POLL: Pet peeves at work.

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  • Ok, Just curious - and here's the place to vent if need be...

    But I'm curious - what are you daily pet peeves at your workplace?

    I ask because I just want to scream...

    "DID I SAY YOUR NAME WHEN I ASKED THE QUESTION???"

    I hate when I specifically ask one of my co-workers a question and someone else has to pop in with THEIR opinion or answer to my question, even though the person I specifically asked was not only capable of answering my question, but gave me the CORRECT answer which I was looking for...

    However, the other person feels the need to answer the question with the same answer not even 10 seconds after the first person has already answered my question. And it's not just one specific person...no it's two. I want to slap them both.

    ok. i needed that.

    What is your pet peeve at work?
  • People who schedule/accept meetings and show up 30 min late or not at all, or IM you every 5 minutes saying "five more minutes", so you can't start up anything new because your meeting might start at any time, but an hour gets wasted before you finally meet.

    Similarly, people who ignore your schedule when planning meetings, so you end up with meetings scheduled during gym time or other important times.
  • 1) The woman who chronically clears her throat

    2) People who hold court either in front of the door to the restroom, or worse inside!
  • Mandalinn, I'm with you on that one. Also, how about those people that schedule meetings at wacky times. 8am Monday morning.... 5pm on Friday afternoon...
  • I no longer work in corporate America as DH and I are running our own small business, but I still have peeves. I used to be the only married supervisor in my office and I have kids that had to be picked up by a certain time each day (or you have to pay extra per MINUTE that you are late). The CFO was the type that loved to pop in at 4:45 and demand an immediate audience to rant about whatever (the office closed at 4:30, so it was just us middle management folks there). It always made me feel so little when I had to practically beg to leave to pick up the kids.
  • Yes - I manage a team, and one member of that team works in India. Try balancing all of your meeting times with India's timezone....I have a meeting tonight at 7pm, another at 7am another day.....
  • My pet peeve is similar to IndyChick. There is one lady in the office who eavedrops on everyone's conversations. I could be at another coworkers desk, with my voice very low, back towards her, talking either business or personal, and it never fails that she will pipe up with her two cents. Some people just don't get it.
  • I actually left my last job because of one single person. People like him are my biggest pet peeve (among many other more minor ones). He was a PRO at taking credit for work he did not do and at quickly pointing the finger (away from himself, of course) when anything went wrong. Even though he was NOT a supervisor of mine, he would actually threaten my job if I said something he didn't like. When I started at that company, he and I were in the same position. In 2 months, he was promoted a step above me, and one month later, I quit (yup, only worked there for about 3 months). I keep in touch with one girl I worked with there, and she told me he has actually been promoted yet again (note: she no longer works there, either, as he drove her just as insane as he drove me).

    And so, most minor peeves don't annoy me nearly as much anymore because I always remember how much worse it COULD be. Peeves that drive me absolutely insane because of this one guy include:
    • blatant finger pointing
    • boasting (particularly for work you did not do)
    • complaining about how many long hours you work (though it's your own fault for taking 2 hours to write a 5-sentence paragraph)
    • sitting at your desk and looking perplexed so people think you're working
    • major brown-nosers
    • UNDESERVING PEOPLE WHO GET PROMOTED
  • Jill,
    The boasters are bad. I generally ignore them though. I used to work with one guy who did nothing but would do nothing but boast. He also would try to give me directions on what to do. I just ignored him.

    Related to that guy are the guys that don't know how to do their job but need you to help them with it. I get these guys all the time that ask for my help because they don't know how to do their own job. My own management is getting sick of them and has basically told me to cut them off from any assistance. Its difficult though because we need to get things done but I'm learning.
  • I don't work anymore, but at my last job, my pet peeve was the office manager. That's as narrow as I can make it. Anything she said or did irked me.
  • Stupidity and incompetence. They're my pet peeves in all in areas, not just work!

    Jo
  • There's one person in particular who makes ALL of my coworkers' lives ****. I work for Women's & Children's Services, which encompasses Labor & Delivery, Postpartum, Nursery, and Pediatrics. I believe we have the biggest unit at our hospital - we have approximately 100 employees on our floor alone.

    The one who makes it bad for everyone else is a unit secretary, who has been there for 20 years now. She tells everyone what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. She rearranges my unit (peds) when I am not there (a whopping 2 days a week). She butts in on peoples' conversations, tries to tell nurses how to do their jobs, and she constantly double checks to make sure people are doing their own jobs - which results in her never getting her job done. They took her off the floor because of her attitude and her inability to get along with everyone, so rather than having to pull the same shifts, work load, etc, she now has a M-F 7a-3p job, no holidays or weekends. Yeahhhh.. that's punishment alright
  • brandnewme - I put myself through college by working as a surgical tech. Unit secretaries were the WORST! (sorry to someone out there if you are one....). They were the bossiest, nosiest, buttiningest, get in your faciest people I have EVER encountered. The ones I worked with thought they ruled the world!!!!
  • <~~~~Another hospital nurse here...TONS of peeves!

    Our unit secretaries are pretty wonderful, just wanted to chime that in there.

    We have nurses/busybodies that interrupt our conversations to butt in unnecessarily too, it's especially annoying when we're talking to our docs.

    Leaving IV bags dry for the next shift, I always leave plenty up or at least a new bag at the bedside!

    Going to change an adult diaper, and no one stocked the drawer with new depends!

    Giving a patient a bath when they've been there 3-4 days and they don't have any powder, lotion, deodorant, etc....how did these people get bathed before?

    Going to turn a pt who can't turn themselves, but there are no pillows in the room~ how did they get turned before?

    Nurses who answer patients' call lights and do NOTHING about them, then when I come in, they've been waiting forever~just tell ME what they wanted and I'LL DO IT, but don't just ignore them! Well I guess I get annoyed when someone answers a call light, COMES AND FINDS ME, to tell me so-and-so wanted a blanket or a tissue or a straw! LOL

    Docs who ream nurses for situations they weren't even involved in.

    Families who come in automatically assuming they are going to get crappy care, treat nurses all defensively, putting up a wall before even giving us a chance.

    Not stocking the med carts, the glucometers, etc...I work nights and I have all that stuff stocked for YOU!

    Enough for now, I'm on vacation getting all peeved off and I'm not even there! LOL
  • my peeves : throwing a brand new computer system on us without giving anybody any training. having people who have never done any kind of computer work build that system.
    poor internal customer service. as in, a co-worker however distant being rude to me!There is no reason for that. I have the same ****ty job they do, sometimes mine is even worse, and the least they could do is pretend to be nice to me. I'm not the rude caller!

    also when I ask my supervisor a question that she doesn't know the answer to, instead of saying "I don't know" she just guesses and then when it's wrong I get the blame.

    my work is also very good at promoting the wrong people. and honestly, i am guilty of butting in when someone asks someone else a question. think i was a supervisor at too many other jobs, so i'm used to being the one people go to for questions... i always automatically assume they want my answer. i'll have to pay more attention to that.