Annoying things your work colleagues do all the time?

[MilkAndTwoSugars]

Also my boss asked me to log on when I was last off sick to quickly go through something with her, which I think is SO wrong, it wasn’t urgent and she should 10000% have known how to do it herself

Hey you might like this thread of you haven't seen it already - it's all about calling in sick at work. Xx

Calling in sick

I wasn't sure if I should post this in "Off topic" or "Advice" Does anyone else hate calling in sick to work? My first ever job (I worked there for 10 years) the two managers were absolutely vile about anyone that called in sick. They'd try to force people to come in, they'd slate you to other...

tattle.life

 

[Woolmercardington]

I had this work colleague once who would constantly drone on about how big her boobs were. Usually triggered when a man walked into the staffroom. She was a very girl-next-door type, too. Quite an arty, Boho style.

But every conversation would somehow be manipulated into bringing her boobs (and how big they are) into the main topic.

This one time she mentioned that she used to work at a school and how the headmistress hated her, "... But I think she was clearly jealous because she was really flat-chested and I have such big boobs."

Oh duck off, love. She probably hated you because you are obsessed with your own tits and can't stop inappropriately talking about them in the workplace.

 

[Platformcrocs]

I love this thread but cannot believe how many vile cretins walk amongst us every office has a phantom shitter!!

It's too early for poo stories but my last job had a tampon/pad thief. I worked in a small office with about 6 other women who I thought were all sound, never had any issues. A couple of us would leave pads in the women's toilet because it was just easier, and obviously if anyone was caught short they could take what they needed. But every month, without fail, someone would ransack the supply of pads - an entire 12 pack would be rifled through within two days. It was never replaced!

A female manager sent an email to the 6 of us being like, "a few of us choose to leave pads in the bathroom and if you need a pad please take one, I don't have an issue with that. But we are grown women and sanitary items are your responsibility. If you are going to steal an entire pack, replace them or own up and apologise". So awkward.

I could never figure it out. It was so odd.

 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I'm shocked by the stories of women's toilets in offices having used tampons and excrement smeared about. As a man who's more used to factory and warehouse bogs, I've never seen anything like that and I've always thought of offices and women as being more genteel and refined.

 

[petitspois]

I think some of these issues come from some people so f*cking tight it's untrue. I used to work with people who flat out refused to contribute to buying milk, would never put in for a leaving collection (even 50p for someone who'd been there years), would hoover up any cakes that had been brought in but never contribute and would hang around at the end of the day and take home the leftover buffet that had been fingered by about 30 people already. They weren't at all embarrassed and thought they were really canny.

 

[HoGi]

I think some of these issues come from some people so f*cking tight it's untrue. I used to work with people who flat out refused to contribute to buying milk, would never put in for a leaving collection (even 50p for someone who'd been there years), would hoover up any cakes that had been brought in but never contribute and would hang around at the end of the day and take home the leftover buffet that had been fingered by about 30 people already. They weren't at all embarrassed and thought they were really canny.

I work with someone like this.

We do a buffet on Xmas eve and he now brings in tuppawear to take home leftovers for boxing day!!

 

[Platformcrocs]

A guy in my team is atrocious at copying people into emails - usually the fewer emails the better, but there are some things you need to know. So much time wasted chasing things up only for this guy to say "oh I just emailed back directly, I've sorted it". He's got a habit of removing people from email chains too, so again, I'll ask him what happened with something and he responds with something like "I didn't know if you wanted to be in that email".

Every single time I ask him to keep me/relevant people in the loop and he's very apologetic, and a day later he does the exact opposite. Over and over. WFH joys...

 

[Cloverfield10]

I had another colleague on my team who I think was a bit of a stoner but who would miss entire conversations and have literally no idea what was going on... Often we would be chatting about something work-related for around an hour and he would finally look up and say "what was that??" It used to drive me crazy. He would also never volunteer for any tasks from our manager which meant that I would be carrying him constantly.

He also had the most irritating habit of drumming on his desk with him pen, hand or anything he had to hand - I literally had to ask him to stop on multiple occasions.

Other things I can't stand are loud talkers and people that think their random chat is hilarious and quirky ("If you were a biscuit what kind would you be?") nothing against chat whatsoever but if it's performative and totally inane then I just can't get on board. Often it's new people who are over-confident and too loud trying to compensate for having no real personality.

 

[emm]

I have a colleague who is an anti vaxxer (thank god I am on furlough as god knows how i would deal with her and this corona mess) who was berating me for getting my cat vaccinated as it was so unsafe and trying to get me to cancel the appointment

 

[Jam-sandwich]

This is my favourite thread on tattle! I love reading it and I’m back to contribute for the 3rd time

My gripe for today - colleagues who butt in on every conversation happening in the office. I work in a relatively small office (8 desks) so there’s quite often background chatter between 2-3 colleagues going on. There is one particular colleague who muscles in on every single conversation that goes on I almost sit and wait for her to do it now, it’s like clockwork! Not a conversation goes by that she won’t try and involve herself in.
If I’m ever having a conversation I don’t want her involved in I will physically turn my back to her where possible (she sits next to me) and she STILL butts in! Clearly she’s not understanding the body language!

My small comfort is I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who hates it, she regularly kills conversations stone dead when she chimes in

Hope I don’t sound harsh, she’s a decent enough person, just has no concept of the idea that people can have conversations that don’t always involve her!

 

[emm]

This is my favourite thread on tattle! I love reading it and I’m back to contribute for the 3rd time

My gripe for today - colleagues who butt in on every conversation happening in the office. I work in a relatively small office (8 desks) so there’s quite often background chatter between 2-3 colleagues going on. There is one particular colleague who muscles in on every single conversation that goes on I almost sit and wait for her to do it now, it’s like clockwork! Not a conversation goes by that she won’t try and involve herself in.
If I’m ever having a conversation I don’t want her involved in I will physically turn my back to her where possible (she sits next to me) and she STILL butts in! Clearly she’s not understanding the body language!

My small comfort is I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who hates it, she regularly kills conversations stone dead when she chimes in

Hope I don’t sound harsh, she’s a decent enough person, just has no concept of the idea that people can have conversations that don’t always involve her!

i generally find this is the person who is doing the least work, if you are working it is impossible to get involved in every conversation!

 

[Cloverfield10]

This is my favourite thread on tattle! I love reading it and I’m back to contribute for the 3rd time

My gripe for today - colleagues who butt in on every conversation happening in the office. I work in a relatively small office (8 desks) so there’s quite often background chatter between 2-3 colleagues going on. There is one particular colleague who muscles in on every single conversation that goes on I almost sit and wait for her to do it now, it’s like clockwork! Not a conversation goes by that she won’t try and involve herself in.
If I’m ever having a conversation I don’t want her involved in I will physically turn my back to her where possible (she sits next to me) and she STILL butts in! Clearly she’s not understanding the body language!

My small comfort is I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who hates it, she regularly kills conversations stone dead when she chimes in

Hope I don’t sound harsh, she’s a decent enough person, just has no concept of the idea that people can have conversations that don’t always involve her!

I am the same - it's so easy to notice annoying habits and for them to stand out so much once we've noticed them. A lot of people who work in offices are good people at heart but just have the most irritating habits driven by a lack of awareness generally! This thread is great therapy hahaha

Another head-scratcher is grown-up colleagues who will talk at length about their own lives at any given opportunity but who don't even have the awareness to show the most basic interest in the lives of their colleagues. It's very strange how many people see conversation as a completely one-way act!

 

[HowlOwl]

Bosses that over-swear because they think it makes them a bit of a rebel. I don’t mind the odd swear word but f this and that every other sentence, it’s unprofessional and seems immature.

 

[Platformcrocs]

This is my favourite thread on tattle! I love reading it and I’m back to contribute for the 3rd time

My gripe for today - colleagues who butt in on every conversation happening in the office. I work in a relatively small office (8 desks) so there’s quite often background chatter between 2-3 colleagues going on. There is one particular colleague who muscles in on every single conversation that goes on I almost sit and wait for her to do it now, it’s like clockwork! Not a conversation goes by that she won’t try and involve herself in.
If I’m ever having a conversation I don’t want her involved in I will physically turn my back to her where possible (she sits next to me) and she STILL butts in! Clearly she’s not understanding the body language!

My small comfort is I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who hates it, she regularly kills conversations stone dead when she chimes in

Hope I don’t sound harsh, she’s a decent enough person, just has no concept of the idea that people can have conversations that don’t always involve her!

Aw god I worked with someone like that. She'd actually wheel herself over in her chair and say "what's this?", bold as brass. Multiple times a day. I could feel my body tense up whenever I heard her pipe up with "what's this?"

One of my colleagues clearly got fed up with it and snapped at her, "Jen, just go back to your desk and get on with your work for once". And she never wheeled over again

 

[Dak1988]

omg this just reminded me. I did a secondment in another department for about a year and there was one lady who I sat close to and we exchanged small talk. It was pleasant enough. But I was warned that she would blank people at the flip of a coin if they’d done something “wrong”. When I went back to my old department, I would still see her in the loos and would always say hi/smile and she just completely blanked me every time! She would literally refuse to even look at me and pretended I wasn’t there

At this same place, I was in the staff room and this guy comes in and started firing questions at me...my name, where I live, what train I get (bear in mind Id never met this guy). I felt uncomfortable so got up to leave and he immediately goes “do you want to go for a coffee sometime” - at this stage he hadn’t even told me his name. I said no and ran off. Found out later that he’d done the same thing to many women in the building If I saw him in the corridor he’d make up stuff that were clearly lies (like how he’s gonna do a phd). We’d occasionally get the same train too and I’d have to hold the metro over my face to avoid him.

A guy in my team is atrocious at copying people into emails - usually the fewer emails the better, but there are some things you need to know. So much time wasted chasing things up only for this guy to say "oh I just emailed back directly, I've sorted it". He's got a habit of removing people from email chains too, so again, I'll ask him what happened with something and he responds with something like "I didn't know if you wanted to be in that email".

Every single time I ask him to keep me/relevant people in the loop and he's very apologetic, and a day later he does the exact opposite. Over and over. WFH joys...

Omg I have someone in my team who does that! Someone will send our team an email which I then chase up that relevant person and she just replies to me instead of all. So I have to then reply again to the original question. Sooooo annoying it’s happened about 15 times haha

 

[Errie]

People who email your boss but cc you in to ask you to do something. Could you not just email me?

People who don’t shower and have terrible hygiene. I unfortunately have to sit next this guy and he smells!

 

[Rxt156]

Another head-scratcher is grown-up colleagues who will talk at length about their own lives at any given opportunity but who don't even have the awareness to show the most basic interest in the lives of their colleagues. It's very strange how many people see conversation as a completely one-way act!

OMG this has spoken to me !!!
This is soooo much more common than I originally thought. I have a ‘friend’ (I use the term loosely) that just waffles on about himself all the time, all of his ailments illnesses injuries. Yawn. I have now stopped speaking to him because it is not a friendship. I am not a therapist.

Not many adults I know will actually ask questions to others, they will just talk about themselves for as long as anyone will let them . Even if you’re not bothered about someone, pretend you are or we will think you’re an arse!

 

[whats the tea christine?]

I recently dropped a day at work and now work full time hours over 4 days rather than 5
I'm early thirties with no children and manage a team of older women and constantly get comments about why I could possibly need to work "part time" and how will I cope when I have children!
1. I'm in the office one day less than you all and still seem to get double the amount of work done in comparison 2. Since when was 37 hours a week "part time" and 3. Why the f**k is it your business what I do with my day off! NOSEY BASTARDS!!!!!

 

[Pinkblush]

Not sure if this is going to make any sense but when someone asks you a question and you answer it and then they frown and question your answer. Just piss off!!!!

 

[Penelope Strawberry]

Not sure if this is going to make any sense but when someone asks you a question and you answer it and then they frown and question your answer. Just piss off!!!!

Or ask you a question and then go on to ask someone else the exact same question. I work with someone who goes around asking different people the same questions until she gets the answer she wants.