Anyone who’s ever had a job knows the special hell of annoying co-workers who get on your last nerve at work. You can’t escape from them because you’re required to work together. But have you ever considered that you might be that annoying co-worker for some of your colleagues?
If you’re doing any of the following seven things at work, chances are pretty high that you’re the one who some of your co-workers are venting about to family and friends when they go home each day.
[See: 6 Kinds of Annoying Co-Workers and How to Deal With Them.]
Regularly copying managers on emails when you don’t need to. There are certainly times when it’s appropriate to cc someone’s manager, such as when there’s a problem that you haven’t been able to get resolved by talking with the person directly or when the manager has asked to be kept in the loop on the topic in question. But if you regularly copy a manager because you think it will get your message taken more seriously, or attended to more quickly or because you want to get someone corrected from above, you’re going to become the target of some serious co-worker wrath. You’re essentially saying, “I don’t trust you to take care of this unless your manager is watching you.” If you want to have cordial relationships with your colleagues, you should pay them the respect of trusting them to do their jobs on their own (until and unless they demonstrate otherwise). Moreover, you’re likely to annoy the managers you’re cc’ing as well, since they probably trust their staff to carry out their job duties without constant oversight and they have a team specifically so that they don’t need to deal with every item that comes up.
Playing the martyr. If you’re constantly talking about how overworked you are and how late you worked last night, if you never take a vacation (even though your manager would support you in getting time away) or if you come to work sick and contagious, it’s a pretty safe assumption that your co-workers are weary of your martyrdom. You also might be inadvertently leading people to wonder why you’re not able to work more efficiently or prioritize your workload.
[See: Are You Too Comfortable at Your Job?]
Letting technology regularly distract you during meetings. In most offices, it’s no big deal to discreetly glance at your phone once or twice during a meeting. But if you’re regularly getting distracted by your phone or your email, you’re being rude to colleagues. This is particularly fraught when there’s a power dynamic in play; if you’re meeting with someone more junior, that person probably won’t be able to call you out on it or even politely ask you to give them your full attention — but they almost certainly want it.
Parenting your co-workers. Your co-workers are presumably adults and don’t need to be reminded to take a jacket to lunch when it’s cold outside, eat a healthier breakfast, take safety precautions when traveling to a dangerous area or otherwise conduct themselves like grown-ups. Sometimes people take this kind of parental approach toward younger colleagues, figuring that it’s a genuinely warm and even affectionate way to behave, without realizing how condescending it can come across to people on the receiving end.
Commenting on your co-workers’ food or diets. You might think that you’re just being friendly when you comment on what a co-worker is or isn’t eating, but many people don’t want their food choices scrutinized. That’s particularly true if your statements include value-loaded comments about dieting or staying thin. Comments such as, “It must be nice not to have to worry about your waistline,” when a co-worker is eating french fries or, “Come on, live a little,” when a co-worker turns down a cupcake are inappropriately boundary-pushing. You also never know if a co-worker might be struggling with an eating disorder. It’s far more polite and considerate not to comment on other people’s food choices.
[See: Relaxation Exercises for When You’re About to Lose It at Work.]
Following up your emails with a phone call. If you’re guilty of sending an email and then immediately calling the recipient to make sure they received it — or worse, dropping by in-person to say, “Have you seen my email yet?” — you are violating professional etiquette and you must stop immediately. Part of the point of email is that the recipient can read it when convenient, and you are annoying your colleagues if you’re not giving them a reasonable amount of time to read and respond before you check back in.
Disrupting the office with your cellphone ring. If you go to a meeting and leave your cellphone behind at your desk without muting the ringer, you’re likely to return to seething co-workers who have been interrupted by your loud ring tone, possibly over and over. And speaking of ring tones, if your ringer must be turned on at work (and that in itself is questionable), make sure your ringer is something discreet and professional, not something loud and jarring. In particular, if you’re picking a pop song, proceed with extreme caution.
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7 Ways You’re Driving Your Co-Workers Crazy originally appeared on usnews.com
