http://news.aol.co.uk/uk-news/office-moral...192059204358192

 

"Facebook skivers" and pointless meetings are among a poll of top office gripes, according to new research.

 

The study of 2,000 office workers discloses a nation of frustrated and thwarted employees who know they may have to work until they are 69 before retirement.

 

Blocked printers, unproductive meetings and the increasing use of jargon were the leading causes for complaint, with poor technology also irritating staff.

 

Following closely behind were smelly co-workers and colleagues who did not tidy up; staff who are on Facebook instead of working, and office gossips.

 

Officer workers were also vexed by poor canteen food, meaningless perks such as dress down days, and motivational speakers brought in to raise morale.

 

Seventy per cent of office workers admitted judging colleagues on their work etiquette, including poor table manners over lunch.

 

People who label their food in office kitchen cupboards were cited as some of the most irritating, with 21% of respondents thinking they were "suspicious people" whose "un-sharing attitude is reflected their lack of team spirit".

 

Pollsters claimed the figures pointed to an "all time" low in office morale with 47% of respondents saying they would leave work were it not for the recession.

 

The survey, to mark the launch of TV channel Dave's Best Part Time Job in the World, also threw up a range of terms for increasingly common situations at work, such as the "Dracula shift" - going to work in the dark, coming home in the dark - and "A bog shaker" - having a private breakdown in the loo.

 

Other euphemisms workers created included taking "A Chinese holiday" - faking the need for the loo with a five minute break spent just sitting on a china latrine, head in hands); "Cashanova" - someone who brings in clients or business on charm alone; and "A Mills and Doom" - an office romance.

 

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So ... what are your office gripes? And what would your solution be? Mine:

 

My gripe - Meetings (all of them because none are productive ... when I was in them I felt like screaming ... get back to your desks and do some freakin' work!)

 

My solution - just leave! Because nothing will ever be done ... they'll only hold another meeting as to who should replace you while they get a temp in.

 

One more gripe that I'm pretty sure should be in there ... continuous bloody collection ... Rachel's just had her seventeenth child ... collection! Ned has retired (I've never even bloody met Ned!), Stan has just had a giant number-two after being constipated for three weeks, etc, etc. Wasn't too bad at one time when it was just a quid a throw ... but then some smart-arsed, more money than sense says ... 'ooohhh I think we should all put a fiver in'. My solution now is to just say at the outset ... I'm a Jehovah's Witness and I don't believe in gifts!

 

Norma

Edited February 23, 201015 yr by Norma_Snockers

i cant reply...i work outside! :lol:

i cant reply...i work outside! :lol:

 

Of course ... unless everyone is at the 'Google zoo' (this is when the whole office is pretending to work while surfing the web) there should not be any responses to this post until after 5.30.

 

Norma

 

 

I work in a Uni, but I do unfortunately still have to deal with the form of life known as the University Admin from time to time.... And I can definitely see how morale would be at an all-time low, especially in London Micky Mouse University (oops, sorry, meant to say "Metropolitan" didn't I...? :lol: ) at the moment what with people losing their jobs left, right and centre because of fukk-ups committed by the bloody Uni Board of Governors..... <_< As usual the ordinary worker paying for the sins of the "top brass", who then swan off with nice pensions... Gee, could be talking about the fukkin' City Bankers couldn't I.....? :lol: :lol:

Of course ... unless everyone is at the 'Google zoo' (this is when the whole office is pretending to work while surfing the web) there should not be any responses to this post until after 5.30.

 

Norma

 

 

I worked in the Emgas offices in Sheffield from 1976 to 1978, taking phone calls all day from customers querying their gas bills, and I liked it. As Norma said, the endless collections got annoying. Seemed like one a week, birthdays, engagements, even passing driving test. :rolleyes: The person who's birthday it was took cakes in. Well it was expected whether they wanted to or not. :rolleyes:

 

 

Edited February 25, 201015 yr by Victor Meldrew

I absolutely bloody agree about collections for people! I don't really care about anyone's new child, or the fact that they're leaving usually. Infact more often than not, their leaving means I have to pick up their workload, or train someone to do their job which means extra work for me - why should I buy them a present for dropping me in the $h!t?!

 

What I want to initiate at work (but no-one else will go for it...) is everyone chucking a tenner in on New Years Day (then we'd have a good £400 for the year!) and out of that we buy presents for people who are leaving throughout the year, and any left over at the end of the year goes into a charity box. Then it only costs everyone a tenner, instead of a fiver every time some bugger decides to leave! Sooo many people walked out at the end of summer this year (we literaly lost about 7 members of staff in September last year!) - I'm sure by the end folks were just leaving so they'd get a present, bloody mugs we are for buying them!

I absolutely bloody agree about collections for people! I don't really care about anyone's new child, or the fact that they're leaving usually. Infact more often than not, their leaving means I have to pick up their workload, or train someone to do their job which means extra work for me - why should I buy them a present for dropping me in the $h!t?!

 

What I want to initiate at work (but no-one else will go for it...) is everyone chucking a tenner in on New Years Day (then we'd have a good £400 for the year!) and out of that we buy presents for people who are leaving throughout the year, and any left over at the end of the year goes into a charity box. Then it only costs everyone a tenner, instead of a fiver every time some bugger decides to leave! Sooo many people walked out at the end of summer this year (we literaly lost about 7 members of staff in September last year!) - I'm sure by the end folks were just leaving so they'd get a present, bloody mugs we are for buying them!

 

A few years ago ... I was on a secondment to another department (whilst working for the NHS) and a girl in that department was leaving. She had only been there about four months anyway. Well she decided to leave to chance her arm in the 'real world' ... i.e. a company that actually produces something. So there was a 'whip-round'. I did actually manage to talk myself out of contributing (well I hid in the photo-copying room every time the 'envelope' surfaced). I'm so glad that I didn't contribute ... because ... after the silly mares in the office had forked out for a leather bag costing nearly £100 .... she came back after two months ... to another department! The bloody cheek!

 

Oh ... and another gripe with me .... the frigging 'I'm doing a sponsored walk, swim, bike-ride, fun-run, strip, etc, etc ... ' will you sponsor me! NO I FRIGGING WON'T!

 

Norma

Edited February 25, 201015 yr by Norma_Snockers

Oh I can empathise will all of these.

 

The endless collections are the worst. My previous job, the department relied very heavily on temps (out of our team of about 25, I'd say a good dozen were temps). And even amongst the permanent staff, the turnover was high. And so you'd have somebody leaving every week. Which wasn't an issue to begin with as we only bothered with collections for permanent staff. Until people started feeling guilty about leaving the temps out...and before you know it you're shelling out at least a fiver every week for various people's birthdays and leavings, most of whom were temps who had been there 3 weeks. It was ridiculous, and you just ended up feeling resentful about it all.

Luckily my current company has a different outlook. We're not misers, and most of us will go out to the pub for lunch if it's somebody's birthday, bring in cakes etc. But we only do collections if it's a landmark birthday now, like a 50th or 21st or whatever. Much more manageable.

 

 

This makes for interesting reading. I work at a publishing company so my job is very much based in the office:

 

"Facebook skivers" = I don't use Facebook. I never have and I don't ever intend on doing so. Fact; when we were based in Stockport two salespeople (who sat opposite each other) were talking to each other...on Facebook!!! :blink: Madness.

 

Pointless meetings = Thankfully I'm not a salesperson so I avoid all the dreaded meetings. Again, at the Stockport office back in 2008 there seemed to be a meeting nearly every single day. Couldn't have been that innovative they insisted on having so many in such a short space of time.

 

Blocked printers = Or technology in general (internet's down, e-mails aren't working, photocopier is jammed, etc...) What's the point having an IT manager when she's always off sick? :rolleyes:

 

The increasing use of jargon = My manager once asked me to get her the pen, so I did. A nice blue ink pen. When I gave it her, she stared at me and said "I want the pen!!!". She meant the memory stick?!!! :mellow: How the hell was I supposed to know that? :lol:

 

Smelly co-workers = Also people who...erm, let off "a bit of steam". Down below!!! :lol: It's even worse where the salespeople sit as there's no air conditioning so any fowl smell tends to be exaggerated. Solution? Keep some purfume or deodorant with you and spray when required. Or use air freshner if you have any.

 

Colleagues who did not tidy up = Can't say this bothers me. As long as my desk is tidy that's all that matters. What I do hate is if someone takes something off my desk without my knowing then don't even put it back. The number of times I've taken a call, gone to get my pen to make notes and...doh!!! the pen has disappeard. Just...no!!!

 

Office gossips = I often wonder how they get away with it. Those who tend to sit around almost all day long gossiping/bitching, munching on biscuits and drinking coffee all day. Then they start getting stressed out at 15:00pm because they've "got so much work to do". Why am I not surprised? There's one young lad (he's about 19) and he gossips worse than the older ladies in his department. I've never met a young lad quite like him. He's like a middle aged women in a young boys body. He's straight. Apparantly!!! :lol:

 

Poor canteen food = We don't have a canteen which doesn't bother me in the slightest.

 

Meaningless perks = I'll have you know dress down Friday is brilliant. If you're working in an office where you're not dealing with guests on a 1-1 basis, does it really matter if you go into work in a t-shirt, jeans and trainers?

 

Motivational speakers = Can't say I've ever seen a motivational speaker come into the office to lecture us boost our morale.

 

People who label their food in office kitchen cupboards were cited as some of the most irritating, with 21% of respondents thinking they were "suspicious people" whose "un-sharing attitude is reflected their lack of team spirit".

 

How would you feel if you spent your own money on (for example) a can of Diet Coke and leave it in the fridge to chill. Then you go to get your can of Diet Coke only to find it's not there.

 

"A Chinese holiday" - Surely everyone has done this? :lol:

Edited February 25, 201015 yr by Hitstastic

"A Chinese holiday" - Surely everyone has done this? :lol:

 

Oh every day.

 

I'm also with you on dress down Fridays - it sounds silly, but it actually does make a lot of difference - it adds to the more relaxed atmosphere in the office on Friday, where everybody's already in weekend mode.

 

I've only had one experience with motivational speakers, and it put me off for life! I worked for a mortgage company owned by Lehman Brothers a few years ago, and they made everyone attend a special workshop in London, where we essentially just sat and watched video tapes of an extremely excitable man called Ron Kaufman, who is apparantly some big deal in the US. He's basically Barney the Dinosaur on Prozac, but without the costume. It was ghastly, patronising $h!t, and didn't teach anybody anything that they didn't already know. The company wasted god knows how much money (many thousands certainly) on it, and the rumour was it was because the director was pals with Kaufman! A year later Lehman went down. No surprise if they were wasting their money on $h!t like that!

 

God it's nice in a weird way to swap office talk, Buzzjack is usually given over to college/school talk, and I feel old!

God it's nice in a weird way to swap office talk, Buzzjack is usually given over to college/school talk, and I feel old!

 

We're in an elite group of "adults" who can talk about our years of work experiences. :lol: I look at the tracks doing well on iTunes, wonder why they're so popular and feel old. :(

We're in an elite group of "adults" who can talk about our years of work experiences. :lol: I look at the tracks doing well on iTunes, wonder why they're so popular and feel old. :(

 

I think there should be another forum on here for those of us over a certain age. I mean apart from retro (they get all arsey unless you talk about old music in there). I mean a general 'grumpy old gits' forum.

 

Norma

Sure i only work in a supermarket, but i can relate. The moral on my department has passed rock bottom now. Our supervisor's a lazy sack of $h!t who's quite happy to drop everyone else in it as long as she's fine.

 

She can f*** right off.

 

I have multiple Chinese Holidays, but instead of goin to the loos i hide in the pie prep area. I'll admit to being an office gossip, but when the stores dead theres f*** all else to do but slag off the supervisor.

 

Oh, and i found out, that if i go to the GP about my back issues and they say i shouldn't really be doing the job i'm doing [all the counters i work on and sinks i use etc are far too low for my height] i'll lose my job. Because there is a hiring freeze and they have no other vacancies. This would be the same hiring freeze they had when they decided to give my contract to someone else [i was in LA at the time as well, it had been put aside for 2months and i was just a 10hr flight from home when they decided to give it to someone else] and then pawned me off with excuses for 10weeks [costing me £2000 in the process] while hiring new people.

 

Retail is horrific.

Facebook's blocked where we work!

 

But it's true... anyone wo's ever worked in any office will vouch - David Brent is real.... there's a Brent in every office in every land. I worked at BT for many years - BT has to be the most fist-clenchingly annoying and maddening company I've ever worked for - petty rules and regs, little Hitlers in every corner and the laziest, most inept set of grade-ist management (right up to the top) you will ever witness.

 

Horrendous company - just ask anyone else still working there, because it's apparently worse now than ever.

 

The worst thing was the company conventions....ugh! Always held in Kents Hill in the horror known as Milton Keynes.... you'd have 3-day meetings there and stay overnight.... the bar in the place was like something from Stepford Wives - everyone looked the same, talked the same and talked shop shop shop..... absolute tedium. Brown nosing all over the shop - vomit inducing.

 

And they pay peanuts, too.

 

http://dcscience.net/meetings-poster.jpg

 

Says it all really doesn't it?

 

Norma

Yeah Facebook's been blocked at both my current and last company, so I don't think Facebook skivers are that much of a problem in large companies.

 

 

Company conventions are something I quite enjoy though tbh! If my company wants to pay for a hotel stay, slap-up meal and copious amounts of wine, who am I to say no?

Yeah Facebook's been blocked at both my current and last company, so I don't think Facebook skivers are that much of a problem in large companies.

 

E-bay hawkers are though! Or people searching for cheap holiday flights! I've been surrounded by the lot of them. Most of them have been whilst in 'public sector' employment - health, councils, etc.

 

Norma

Edited February 27, 201015 yr by Norma_Snockers

http://dcscience.net/meetings-poster.jpg

 

Says it all really doesn't it?

 

Norma

 

:rofl:

 

I should e-mail that picture to all the sales managers where I work as a subtle hint. :D

I wish I had the time to worry about all of those things tbh! I have about 40 referrals on hand at the moment (this possibly doesn't sound a lot but each one can take hours) and that's before I even begin to get into my own work! It's soooo frustrating as decisions are made away from the site that work should be downgraded to ease pressures but all that happens is that you still end up effectively doing it as the people who it's downgraded to don't have the technical knowledge to able to do the work correctly and end up referring everything to you for advice - it's not their fault either so I haven't got the heart to say no. :(

 

The only one that I can relate to is the types that gossip all day and then wonder why they can't cope with the workload. The worst thing is that they then get reductions because they're too stressed! Gah!

 

As for dress down Fridays... I wear jeans, trainers and a t-shirt (with occasional scarf!) to the office every day so they'd be no perk for me!!! :D

 

There are so many things that wind me up in the office. All I want to do is turn up, sit at my desk, do my work, get paid and go home.

 

At least 90% of meetings I've been in have been pointless, in my team of 7 I'm generally the busiest and every meeting I have I seem to gain nothing from and it just makes me much busier than I need to be. Team meetings are the most pointless, and filling in the same data in four million different spreadsheets so different people can track it. JUST ALL LOOK AT THE SAME ONE!!!! I hate that you have to put an action in place for everything, even if it's something you have zero control over. "What's your action to stop that happening again?" "I don't know, ring person X and tell them to do their f***ing job properly. It's not me you should be asking!!". Most sites people go on a lot are banned too, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube etc so no problems there. I'd probably be one of the people who would go on Facebook even thoguh I barely go on it outside of work.

 

I appreaciate there's always going to be some gossip and some bitchiness, it's perfectly natural to find fault with people you spend 40 hours a week with and I do it a bit, but some people really do take it to the extreme, they have an opinion about everything and they're always right.

 

The thing I hate most about my office is the main boss, she talks to you like you're four, has no idea what you actually do in your job and don't know anything about you, even though you work in the same place is them, unless you're in one of the two levels below her - couldn't give a stuff about the plebs like me!

 

I have to say I'm glad I'm only on a 12 month Graduate Placement. I know I don't want to work in the same area when I graduate, that's for sure. I'm exactly half way through it now and if it weren't for the fact that I work with some of the most amazing people I know I think I'd be on the verge of giving it up. I've always heard people say that it's your colleagues that make your work enjoyable, and mine certainly do. Without them I'd hate going to work.

 

Edit: Oh, and we have dress down Friday too. If we hit targets the previous week it's free and if not you have to pay £1 to charity. I often don't do it, I really don't see the point. There's nothing wrong with wearing a shirt and trousers five days a week.

 

RANT OVER