Business / Career

For many people, slow returns to in-person work brings lots of excitement of getting back into office spaces that encourage their productivity, bring together their teams, and give them a break from their apartments. But, returning to offices also brings one huge downside: the return of annoying coworkers in our everyday lives. A few months of respite from the chatty cubicle neighbors or the domineers of meetings have been especially welcome, but we will all have to brace ourselves for these annoying personalities.

Interestingly, a new survey from Moneypenny shows the most annoying co-workers whose presence might induce special dread in those returning to work.

According to more than a quarter of respondents, the most annoying coworkers are those that are overly lazy. This certainly makes sense as nothing weighs down a team like a co-worker who isn’t actively doing their part.  So how can employees best deal with these personalities? According to a list of tips from Forbes, the best way to deal with lazy co-workers is to focus on your own diligence. The Forbes article suggests that annoyed co-workers use uncomfortable situations to rise into leaders.

The second most-annoying office persona was, “the gossiper”. Certainly, the temptation of office gossip can be hard to resist, with more than 20% of individuals regularly gossiping at work, according to a LinkedIn article. Still, to maintain a positive reputation in the office, it’s important not to become the office gossiper.

Other top-ranking annoying personalities were, “The Complainer”, “The Bragger”, and “The Know-It-All”. Here’s hoping that time away from the office will quell some of these annoying habits and our teams can be as happy and compatible as possible.