Workplace Difficulties

[haha]

Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle) -

Think you've heard some strange complaints from employees about their co-workers? A recent survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers by CareerBuilder highlighted some of the oddest complaints about others in the office.
The complaints include:

* Employee is too suntanned.
* Employee has big hair.
* Employee eats all the good cookies.
* Employee is so polite, it's infuriating.
* Employee suspected co-worker was a pimp.
* Employee is trying to poison me.
* Employee's body is magnetic and keeps de-activating my magnetic access card.
* Employee is personally responsible for a federally mandated tax increase.
* Employee was annoyed the company didn't provide a place for naps during break time.
* Employee only wears slippers or socks at work.
* Employee's aura is wrong.
* Employee smells like road ramps.
* Employee breathes too loudly.
* Employee wants to check a co-worker for ticks.
* Employee wore pajamas to work.
* Employee has bells on her shoes and it's not the holidays.
* Co-worker reminded the employee too much of Bambi.
* Employee spends too much time caring for stray cats around the building.
* A male employee keeps using the ladies' room because the men's room is not as tidy.

The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive among 2,667 hiring managers and human resource professionals.

No wonder we want out!!!

Ha

 

[GoodSense]

i must admit I am guilty of not wearing shoes at work when I walk between my cube and the printer/copier. it also puts me in stealth mode and I can sneak up on coworkers to see what they are actually looking at on their screens.

 

[CuppaJoe]

* Employee is so polite, it's infuriating.

I remember that guy, his "hi, how are you" eight times a day threw people off. If you're still working, that kind of behavior could give you power, or more power to you, as the case may be.


Good morning,
Hi, there,
Good afternoon,
How's it going,

 

[freebird5825]

Oh I could write a book about this one. We all could.

Some of the behavior I observed in a mostly techno-geek employee population ranged from the bizarre (muttering to oneself while twirling hair) to the downright scary (high intensity anger outbursts in meetings). And then there were the "fashion model" types, both genders, who dressed like they were headed for a cocktail party at the country club.
Goes with the territory...

 

[Brat]

After 40 some years in HR I have heard a couple complaints that are similar to those on your list. Body odor issues are not unusual but they are rarely hygiene related, they stem from the type of food or spices the employee consumes (immigrants, impats). Several of the others on the list I also put in the 'culture' box: hair styles, Bambi, twinkle toes.

What people wear at work is a common source of tension. I once talked to a programmer about what to wear to an interview at a footwear manufacturer. He thought he lost an employment offer at a tech company once because he wore shoes so proposed to come barefoot. My recommendation was to wear shoes but not wear a competitor's product. The other apparel issue is when winter is over and employees show up in clothing that reveals more of their physique than others find appropriate - actually a subject of a Board discussion once. [In my youth I wore very short skirts, but that was the fashion then.]

 

[FUEGO]

"A male employee keeps using the ladies' room because the men's room is not as tidy."

We used to do this all the time at our old building. 8 or 10 all male engineers sharing an office condo. We had a male and a female bathroom with one toilet in each. The male bathroom was for #1 and the female bathroom was for #2 (the toilet was clean in there, sufficient for sitting on it). The male bathroom was never cleaned much as far as I can tell in the year or two I worked in that building.

The female engineer from downstairs would still come up to our office condo to use the female bathroom (it was cleaner than their unisex downstairs) and she would always complain about all the guys going #2 in there. We had air fresheners in there, so I don't know what the big deal was??!

 

[Sarah in SC]

Fuego, GROSS!
That is a non-negotiable point for me--no men in the women's bathroom, and there can't be stalls, it has to be a separate room.
I remember at the sailing company, there were two front restrooms that were ostensibly mens/womens. We took over both of them and the owner had someone come in and build a men's restroom in the warehouse, complete with two stalls and a couple of urinals.

If we caught a guy (and it was always the same gross salesman) using our bathrooms (meaning peeing on the seat), we'd raise heck about it. I took enormous satisfaction when I was on the hatchet team later on in selecting him for the axe. Sucka!

 

[FUEGO]

Fuego, GROSS!
That is a non-negotiable point for me--no men in the women's bathroom, and there can't be stalls, it has to be a separate room.

Hey, there was no way I was going to touch any part of the men's toilet with any part of me unless it was the bottom of my shoe.

Unless I really had to go and the clean women's bathroom was occupied.

Having 10 guys sharing 1 toilet created traffic jams, especially in the post-lunch time period. It was out of necessity that we used the women's restroom too. Necessity.

 

[bbbamI]

I need to take a shower....

 

[ksr]

... the downright scary (high intensity anger outbursts in meetings).

Yes, and in my job it was usually the boss. Hence my 15 years of planning for ER

 

[Nords]

I guess having a commanding officer throw karate kicks at you would be a bit beyond the pale of proper office behavior.

Hey, at least he let us hold a padded kicking shield...

 

[Meadbh]

Surgeons who throw temper tantrums (and scalpels) in the OR are really, really unpopular. Right Moe?

 

[bssc]

Surgeons who throw temper tantrums (and scalpels) in the OR are really, really unpopular. Right Moe?

The difference between God and a doctor is that God doesn't thing that he is a doctor.

 

[freebird5825]

Yes, and in my job it was usually the boss. Hence my 15 years of planning for ER

Just before I IFREd, I had a guy walk into the lab and proceed to use every 4 letter word he knew in a long rant about some contest he lost at a meeting "war".
His behavior got more and more aggressive to the point where I became a bit nervous.
And I do not scare easily. Tuff girl...
He was not yelling at me, but he was clearly on the edge of loss of control.
I suggested he go outside and take a walk to cool off. The look he gave me was really awful. So I calmly suggested if he couldn't tone it down, I was prepared to call security rather than be subjected to more language and anger. That snapped him out of it.

This happened a few months before I FIREd. He's still there...

 

[Moemg]

Surgeons who throw temper tantrums (and scalpels) in the OR are really, really unpopular. Right Moe?

Right ! We had an ENT surgeon that was gorgeous but so demanding and constantly yelling that one of my friend's said years later she would get a whiff of someone wearing his cologne and get the shakes .

 

[bbbamI]

I once had a boss that came close to being abusive. On occasion he would come in drunk. If his tie was loose, everything was ok. If his tie was straight...watch out.

He was never abusive to me because I would have cleaned his clock. However I heard what he said to others when his door was closed.

 

[freebird5825]

I once had a boss that came close to being abusive. On occasion he would come in drunk. If his tie was loose, everything was ok. If his tie was straight...watch out.

He was never abusive to me because I would have cleaned his clock. However I heard what he said to others when his door was closed.

I was amazed at how many people imbibed at lunchtime, or via the ol' bottom drawer trick. I spent my first 7 years in the lab, and did not see it. Once I started running contracts and interacted more with the general population, it was not uncommon to smell alcohol on peoples' breath. And it was common knowledge in a few cases. Huh
I was a pretty good partier in my day, but I would never never ever drink on the job or at lunch.
5 Bells was my iron clad rule.

 

[W2R]

How does anybody have time to drink at lunch? 30 minute lunch break, 10 minutes to get out of the building and race to the nearest (probably fast food) place, 10 minutes to get back, and that only leaves you 10 minutes to eat.

Well, I guess a person could use flex-time, but then you'd have to work late just to drink a beer at lunch! NOT worth it, IMO.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Freebird and W2R, let's just say that when I worked for that sailing company was the first place my (I thought not particularly) naive self learned why so many of our younger employees would time their "smoke break" for 4:20 in the afternoon.

We had beers with lunch on the rare occasions we got to go out. When I worked for Habitat, I can't imagine what would have happened to us if we'd been busted drinking at a restaurant. I've never known anyone to keep a bottle in the desk.

At my current job, my boss has on at least a half dozen particularly bad days shown up in my office door with either a fancy beer mixed 6-pack or a couple of growlers. Nice. But I had to wait and drink them at home.

 

[bbbamI]

When I talked about my situation above, my boss was the President of the company, soooooo. His daddy was the owner. When daddy was in town, sonny did not drink a drop...at work that is.

Sonny did have one thing going for him; he was drop-dead gorgeous.

 

[haha]

What stuck me as very weird about the list above is that many of the complainants were clearly psycho. "His aura is wrong"

Ha

 

[bbbamI]

What stuck me as very weird about the list above is that many of the complainants were clearly psycho. "His aura is wrong"

Ha

Ahhh, c'mon now Ha. There are some pretty messed up auras out there.

 

[FUEGO]

I don't usually drink at lunch but some others do. Particularly if entertaining clients. I don't see how drinking a beer at lunch would impair your ability to complete your afternoon tasks. I think there is an implicit ok to drink a beer if the company president himself has 1 or 3 when you go out with him. We also have afternoon champagne toasts or social gatherings with beer around 2:00 or 3:00 if there is something special to celebrate (10 year anniversary at company, someone getting their professional license, etc). Different firm cultures I suppose. But clearly someone showing up to work drunk would be frowned upon and that employee would potentially be fired.

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

"Employee was breathing throughout the day."

 

[harley]

What does a road ramp smell like, anyway?