I originally posted this with the title…. “15 Ways You Piss Off Your Office Mates” and as people have written to me, I’ve been able to keep adding to the list…and guess what?  I’m up to 27 now!

OK, so first off, we’re all human and we all have bad days.  Nobody is perfect but when you spend 40+ hours with the same people every day, you may find that familiarity breeds contempt. When you are in a shared work environment, you can expect a little animosity to develop.

Isolated incidents will happen but when those incidents become more frequent, that upsets the office culture and you become SUPER ANNOYING! Here’s a lighthearted look at the habits that make us a bad co-worker. How many do you recognize? 

27 Ways You Piss Off Your Co-workers

  1. You complain – about everything. If you’re given a free lunch, you don’t like the food. Or you seem to have developed some allergy to the food. (What do you mean you have a dairy allergy? I saw you eating ice cream yesterday!)
  2. You say “It’s not my job” a lot. You also say “It’s not my problem.” Teamwork matters.
  3. You are a brilliant excuse maker. You have an excuse for everything and you like to place blame on everyone else without taking any of your share of the blame.
  4. You have little enthusiasm and take no initiative. That’s probably because “it’s not your problem.”
  5. You’re rude to your co-workers, customers, and clients. You are often not happy and it comes out through conversation and communication.
  6. You love to spread gossip. You’re skilled at the art of the “hit and run.” That’s where you can spread malicious opinions and rumors in less than two seconds by way of “hall talk” and “water cooler chat.”

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  1. You like to hijack meetings and turn them into a bitch session. You also like to stir the pot and stir up things up behind the scenes so you can sit back and watch the fireworks.
  2. You like to sabotage the efforts of others and take credit for their work.
  3. Change throws you for a loop. Inflexibility guarantees ultimate failure and you don’t want to go down alone.  You want to take your co-workers with you.
  4. You like to dump your work on others. You always need help with your work or you like to dump your work on co-workers at the last minute.  When you go on vacation, you never attempt to finish projects because you know someone else will finish it for you.
  5. You talk incessantly about your personal life. News flash:  Everyone has personal issues and they don’t want to hear about yours every second of the day
  6. You’re a chronic crier. You have a hard time keeping emotions in check.  It puts everyone around you in discomfort.
  7. Everything offends you. You’ve never heard the term pick and choose your battles because everything is a battle.
  8. You’re a slob. Forget about your private workspace but you never clean up after yourself in the common areas or kitchen.

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  1. You wear too much cologne or perfume. When we know you are in the office before we see you, you’re wearing too much perfume or cologne.  Best not to wear it at all.  If you do, just a little squirt.  That’s enough.
  2. Your e-mail etiquette sucks.  Are you constantly hitting “reply all” or “cc-ing” everyone on an email?  Or, maybe you never bother to respond to an email.  Email is the normal mode of communication and your etiquette shouldn’t suck.
  3. You’re condescending. Being competent in what you are talking about is great.  But know-it-alls don’t win friends. You end up alienating the people you need most.
  4. You eat smelly food for lunch.  Enough said.
  5. You’re really loud.  Many organizations have open office spaces so you can’t be oblivious to your noise level.

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  1. You’re always late.  “Let’s wait another five minutes to start the meeting because Bob hasn’t arrived yet.”
  2. You don’t wash your hands when you leave the bathroom.  Yep, everyone notices.  This is just wrong on so many levels. That’s why we don’t eat your food on a food day.
  3. You are a buttinski. You just jump right in when people are having a private conversation. Don’t be the office interrupter.  This is followed by never letting people finish a sentence without interrupting.  It’s really, really annoying!
  4. You really believe the saying “There are no stupid questions.”  Well, sometimes, uh, there are.
  5. You eat someone else’s lunch that you just happen to find in the fridge. I’ll never understand why this happens.
  6. You like to put on your makeup or paint your nails (finger or toe) at your desk. That’s not a nice sight. There’s a little thing called the bathroom for that. Better yet, do it while you are still at home. Just a thought.

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  1. You want your co-workers to buy your kid’s Girl Scout cookies…or wrapping paper…or cookie dough. We really don’t want that stuff.
  2. You always have to be the one-upper. Why can’t we just tell a story without you always having to top it?

What do you think? Any sound familiar?  What would you add?

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