Shared workspaces remain common, especially with the shift away from remote working. Putting people together from different backgrounds and social attitudes can either be rewarding or frustrating. There are signs that the younger generation are less tolerant that those of older generations and whom have been working in offices for far longer.
In a survey by BizSpace into 2,000 UK office workers dishes up the most ‘maddening’ habits their colleagues bring to the workplace. With hybrid work shifting back to office life, old irritants are resurfacing, from lingering vapour clouds to food aromas.
The survey reveals the biggest “office icks” of 2024 as enacted by quirky coworkers, highlighting habits many workers feel are the worst.
Dirty Communal Kitchens
The top offender is the shared kitchen, where colleagues leave crumbs, spills, and dirty dishes as if by magic. It’s transformed into a battleground of unspoken frustration for one in four workers.
Swearing Up a Storm
With a fifth of respondents calling for a cleaner workplace vernacular, excessive swearing takes second place. Many say it disrupts the professional tone they expect in an office environment.
Indoor Vaping
Vaping indoors gets the thumbs-down from 20% of respondents, with complaints about the lingering mist and unfamiliar smells disrupting focus and air quality.
Health-Obsessed Colleagues
Nearly one in five workers can’t stand the wellness warriors who insist on sharing every detail of their breathwork routines and health hacks, turning their personal choices into office-wide affairs.
Personal Calls on Speaker
It’s clear: employees want private calls kept private. Turning the office into an unwanted amphitheatre for personal conversations annoyed 15% of survey participants.
Overpowering Desk Lunches
Close quarters mean that “what’s for lunch” can’t be ignored. One in eight workers find strong food smells from desk lunches a top pet peeve, which some say breaks their concentration.
Chewing Gum Left Under Desks
While this one might seem old school, chewing gum under desks rounds off the list as a surprisingly frequent complaint, with workers finding it both unhygienic and disrespectful.
Office Etiquette in a Changing Workplace
The survey also shows a shift in attitudes across age groups: younger workers (18-34) are far more likely to speak up about these grievances, often raising them with management, compared to their more reticent older colleagues.
Such findings could indicate that “etiquette refreshers” or workshops to foster a harmonious office environment are necessary,
