands of positions to East Asia? Definitely, oh and please do take a look at our article about feeling secure in your job position in our weekly newsletter. Oh you guys perfected a flawed process that has been causing losses to the company for a decade? Amazing work, now make sure you write it down, so we can fire you and assign the ready and easy-to-use process to someone that will do it for 4 times less salary.
Sorry for ranting. One can only keep things in for so long just to keep their job.
A lot of these things were true in my company too. Our favorite was "we love and value our employees so much, but there won't be much in the way of raises this year, but to prove we love you, here is a plastic water bottle, a key chain and a $5 Starbucks card"
I wish my colleagues would stop expecting someone else (normally me) to do their job for them.
I have this at my job too. People have no problem passing work off to you but the moment you are overloaded and are asking for help with something they say, "We are not allowed to pass off work, sorry I can't do your job.".
I wish that my coworkers would stop being afraid of management. We are an engineering group and they accept low pay and act like timid mice and refuse to speak up about the abuse from management concerning working long hours and not getting paid for overtime. They are using us and do not care about any of us. My coworkers do not realize that we hold the collective power but unfortunately they are so far in debt with mortgages, student loans, and credit card debt that they are effectively enslaved.
I grew up very poor and we lost our family home when I was young. Because of this I went to university on grants and scholarships while working 2 part time jobs. I have never had a credit card and save to buy everything. My wife and I even saved and paid cash for a small old house and fixed it up.
People look down on us for driving older cars and living in a 1000 sq ft house in a working class neighborhood but we also have no debt. So when my manager tries to use and abuse me, I tell them no. I work 40 hours and no more than that because that is what I'm paid for. My time and health is valuable.
My coworkers just keep taking the abuse. And because of that it is more difficult for us to collectively bargain for better pay and conditions.
This is especially true for women. We are taught this from childhood, through school, and have to find our own self worth.
Things my boss does:
-starts a conversation with my coworker and tries to finish it with me 3 days later, as though we share a brain
-calls me 21 times in a single day (that's the record)
-calls and texts with lists of things for me to do, but on my days off or hours after work ended
-answers 80% of questions "yes" or "no", regardless of whether they are yes or no questions (it appears from discussion that he tries to answer without actually reading the question)
-makes decisions, backtracks after we've already followed through, or if we haven't he continues to go back and forth on it, stringing things out for months and leaving us all confused on what to do at the end
-refuses to fire a problematic employee despite agreeing that he is problematic
-never gives a name or address when discussing or asking about a client/property, forcing us to find people based on clues like "that lady in City on Tuesday"
-randomly asks if we ever did something that was discussed 2 years ago, forcing me to stop what I'm doing and search as per above with vague hints
-sends nonsense texts full of typos that we have to decipher like cryptologists because he can't answer the phone (eg. "Tbakskn" = thanks)
-intentionally confuses us "to get us to think more"
Don't get me wrong, he's a decent boss and does plenty of good things too, but there is definitely room for improvement.
Telling me 30 min stories about her son’s hockey games...on Friday’s....at 5pm...as I’m leaving for the weekend.
"Sorry, dear, but I have to run now - let me know how it went on Monday!"
My co-worker has had Covid twice. She refuses the vaccinated because Bill Gates is putting tracking chips in them. She truly believes Hillary Clinton has a hidden baby farm and she kills the babies and eats them. Total Qnon nut. But what really bothers me is she refuses to wear a mask at work. She came too soon after her last bout of Covid and is coughing all over the office. I just stay inside my office with the closed and wear a mask outside my office.
Tell her she already has a tracking chip it's called a cell phone and she carries it with her willingly wherever she goes
People turning up to work while they are sick or unwell.
Sadly, employers often give them no choice. Where I used to work, people were penalized for taking sick time.
Eavesdropping on other people's conversations from across the room, and butting in on people's phone convos.
Managers not answering employees questions, but ask us why we're not working and wasting time, then the managers telling us to go see/call them just to lecture us about going to them with questions, accusing us of wasting time.
co-workers pretending to not understand or bringing up the same, mundane issues that have been addressed numerous times just to prolong meetings so they don't have to go back to work as quickly. (It gives the impression employees at our level are unable to comprehend basic instructions, resulting in a lot of "mansplaining" and distrust towards us.
Clipping nails in the office.
Staring at other people working like a hawk, then running to the managers over little things such as someone talking with hand movements, because... that's how they talk.
Accusing the wrong person for coming to work sick because coughing was heard by someone close by.
Making judgy comments about other people's food.
This! Managers want you to be 100% independent on the job and not ask questions, but then the second you mess up they change their tune with the attitude like, "you should have known better to not try that on your own. Why did you not ask questions?". It's like don't ask questions but ask questions. Which one is it!?!!
I work at Chick-fil-A, and overall I love the job, but my hours are really inconsistent. One week I'll be working 24 hours and the next I'll only get 8. And I can't plan ahead cuz I won't know my schedule for the week until Sunday night.
I think classmates count right? Okay my classmate has got to stop being so annoying, he's always so pushy and trying to get to know my personal life when I'm not even him friend. Guess what he does to my friends? Fricking TOUCHES them. Like no, just stop. I had to report him to the principal to stop.
Treating the bullied or mistreated coworker(s) like they are the overall problem and the cause of conflict.
It happened to me, I was being targeted by a coworker for no reason at all. The coworker was very loud, brash, dramatic, and an accurate description would be a textbook narcissist. They refused to speak to me because of the only reason I could come up with was that they felt I was beneath them and wasn't worth their time. It made them impossible to work with as we needed to communicate as a team to effectively complete our job, and my work suffered as a consequence. They also would make snide remarks about me in my presence like I wasn't in the room. Management told me regarding the issue that I should watch how I 'treat' people, like I was the problem. I was shocked due to the fact I never knowingly disrespected this person or went out of my way to do anything to them. I had always tried to be a respectful and kind person and to be honest it hurt me to hear that they thought otherwise. When the offending party was directly questioned regarding their behavior they played it off like it was all a big misunderstanding and that they never were rude to me on purpose. Management then told me I had made it all up in my head and when it continued to be a problem kept telling I was imagining it. When the snide remarks continued I started to stick up for myself saying, "I do not appreciate that!" in a confident assertive tone. And this person then turned that onto me like I was the instigator and played victim like I was attacking them. There was no winning with this person. Management finally noticed the truth eventually. I never got an apology. They continued to treat this person surprisingly well though.
If there is a conflict between two coworkers listen to both sides before coming to any conclusions. Also it is unprofessional for management to pick sides because of outside factors such as favoritism, friendship, etc. Also gaslighting manager tactics need to stop! Telling me I'm the problem didn't solve anything it just made the problem worse and complicated me being able to do anything about it. I really believe it was just easier to label me as the problem since the actual person insigating the conflict would have been harder to deal with as they would have aggressively fought back and made a scene.
This brought memories back. Perhaps it’s the same person! Threw staplers, sandwiches, hole punches, anything to hand if it didn’t get its way. Physically attacked me in full view of those on the other side of the office yet when I complained I was told I was making it all up. Those who witnessed it turned out to be spineless, useless tossers scared of what it would do if they stuck up for me. I will NEVER work in such an environment again.
I wish my boss would stop breaking his own rules.
Yes, this is annoying. Like, dude! You just told ME not to do that!:)
Rubbing lotion on their feet during meetings. I work at a call center so when we have a meeting it takes some time for everyone to finish their calls and gather in the conference room. While she's waiting, off come the stiletto heels and here comes the lotion. WTH, lady?!?!
This is a new one, I've never seen anyone do that at work. Was this a boss or just another employee? Once I was at a Walmart grabbing some groceries. Suddenly, in the middle of checking me out, the cashier took her shoe off, put her foot on the counter, and started scratching like crazy. Then put her shoe back on, and went right back to checking out my groceries. It was disgusting. I disinfected all the groceries while they were still in bags. I called the manager later and when I described her he said "OMG. NO SHE DIDN'T!!! Okay, I know who she is, I'll take care of it". I felt a little bad, because I probably got her fired, but then again, she can't have cared about her job much.
Blatant favoritism. I worked in an department of about 20 in a building of 500 for a company big national company. My department was staffed with people who earned the job, and people who were given the job because their parents also worked at this company. It was NOT an entry level job, but they'd give the jobs to kids who had not one single clue what they were doing, but it was OK, because mommy works upstairs. One guy never worked...for two years he did NOTHING. When we submitted work, we had to sign for it, and it was logged, so everyone knew who did what, and that he did nothing. After about 20 months of that one of the senior people managed finally to expose him to someone outside the department, and they still didn't fire him... because mommy works upstairs. They just made him start working, which he did, in an extremely limited way. For 15 things everyone else had to do, he might do 1-2. Even worse, he wasn't alone. There were five others in the department treated the same way. When it was time for promotions, can you guess which ones were chosen? When it came to time off, can you guess who got the best choices?
Nepotism is gross and not fair to the person that would be more qualified for the position.
I have a coworker comes in late and leaves early but, he never tells my boss. He begs my other coworkers to cover for him. I constantly sit there and watch him break the rules and bribe his counterparts. I always deny him when he asks me to cover for him. He constantly blackmails everyone who threatens to tell.
Using a very loud keyboard. One of the young coders I sat near not only had a very loud keyboard, but was an extremely fast typist. When he sat down and started a burst of typing, it was like a machine gun going off. Quite disruptive, especially in an open office environment.
When in team meetings and it’s their turn to share what they are working on, going into WAY too much detail instead of just a high level overview. It’s like hearing paint dry. He’s been asked, repeatedly, to only give relevant details but always ends up in the weeds.
Non stop clicking of there f*****g pen
One co-worker seems unable to stand up by himself and has to lean on every available surface. I appear to be the only person who is annoyed by this.
Never admit to me that you don’t need to work. You only got a job here for companionship. Do you have any work ethics at all? No? Thought so.
(1) People that do nothing but complain all day
long.
You know... the ones that you're afraid to ask
how they're doing, because they'll try to talk to
you about their "chronic pain" or their "mom
being in the hospital" or some other unhappy
thing that makes you feel obligated to
empathetically listen despite the urge to run
away.
And they don't shut up... even if you keep
looking back at your computer and mentioning
how much work you have to catch up on.
(2) People who think they know so much about
policy and procedure... even though they literally
just got off orientation last month. Honey, I've
been at this way longer than you. If I'm smiling
at your advise, it's not because I think you're
smart or know your stuff... it's because I'm
looking for the strength to simultaneously "stay
polite" and also "not attempt to strangle you."
The boss could lighten up, geez I do my best and the labor dept could juist get to work get it done d**n it. I'm self-employed.
As policy I don't celebrate my birthday unless it ends in a 0, no one cares that you're 47 Becky. That being said, I was forced to attend the November birthday party last year because that's when mine is. There were 2 of us with birthdays that month and neither celebrate, stop forcing people to participate!
I loved working from home, because it got me out of an extremely toxic and hostile environment. Sadly, it was one manager who made it that way, it had been healthy and productive before. She went out of her way to give all the benefits to about three people in the department, while the rest of us had to cover for them. I think middle management is often a cesspit, almost as bad as senior management. Senior managers were all about making more money for themselves, middle management is all about scrambling for power.
As policy I don't celebrate my birthday unless it ends in a 0, no one cares that you're 47 Becky. That being said, I was forced to attend the November birthday party last year because that's when mine is. There were 2 of us with birthdays that month and neither celebrate, stop forcing people to participate!
I loved working from home, because it got me out of an extremely toxic and hostile environment. Sadly, it was one manager who made it that way, it had been healthy and productive before. She went out of her way to give all the benefits to about three people in the department, while the rest of us had to cover for them. I think middle management is often a cesspit, almost as bad as senior management. Senior managers were all about making more money for themselves, middle management is all about scrambling for power.