Is it actually you? (Picture: Getty)
You’re happily typing away at your desk when suddenly, the office door swings open, and in they walk.
You feel your jaw clench as you know you’re in for another long shift with The Annoying Work Colleague.
As many as one in five employees in Britain have quit their job to avoid working with an irritating colleague.
And if you’ve never experienced being seriously irked by someone on your team, well, we hate to say it – but you could be the one rubbing your work mates up the wrong way.
Research by printing brand Brother UK found a third have considered quitting due to a bad colleague.
And one of our biggest gripes? Work vocab.
Excited for your getaway? Don’t tell the office you’re off on your ‘holibobs’. No one finds ‘teamwork makes the dream work’ motivating, and ‘giving 110%’ is physically impossible. According to those polled, these buzzwords and phrases need to go in the bin.
Poor working relationships and a lack of office friendships were also shown to have a big impact on workplace satisfaction.
Women can typically handle annoying colleagues more so than men, because there’s a higher drop out rate in men when it comes to this issue.
And it seems gen Z are less willing to tolerate irritating working situations than their older counterparts – with a quarter quitting due to an annoying work colleague.
It swings the other way too – when a close colleague leaves and creates a ‘void’, one in 10 workers have gone on to follow suit and also quit.
Sean Butcher, HR consultant and mentor at Reflect Consultancy says: ‘When a work friend resigns it’s only natural to feel disappointed.
‘It’s likely that you and this person have experienced the good times, but also the challenging moments in your organisation together, which always makes them easier to get through.
‘It’s important to consider why your friend has resigned.
‘More often than not, this will be for a role which is better paid, offers them more career prospects, or perhaps greater flexibility to live their life in the way they want.
‘If this is the case then you can feel happy that they are making changes to improve their situation, and that they’ll ultimately end up more content in the long run.’
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
MORE : Have you ‘end-zoned’ your job? Why this cynical workplace trend is so dangerous to your career
MORE : Around 15% of Brits think it’s unprofessional to engage in a workplace romance, says research
If you say these words, sorry babes.
