In an age where electronic communications are creeping more and more into our daily lives and workers are increasingly crammed into cardboard-segregated workstations, a recent survey of 6000 people by recruitment company TMP Worldwide has found that irritating mobile phone rings are top of the heap of workplace nuisances, followed by malfunctioning equipment such as photocopiers, fax machines and printers.
Mobile phones, often unattended and left to ring out, as well as annoying jingles, both cause major distractions especially in open-plan offices. Furthermore, certain brands of mobile phones have a ring callback to say a message has been received. -These are the main areas where people get irritated," according to Fergus Kelly, marketing manager TMP Worldwide.
Equipment that isn't functioning as well as it should also outranked annoyances such as co-workers who come in late and leave early - which is ranked as the sixth most annoying work habit -- and job jockeying, or riding on the work of others, which ranked third, according to the survey.
Bad breath and body odours and the empty toilet roll scenario were ranked fourth and fifth respectively.
Considering we spend more time with colleagues at work than we do with our partners, families and friends, it's important to strike a social balance in the workplace, Kelly said. -The last thing we want is for the next workstation to us to have a colleague in it with one of those irritating habits...and irritated or peeved employees in the work environment - making it even more stressful," he added.
The key of course is to be more considerate to our colleagues and switch mobile phones to silent or vibrate and wipe them of annoying jingles. Alleviate the hassle of malfunctioning equipment by allocating the maintenance of it to one particular employee.
And bad breath, well that speaks for itself really.
