UK workers reveal their biggest office gripes

A survey of 1,000 UK-based office workers has revealed our biggest annoyances in the workplace.

The data was collected by electronics giant, Samsung and although the results may seem like a bit of light-hearted fun, employers have been warned that employee irritations are actually resulting in a huge loss of productivity.

It’s estimated that unnecessary distractions in the workplace are costing workers an average of 22 minutes per day which equates to nearly two hours per week and just over 73 hours a year.

According to the Samsung survey, exactly what is it that annoys us the most about being in the office?

Among the biggest complaints were noisy or messy eaters, moaning and being interrupted while talking. So if you want to avoid being shunned by your colleagues, stick to eating lunch in the canteen and if you fancy having a good old moan about your boss or your workload, save it for when you’re with friends.

While we all have little habits that may get on other people’s nerves, in a world that’s becoming increasingly dependent on computers and the Internet, it comes as no surprise to learn that workers have cited issues with technology as their biggest problem.

A whopping 92% of respondents said that their computer crashing, a slow Internet connection and having no access to emails annoys them. Worryingly, this problem alone is costing workers half an hour a day, two and a half hours per week and an eye-watering 100 hours a year.

Another familiar office gripe is the temperature. Whether it’s summer or winter there seems to be a constant battle over the heating and air conditioning. If you regularly find yourself feeling annoyed about the office being too hot or too cold, you’re not alone. 82% of workers cited this as their biggest frustration.

Uncomfortable seats and a messy workplace also featured highly in the list of frustrating distractions.

When you take into account all of the irritations involving colleagues, IT problems and workplace issues, workers are losing five and a half hours in productivity every single week – this is the equivalent to nearly one month of lost work time every single year.

As well as being a huge financial loss, another risk to businesses is that these annoyances could push people into looking for a new job. Almost a third of those who were surveyed said that they have quit a job because of an annoying colleague, 20% have left because of the workplace itself and 10% looked for a new job because they got sick of constant technology issues.