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Original poster

Office life- What is your pet hate?

347 replies

SuperMeerkat · 30/10/2019 14:12

Mine has got to be meetings where nothing ever actually gets resolved. Too much time is spent letting everyone have their say and ideas are considered that we then need another meeting to decide on what to do 😡😡 If anyone actually dares to be decisive then everyone looks at them like they’ve just kicked a puppy.

OP posts:
duckme · 02/11/2019 06:06

The person who is constantly negative. We all get bloody sick if the job at times but, Christ almighty, this woman is a dementor! Within two and a half minutes of her getting in I'm resting my head on my desk will the end to come. For my own twisted pleasure I now ask her if she's had a good weekend every week, knowing that she won't have done because some sort of disaster will always have happened. She constantly tells me she's had enough and is leaving the job, I used to say 'oh don't say that, what would we do without you?'. Now I say 'if you think it would be best, go for it!'. I don't think she quite knows how to deal with that.

wineisnecessary · 02/11/2019 07:55

Bloody annual appraisals,
I wouldn't mind if there was any point but no you spend ages completing said form , and spend a hour with your manager where you defend yourself getting a pay rise . Manager doesn't think you get a pay rise so it's all a complete waste of time .

Youngatheart00 · 02/11/2019 08:02

@wineisnecessary 100% with you on the annual appraisals. Especially when the ratings have already been determined before you spend hours filling in the bloody mandatory form.

mindproject · 02/11/2019 08:04

Office managers

That's all I need to say.

milliefiori · 02/11/2019 08:06

People who waft in, make tea, potter around everyone else's desks, chat about what films they saw at the weekend, browse the net and then frown at you for being workshy because you leave at 5.30pm to get home to see DC. I do more work before you've eaten your bloody Frosties as you wander around the office than you do staying until 9pm bidding for Yoda masks on Ebay.

That was therapeutic. (I usually work from home. Grin)

ManorMouse · 02/11/2019 08:11

We've got a 'Linda' as well. Guaranteed to fuck up her computer at least twice a week because she forgets to allow the system to self-initiate for the first 30 seconds or so after logging in. So, she tries to access the shared systems before they've been connected. On a good day it means a reboot. On a bad day, it means she's sitting there playing on her mobile all morning while waiting for IT to come round and fix her computer yet again while her workload gets passed around the rest of the team.

One of our line managers (thankfully not mine), Joanne, the cliqueyest of the cliquey. Bestest of besties with one half of her team and dumps most of their work on the lesser-favoured other half of the team so that her favourites can have more free time to socialise with one another. God forbid that you might have to interrupt her to ask a work-related question as you can feel the disdain at your impertinence just rolling off her.

Kevin, paranoid conspiracy nutter who spends his days glued to his mobile while trawling YouTube for tinfoil-hatted "Black Helicopters stole my aura!" loonery. We get excited updates on such matters throughout the day as Kevin relays the "Real News" to the rest of us. Of course, this takes Kevin a long, long way away from his actual job. A verbal warning and three re-training courses so far this year for him after a couple of data breaches and a shouting match down the phone with a client. This is all part of the 'conspiracy' though apparently.

emilybrontescorsett · 02/11/2019 08:12

I'll second the Brown nosers who stay for hours after their official end time and come in hours before they should.
They let EVERYONE know they do all this unpaid work.
Then they interfere with your work and do that when you have it all in order to do the next day.
They take it on themselves to compkete, even though nobody has asked them to. Then they email the boss telling them that they have done your work, in their own time. They e sure they fill group chat up with question a asking what time does Nigel kick up on a Sunday?
And oh I could not believe it was 7pm already and Nigel was kicking me out of the office last Sunday!

Singlenotsingle · 02/11/2019 08:25

Oi! My name's Yvonne! Shock
(Luckily I'm retired!)

ScreamingCosArgosHaveNoRavens · 02/11/2019 08:33

On the subject of 'slide decks' - presentations where someone displays a slide with loads of text and numbers, and then proceeds to read through the entire slide, word for word. And then repeats this with another 20 slides.

Why not just email everyone the slides if all you're going to do is read them aloud to us?

eeyoredebbie · 02/11/2019 08:40

When you’re over 30, pretty healthy, already married, no children and not having Any, reasonably happy in current job and years off retirement the constant collections for weddings, special birthdays, sickness, new babies and retirement can get a bit tiring

ThisThat · 02/11/2019 08:41

duckme so funny, I know people like that both inside the office and outside that just moan non-stop about their jobs (among other things). I've started saying "Oh you should have a look around, there's lots going these days"Grin. That shuts them right up.

Iliketeaagain · 02/11/2019 08:45

My pet peeve is people who threaten to resign over any little thing that they don't like.

Seriously, find a new job or don't but I don't believe that your going to resign any more because you've been threatening it for the last 6 years. And quite frankly, you wouldn't get away with half the stuff you do now in a new company..

flashingbeacon · 02/11/2019 09:24

I have a lovely job now after a lifetime of all that’s been mentioned so was feeling delighted. And I’m even in a company that cares about your feelings. Marvellous. They accommodate people’s feelings in ways that seem to work. That’s it I’m never leaving.

I had my first meeting about feeling where I said I had nothing to discuss my feelings are fine. Wrong answer. Now my card is marked as someone who doesn’t want to discuss my personal life with my completely unqualified and new to me boss. So I have monthly meetings for the foreseeable to discuss my bottling up of feelings and see if there is anything I wish to discuss. Next one is on Monday and I’m desperately trying to come up with a feeling about my job that isn’t “fine”. Wish I was joking.

chomalungma · 02/11/2019 09:38

People who email attachments to staff instead of giving a link to the shared document. That's why we have shared drives.

I have a 'K' as well - talks a lot, always volunteers to do a job that takes her out of the office, such as getting milk. She's also a manager as well.

I have only worked in an office for 2 years - so it's been interesting to see the dynamics.

I do like fish at lunch and egg sandwiches as well...Sorry, colleagues

ScreamingCosArgosHaveNoRavens · 02/11/2019 10:02

Now my card is marked as someone who doesn’t want to discuss my personal life with my completely unqualified and new to me boss.

Aargh - I hate it when work tries to muscle in on your emotional and psychological wellbeing. I'm all for workplaces offering support if you ask for it and from qualified professionals but nowadays you have all sorts of unqualified people trying to justify their own existence by creating problems that aren't there.

Iloveacurry · 02/11/2019 10:22

My boss, who goes on about how busy he is, but seems to have plenty of time to talk about holidays, ordering his or his wife’s new car, booking flights etc...

MajesticWhine · 02/11/2019 10:45

People taking my mug.
Emails to an entire organisation that really only apply to one or two people who could be spoken to individually. (eg please follow the dress code policy, please do not block people in the car park etc)

Tableclothing · 02/11/2019 11:10

People taking my mug.

Kill them.

OneFootintheRave · 02/11/2019 15:11

@Mollpop Or one’s who are sat next to you and send you and email! WTF is that all about?!

I do this regularly. A quick one liner saying I'd like to discuss x when you are free. That way, colleague can speak to you when they actually do have a moment and you are not interrupting them when they are in the middle of something in the way that @WhatchaMaCalllit mentions.

My concentration is fragile and if Carole decides to keep asking questions like what's for lunch it drives me potty. I spend most of the time with headphones on listening to bald music just to block out the bullshit!

Richdebtomdom · 02/11/2019 17:29

Being bullied, off sick with stress and the firm don’t give a sh/t ...

MerryDeath · 02/11/2019 17:35

People's mobiles not being put on silent
Plebs who haven't turned off notification sounds on their computers
The general mindless chat of many of my colleagues mainly
I'm a joy

UserThenLotsOfNumbers · 02/11/2019 18:01

Phew, I don't do any of these things! But have certainly met all the types described in this post.

Where I work there's a lot of pretending to be busy and making noises about how busy tings are. It's not. It's people hanging on to their very comfortable and well paid jobs. They will be fine until someone shines a light on them.

Gemm83 · 02/11/2019 18:23

Grown adults acting like 5 year old children when they don't get their own way 🙄

Peony99 · 02/11/2019 18:36

I have a Rowland, who constantly hums to himself and mutters under his breath. Sometimes it's quite alarming- "shit shit shit SHIT" whispered near you is off putting and makes me think he's screwed something up.

I'm his manager, and so have asked him innumerable times to STFU, formally and informally.

But still it goes on, and still others complain.

Next step is to put him on a performance programme for humming fgs. This is a 28 year old, very intelligent man.

EleanorReally · 02/11/2019 18:57

people who use my desk when i am not in and leave something unplugged, it was the mouse last week!
the temperature always too hot, unless its cold with a fan blowing.

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