How to Avoid Being the Annoying Person in Your Office

08 Apr How to Avoid Being the Annoying Person in Your Office

Seven annoying habits you should break right now.

If you work in an office then you know the feeling well: you slip into work, move silently and stealthily, slide around corners and crawl across open spaces unnoticed, but that annoying colleague still finds you before you reach your desk.  You feel icy pins in your back as they pull out their newest batch of photographs depicting their dogs dressed as circus clowns.

Yes, we all have that annoying co-worker.  But, thanks to DocX’s copier rentals, your work flows smoothly and all you have to worry about is making it out to lunch without getting roped into yet another conversation about the lives of the circus dogs.

Fortunately, there are always the water-cooler conversations that you have with the cool people in which you can vent about the annoying ones.  However, when there is a little group huddled around the water-cooler and snickering while glancing at you, you have to ask yourself, “Am I the annoying person?”

There’s a chance that you just mistook Sam-from-accounts’ lazy eye for a snarky glance, and you’re just being paranoid.  However, to be sure, here is a list of annoying office traits to avoid at all costs:

• Closeness and coffee breath:  There’s no shame in it; we all need our morning coffee.  But, when you get too close to someone while wishing them a good morning, you’re just asking to be the topic of the daily water-cooler vent fest.

• Too much talking:  Here’s a tip: if your colleague is typing frantically and smiling politely here and there at your endless word-stream, you need to stop talking… like, now.  Even worse is if you shout across the office to your colleague on the other side of it.  Seriously, stand up and walk the seven steps to his or her desk.

• Making it awkward:  Even though you spend more time with your work colleagues than you do with your friends, you shouldn’t talk to your co-workers like you’re out on the town.  Getting too personal or casual can make it really, really awkward.

• Being non-responsive:  Nothing drives people up the wall faster than failing to respond to emails, with the possible exception of showing them daily doggie pics.

• Keeping your phone on:  It’s great that you have three thousand Facebook friends, but the beeping that goes off every 0.7 seconds when you get a notification can become like Chinese water torture to the people around you.

• Hogging the fridge:  Taking up the entire fridge with a container the size of a small car (that contains just a sliver of last night’s steak) is a big no-no.  This is made monumentally worse if you forget it and leave it in the fridge for a few months.

• Looking at co-worker’s screens:  Leaning forward on someone’s desk while talking to them is annoying enough, but peering at their screen while you’re doing it will definitely make you the hot topic come water break time.

Fortunately, the ease of your office’s copier rentals is covered by DocX.  Now just make sure that you avoid doing any of the above and your work day is bound to be smooth sailing.

Image credit: http://the5gh.com/2014/02/05/5-annoying-co-worker-habits/