Annoying Colleagues Hamper Workplace Productivity

Together everyone achieves more- that's a TEAM. While camaraderie and bonhomie among office colleagues can be wonderful, however many feel that their colleagues are exceedingly annoying too. TimeJobs.com surveyed over 1,400 working professionals to find out what coworker habits appeared to annoy them the most. The significant majority (60%) state that insensitive co-workers were to be blamed for a decrease in their
personal productivity.

In addition, 42% of employees say middle-level employees are the most annoying set of coworkers, as compared to senior and junior co-workers and most feel male coworkers are more annoying more than female coworkers.

"For candidates, fitting into the work culture of an organization is critical for success. TimesJobs encourage candidates to review all aspects such as organizational culture, work-life balance and growth prospects that are critical to professional success with its extensive repository of company reviews and ratings."

"And employers too must hire attitude and train for skill. Progressive organizations use TimesJobs' innovative proficiency graphs to look beyond a candidate's basic qualifications and evaluate their communication, analytical, creative, planning, organizing, leadership & interpersonal abilities, to ensure a good fit." says Nilanjan Roy, Head of Strategy, Times Business Solutions.

Showing a clear cultural mismatch, nearly 40% of the professionals who responded to the TimesJobs survey further state that colleagues who tend to barge into their private space and interrupt them are the most annoying kind.

The other annoying kind of colleagues, according to 30% respondents, are eternal cribbers, who tend to complain about everything.

The next are social media pokers, who react, comment and poke coworkers on social media, say 24% respondents.

Another 22% respondents say that chatterboxes – colleagues who talk a lot and loudly - are the most-annoying type.

Also, nearly 60% respondents blamed the behavior of coworkers for hampering their workplace productivity. Nearly 75% of them said that in a day, coworkers tend to interrupt them for over an hour, taking a big toll on their productivity.

In terms of gender, 52% respondents state their male colleagues tend to annoy more than female coworkers. Interestingly, 62% male workers say male colleagues annoy the most while 56% female workers state female colleagues annoy them most, reveals the survey.

The annoying aspects of male professionals, according to the respondents, is poking coworkers on social media and being chatterboxes. Among female workers, the most annoying habits, according to the respondents, was invading into coworkers’ privacy and cribbing.

In terms of seniority and experience, middle-level employees were seen as most annoying set of coworkers by nearly 42% respondents. But 39% said senior-level employees were most annoying and 19% said junior-level employees were most irksome.

Respondents also suggested solutions to avoid annoying colleagues. The ideal solutions, according to their responses, are:

-Keeping conversations to the minimum to avoid annoying colleagues ((35% respondents)

-Avoiding/ignoring annoying coworkers (30% respondents)

-Being upfront and telling colleagues they are being annoying (25% respondents)

This study clearly reveals that it is essential for optimum productivity that both companies and candidates evaluate each other not just based on the person-job fit, but equally on the person-culture fit. TimesJobs' proficiency graphs and company reviews and ratings help corporates and candidates make smarter professional decisions by ascertaining the fit between the attitude of the candidate and the company culture, well before they actually accept the coveted offer letter.