Tips for day-to-day workplace survival

Australians spend more time at work than those in almost any other developed country, which is sort of annoying. But it's not as annoying as some of the office habits which we seem to have allowed ourselves to either fall into or to tolerate.

While niggling problems can seem minor, irritations can build up over time and that annoying ring-tone or ear-blasting phone call can tip an office worker over the edge.

At the top of many lists of most annoying office habits are issues such as these:

Office drummers This is the person who has to tap out a rhythm while waiting for their brain to engage into first gear. Tappers are right up there with workers who whistle or hum under their breath as they think.

Foghorn phone voice In the same way that your television volume appears to jump nine notches when the ads come on, some office workers raise their tone several decibels as soon as they pick up the phone.

Pod pong "But this is the latest fragrance from the streets of Paris. All the celebrities are wearing it," they may plead. Wearing it, yes. But marinating themselves in it overnight? Probably not.

Key smashers All offices have at least one person who thinks that to make the little symbols on their keyboard appear on the screen, they will need to exert the force of an atomic bomb through the ends of their digits.

Paid for nothing Finally, a good reason to smoke. You get paid for standing out in the sunshine chatting to your wheezy and addicted mates while the fresh-lung members of the workforce are indoors putting their nicotine-free fingers to work.

Snot funny What is it with people who, riddled with the flu, still think it's a good idea to go to work? The world really won't stop if that report doesn't get finished and workmates won't shower you with love for ruining their weekend plans and keeping their children out of school with the germs you gave them.

Ringtone hell Workers don't play their private music collection during office hours so why, then, is it OK to have Usher's latest offering, or a 50 Cent classic playing six times a day -- or maybe 22 times if it's Friday.

Space invaders You distinctly remember the boss bringing your new workmate over and saying, "This is your desk". They did not follow that up with the words, "but feel free to use your colleague's desk for overspill if there's not enough room for your gossip magazines and pictures of your 17 children".

Eau de underarm What could be more noxious than a damp-shirted colleague who, after working up a sweat running for the bus, is left to "mature'' over a keyboard for eight hours?

So what's the answer to all this?

Well, Karalyn Brown, who has her own career coaching company, Interview IQ, has some tips to deal with these kinds of problems before they get out of hand.

"A lot of people are working to tight deadlines, and so things that you might ignore on a social occasion, such as a Britney Spears ringtone, in the office at the wrong moment can set you off," she says. "It depends on the problem. First of all try to work out if it's more than a one-off. You don't want to be picking on everything that's annoying you because that can be annoying in itself."

She thinks employers can play a role in creating a work environment where people aren't tearing out their hair.

"People talk about things such as communication skills and negotiation skills as soft skills and I think they're the hard skills. If you encourage an environment where people are thinking a little bit of others, [they] are able to negotiate around little annoying things," Brown says.

Karalyn Brown's Tips

No one size approach fits all. Some problems are best dealt with one on one, some by a manager, some by a team meeting and some issues are best handled by putting in place some general rules and standards, so nobody feels victimised.

Communication is always important. But timing is as well. You want to establish that something is a problem and not just a couple of incidents. If you're a manager, people do not like to be "micro managed" and jumped on constantly about minor issues, genuine mistakes or one offs. That just creates resentment.

When you have a discussion, always keep in the back of your mind, that the person may not doing the annoying thing deliberately. Most (most!) people are reasonable and would be more mindful of their behaviour if they knew it was a problem. If you assume people are doing annoying things deliberately, an accusation comes across in your tone, delivery and the language that you use. The annoying person can easily become defensive, which is the last thing you need.

Pick your time and place - some conversations are best had discreetly. You don't want to confront a stress monkey about a desk hogging issue when they are trying to meet a deadline.

Never make that person feel like the whole team is talking about them

If it's difficult for you to bring up as a problem, then acknowledge this. You want to keep the conversation real. I know of one instance where someone needed to tell a person of their underarm odour problem. The person delivering the news almost ended up in tears. The person with the problem responded really well and didn't get offended. The reason the conversation worked was the person who had the problem could see that the person delivering the news respected her feelings about being told.

In a discussion good openers are important, examples are: "I'm not sure if you are aware of this..." "This is hard for me to talk about with you because...."

Ask if there's a reason the behaviour is happening, it may not be for the reason you think.

Explain the impact of that person's behaviour- could be disturbing others, etc

Be specific about the problem and when it occurs, give a couple of examples, not "you always...."

You can even get the annoying person to tell you what's annoying about you. Use it as an opportunity to clear the air. Nobody is perfect and it's important to acknowledge this.


Psychologist Grant Brecht, from Grant Brecht and Associates, agrees it's important not to point the finger at others too quickly.

"You don't want to complain about everything otherwise you just become known as a bloody whinger," he says.

"The other thing is to make sure you're not the pot calling the kettle black.

"If you're accusing someone else of not using deodorant make sure your deodorant's working."

Being cooped up in an office with people you wouldn't necessarily choose to spend time with isn't helping the irritation issue. People also need to take time out.

"It is because a lot of people can be spending very long periods of time [at work] and they're not getting downtime, they're not getting time to themselves, they're not getting a break," Brecht says. "They're not taking what we call little stress corridors and allowing themselves to unwind."

He advises workers to address the issue early on to avoid reaching "breaking point".

"If you let them go sometimes little molehills can grow into mountains," he says.

The Daily Telegraph, July 19, 2008