20 Most Annoying Office Habits

Admit it, however old some of us get, our fascination with stationery never ends. The colourful paper clips, post its and freshly sharpened pencils do kinda add some personality to the desk, don’t they?

Then of course the stationery pincher makes his appearance. In the middle of the night, when the last of the lights has been turned off and the security is done with his last round of the day, the stationery pincher emerges from his hiding.

And before you know it, when you clock in the next morning it’s gone — first the stapler, then that lovely note pad, followed by the pens — of all four colours, even the whiteboard marker and finally the pen stand!

Guess that’s what you get when you’ve pinched all of that from the office stationery cupboard!

Umm could I borrow a hundred bucks? I’ve run out of change and I need to pay the cabbie downstairs!”

Looking at the urgency on your colleague’s face you take pity on him and hand out that last currency note in your wallet.

Sounds familiar?

Yup! That’s Mr/Ms Borrow-and-forget!

What these folks don’t understand that the very idea of ‘borrowing’ involves ‘returning’ what they’ve taken and not presuming that it is theirs for the keeping!

Now they may not be doing this on purpose but it is, as many of you would admit, quite irritating indeed.

Sadly it boils down to how shameless you can get and ask that money back from him/her!

Sure we understand there’s a protocol in all workplaces. All official emails that need your boss to be in the know should be marked to him/her.

The operative phrase here being ‘need to know’!

Imagine writing off an email to the invisible admin guy in the other end of the office about, let’s say, the flickering tube light over your head and marking your boss on it.

Or then pointing out a spelling mistake in the 243’d slide of a 372-slide presentation your colleague’s made AND CCing your boss on it.

Irritating enough? Get the point. So you see the boss doesn’t always need to know everything. In fact the lesser he knows the better it will be for you no?

Here you are smack in the middle of an intense discussion when she strolls into the cabin and asks you for your signature to sanction an extra stock of toilet papers.

No amount of dirty looks you give such folks, this breed of people will never, ever get the point.

Try telling them never to interrupt you and be assured that the nest time they won’t even if it is a matter of life and death.