30 Extremely Annoying Behaviors People Experience In The Workplace

Contrary to popular opinion, working isn’t the only frustrating thing about workplaces.

Jesse

• Published in Interesting
• January 14, 2023

One of the most high-stress environments is the workplace. With so much to do daily, it’s not uncommon to dread going to work.

However, the workload is often not the only stressful thing about having a job. Dealing with other employees can get pretty frustrating too.

Like all relationships, the relationship between co-workers can be complicated.

If you’ve ever had a job, you’d undoubtedly relate to how annoying some co-workers can be. From the employee who never stops gossiping to the suck-up or even the over-worker who never takes the weekend off, several kinds of employees can rile you up.

A study found that 85% of employees experience conflict at work. Another study shows that employees spend about 2.1 hours resolving disagreements in the workplace. 

One Redditor took their time to uncover the daily frustrations people face at work. They asked on the r/AskWomen subreddit, “What work behavior can’t you tolerate?”

Redditors couldn’t hold back on spilling all the tea on this. And we took our time to gather some of the most interesting responses we could find.

Scroll down to read all of them!

1. Weaponized Incompetence

Just do your job!

2. Management neglecting mental health

3. Managers failing to communicate properly

Managers not communicating clearly and then getting angry that you didn't do exactly what they wanted when they didn't tell you what they wanted in the first place.

4. Poor attitude in the morning and not showing gratitude for a job well done

My manager often has a poor attitude in the mornings and it's super demoralizing for me. Also, I wish more managers would push gratitude and say "thanks for your work today" or express more positive feedback than just criticism.

5. Micromanaging

I hate this. It's always followed with "We want you to think for yourselves what has to be done. No, you can't decide what you want to do. We will make the decision. Do this. Do that. Can't do this. Can't do that. NO NO NO! That's not how I told you."

6. Casual racism or misogynism

Nothing casual about racism or misogyny

7. Workplace bullies

We have a group of grown a*s mean girls at my work and I can't f*****g stand them. Full grown, 30+ year old highschool bullies.

8. The ‘better than you’ attitude because they work in a ‘better’ department.

Drives me nuts!

9. Fake deadlines

10. Making overworking look like a flex

So we’re celebrating suffering now?

11. That one coworker who thinks they're the manager

For example the chode who was just hired after me who tried to shake me down about my break schedule. Go f**k yourself please and thank you

12. Constant, pointless (almost nattering-like) small talk from specific people.

I don't want to hear about your favorite pie and debate if it's the best flavor or not.

13. Entitlement and passive aggressive behaviors.

Entitled people get the boot.

14. Taking credit for other's work, or blaming their poor work on others.

 Like we can see the tags on the file and know if it was you who did it or not.

Nobody likes a praise stealer.

15. Unnecessarily reporting co-workers

Acting like this is high school, reporting me because I don't want to talk about your personal life with you (yes this happened and my boss laughed it off obviously).

16. Commenting on what I'm eating! like be quiet. I didn't ask you, lady.

This is usually accompanied by my second pet peeve. Commenting on my weight. I'm not super thin anymore. I'm average weight now. But I used to be abnormally thin. I also used to have an eating disorder. So, I'd get women in the breakroom like "Where do you put it? Where does it all go? Hardy-Har"-in the toilet, Janet. It will be thrown up into the toilet and your comments aren't helping.

17. Acting as though your grumpy "I haven't had my coffee yet" tantrums are a personality trait

18. Microwaving fish in a communal kitchen.

Only monsters do it.

19. Favoritism

Don't bring this to the workplace.

20. Slack messages that say just “Hi” and wait for me to respond before telling me what they need.

It’s asynchronous communication, people. Just say what you need to say.

21. Treating those you provide services to like they're an inconvenience

I'm in healthcare, and I cannot tolerate people who treat patients like an inconvenience. I know some of them (and their families) can be a PITA, but if you can't handle some of that every now and again, it's time to change careers.

22. Martyrdom

 "I worked until 8pm last night unpaid". (Teacher here). What staff like this are doing is the reason teachers are underpaid and overstretched

23. Two-faced coworkers

Saying mean/gossipy things about coworkers when they’re not around, then being nice to them when they are.

24. Randomly asking personal questions

I feel like private information should, if at all, be volunteered and it’s inappropriate to ask. I had my first child younger than is typical for my culture and random coworkers I met that day (that knew I had a kid based of a Mother’s Day present on my desk) asked me if he was planned. Get a grip, we’re not hanging out, we‘re working together.

25. The idea that everyone is on call all the time for all things.

Yes, emergencies do happen and certain people are responsible for that - Head of Security and there was a security breach? Yes call them at 2am on their vacation. Head of Legal and the CEO just got served, yes call them when they're home sick. However, Manager can't find a file they wanted to peruse to "get ahead of things"? Yeah, don't call your secretary at her daughter's graduation.

26. Speaking condescendingly to someone simply because they're younger than you are

Age is just a number. Everyone deserves respect.

27. Sharing a person’s mistakes with everyone else without first discussing it with the person

The people where if you make a mistake, they won’t tell you to your face but via email so that they can CC a higher-up or the rest of the team.

28. Inability to follow directions or accept constructive criticism.

It's vital to the work that I do. I let new employees go the second I see it.

29. Pressurizing your coworkers to go to office parties

Idk if this counts but I hate the social pressure to go to office parties/happy hours/whatever. I came to work not spend money and socialize.

30. Inability to set boundaries

I would love to get away from the idea that the only justifiable reasons to set a boundary are either that 1) you’re deathly ill or 2) you already owe your time to somebody else (a kid, a parent, etc). It’s okay if I don’t want to work every weekend because I value my social life and my rest. The commitments I make to myself still count.

The workplace is frustrating enough, and we certainly don’t need help from other employees to worsen it. We bet you could identify some behaviors you would take straight to HR if your coworker were guilty of them.

Tell us, do you have a coworker who exhibits any of these annoying workplace behaviors? And which can you tolerate the least?

Let us in on the juicy details in the comments below!

Jesse