Most annoying office habits revealed

A major study by Rubbermaid in Canada has revealed the most annoying breakroom habits of office workers.

Top of the list of annoying office behaviour is leaving a splattered microwave (37%), followed by dishes piled in the sink instead of being put in the dishwasher (28%), and co-workers heating up or eating foods with strong odours (21%).

More than 1000 Canadian office workers surveyed by Angus Reid Forum on behalf of Rubbermaid found that nearly two-thirds of respondents (62%) believe that men are the guilty parties and leave the most mess in the kitchen.

Junior employees and interns are also being blamed, with 65% and 56% of respondents respectively citing them as the mess-makers.

When asked whether they themselves have left a mess without tidying up after themselves, only one in 10 respondents (6%) admitted they had.

Of those surveyed, 68% stated they have never confronted a co-worker about leaving a messy kitchen, and only 15% have directly spoken to the person they believe committed a kitchen faux-pas. Other tactics used by workers to address a colleague include leaving a note posted in the kitchen (13%), sending an all-staff email and hoping the intended recipient gets the message (10%), leaving the suspected colleague an anonymous ‘post it’ note on their desk, and telling their boss or manager (both 2%).

Other survey findings include:

• 44% of Canadians who work in offices with shared kitchens bring their lunch to work every day;
• 29% of millennial respondents don’t bring a lunch to work so they don’t have to eat with colleagues, which they prefer not to do;
• A third of female respondents (33%) have complained or gossiped about a co-worker who they believe leaves messes in the office kitchen; and
• 57% of those who rarely or never bring their lunches to work cite that the office microwave has “more splatter stains than an episode of CSI”.

Source: Stationery News