Just about everyone has had to deal with an annoying coworker at some point in their careers.
In a recent survey of about 3,000 workers by cover letter and résumé builder Kickresume, 85% of respondents said they’ve had to put up with an aggravating colleague, and 58% say this negatively affected their productivity.
“It affects our performance and behavior at the workplace in a very real, tangible, and even measurable, way,” explained Kickresume’s head of content, Martin Poduska. “Only 12% said that it doesn’t actually affect their work that much, so productivity really does get affected by people being annoyed.”
Poduska adds that the shift to remote work has helped some create more distance between themselves and their most annoying colleagues, with 45% saying it had a positive impact, and 22% saying it had no effect.
“Only 15% said that it has actually increased, most of which were Gen Z, who also had some issues with [their colleagues’] written communication in a remote work setting,” he says. “They were the only age group who said that annoying behavior via messaging apps has increased.”
Still, each of the top-three most annoying coworker habits, as ranked by survey respondents, are offenses that can be committed remotely.
The top five most annoying coworkers habits
According to the study the most annoying colleague behaviors are: