Burping. Farting. Eating. Swearing. Coughing without covering your mouth.
Urgh, right? And no, these aren’t the behaviours of drunken individuals after closing time.
According to the Great British Public, these are some of the most annoying habits witnessed in the workplace!
As hybrid working models and working from home are now the norm, are we letting our standards slip? And if so, what are the working habits that drive everyone crazy? Should we be looking to improve our behaviours and routines in the office and online? What are we getting right? And just how many of these habits are YOU guilty of?
It might make for uncomfortable reading, but it’s time for all colleagues to gather together in the staff room and face the music as we dive into the best and worst habits in the UK’s workplaces.
Workmates or just colleagues: friendships at work
Work. It all feels a bit different now, doesn’t it?
It’s not so easy to just ask someone if they fancy a cheeky pint after you down tools at 5, especially if you only ever see your colleagues in a video meeting. They’re not able to join you for a lunch break in your kitchen and enjoy an episode of The Bear on your settee before your 2pm progress report if they live 400 miles away, are they?
The new ways of working post-pandemic mean that making friends at work is a whole different ballgame to what it once was. According to our study, 23% of Brits say that they have never met some of their work friends in person.
However, despite this it’s not all work, work, work, and “see you next time you’re online”. Despite 63% of respondents - that's 6 in 10 – reporting that they work remotely or on a hybrid basis, 80% said that their workplace made them feel socially included in events. It’s true – many workplaces are adopting new habits to suit the new working model, and it’s not unusual to hear of more after-work social activities in the office as employers try to encourage you back into the building on a more regular basis. Portrait painting and wine in the meeting room at 6pm? Sign us up!
Didn’t you get the message?
Make coffee. Sit down. Sign-in. Type. Send. Repeat. But wait – what did you just write? And just how many people did you send it to? Did you nail the tone? Was the sign-off a little too over-friendly? Are you in trouble with the boss now?
Desk buddy to best buddy
73%
of Brits met a closefriend in the workplace
Keep in touch!
84%
84% of Brits stay incontact with work friends
after leaving the job
Hard relate
28%
of Brits have trauma-bondedwith a colleague due to a
toxic work environment
Email etiquette. It’s a minefield at the best of times, and when you’re busy and continually hammering out your replies and requests, it’s all too easy to slip up and hit send before you’ve proofed your waffle.
Remember: what you write, matters. It can say a lot about how professional you are and where your head’s at, and can be the difference between a cordial reply and a withering response. If you scatter the jargon that bit too much, or throw in a casual “peace out” to sign off, there’s every chance you’ve caused a co-worker out there to go for a walk and calm down before returning to their workstation.
Word to the wise: the best and worst email sign-offs
Don’t muck-up your missive with a messy sign-off. Here’s the best and worst email finishers in the UK today.
| Friendliest Email Sign-Offs | % Who Find It Friendly |
|---|---|
| Have a great day/week/weekend | 49.4% |
| Many thanks | 37.3% |
| Best wishes | 36.7% |
| Cheers | 35.7% |
| Thanks / Thanks again | 35.5% |
| Warm regards | 35.1% |
| All the best | 31.0% |
| Let’s catch up soon | 29.9% |
| Best regards | 29.5% |
| See you soon | 29.5% |
| Most Annoying Email Sign-Offs | % Who Find It Annoying |
|---|---|
| Tara / Tata | 26.9% |
| Sent from my iPhone | 24.5% |
| May the Force be with you | 23.7% |
| To infinity and beyond | 23.0% |
| Hasta la vista | 22.7% |
| Peace out | 22.5% |
| Slay, serve, survive | 21.4% |
| No sign-off at all | 18.8% |
| Catch you soon | 16.0% |
| Take it easy | 14.9% |
Friendly and succinct seems to be the way to go, with a dash of kindness. The friendliest email sign-off, ‘Have a great day/week/weekend’ swept the board with 49.4% of the UK’s office emailers giving it the thumbs-up. It suggests you genuinely care about the recipient and their welfare, and while it might not be the best way to sign off a dismissal or disciplinary email, it’s the one most likely to leave a warm glow overall.
You can be warm and professional at the same time, too: third placed ‘Best wishes’ (36.7%) is another way of showing you care about your colleagues, while fifth favourite ‘thanks/thanks again’ (35.5%) demonstrates genuine gratefulness for another’s efforts, without going over the top.
Meanwhile, you’d be well advised to keep your inner nerd locked away when polishing off an email. Signing off with a film quote is definitely not the one, with plenty of Brits calling them out as some of the most annoying ways to end an email. “May the Force be with you” irritated 23.7% of emailers, with “To infinity and beyond” and “Hasta la vista” winding up 23% and 22.7% of respondents respectively. The worst offenders were the casually wishy-washy “Tata/tara” (26.9%), and “Sent from my iPhone” (24.5%), because you wouldn’t sign off a letter with “Written with a biro”, would you?
You picked the wrong type: annoying email content
It’s not just sign-offs that are annoying email readers up and down the country as they try to put in an honest day’s graft. While content is king, there are some email habits out there that are just royally irritating. See if you can spot your email pet peeve in the list below:
| Email Habit | % of Workers That Dislike This |
|---|---|
| CC’ing people in unnecessarily | 44.1% |
| Long-winded emails | 42.1% |
| Slang terms such as OMG, LOL, or WTF | 39.2% |
| Spelling mistakes / no proofreading | 38.1% |
| Marking emails as URGENT when they’re not | 37.0% |
| Swearing | 36.8% |
| Poor grammar | 32.6% |
| Using smiley faces / emoticons | 23.0% |
| Passive aggressive language (i.e. as per my last email) | 22.6% |
| Gossip | 22.2% |
“As per my last email…”
25%
annoyance“Just looping you in…”
23%
annoyance“Any updates on this?”
18%
annoyance“Just a friendly reminder…”
17%
annoyanceJargon to jettison: the most annoying work speak
Jargon has been an annoyance ever since the first office opened its doors and, unfortunately for some, it isn’t going anywhere. Like it or not, it’s a fact of daily working life.
So, we did the painful job of investigating the most annoying workplace jargon in the UK – and this is what the British public told us.
The most annoying jargon and what it means
| Workplace Jargon | % Who Find It Annoying |
|---|---|
| Blue sky thinking Generating ideas without limitations | 33.0% |
| Touch base To make contact or communicate | 32.6% |
| General overuse of acronyms while talking E.g., KPI, EOD, WIP | 28.4% |
| Outside the box Thinking creatively or unconventionally | 26.8% |
| No-brainer Something that is obvious or easy to decide | 25.9% |
| Synergy Interaction of elements that produces a combined effect greater than the sum of their separates | 25.6% |
| Circle back To revisit a previous topic or issue | 23.5% |
| Going the extra mile Making an extra effort | 22.2% |
| Low-hanging fruit Tasks or goals that are easy to achieve | 19.1% |
| Deep dive A thorough analysis or investigation | 18.7% |
| Rage applying Applying for jobs out of frustration or anger | 17.3% |
| Paradigm shift A fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions | 16.5% |
| Bandwidth The capacity to handle tasks or responsibilities | 15.6% |
| Game-changer A significant development that alters the situation | 15.3% |
| Family Referring to workforce or colleagues as a "family" | 14.8% |
Most annoying jargon
for Gen Z workers
31%
“No-brainer”Most annoying jargon
for Millennial workers
27%
“Touch base”Most annoying jargon
for Gen X workers
40%
“Blue sky thinking”Most annoying jargon
for Boomer workers
52%
“Acronyms incl. KPI, EOD, WIP”Can you just not? The very worst workplace habits
So here’s what it all boils down to – the very ultimate of all workplace wind-ups. Those little habits that secretly send you over the edge and have you rummaging in your desk drawer for your stress ball.
In fact, you might want to keep it handy – because those we spoke to really didn’t hold back when it came to disclosing their office peeves. Who knows – it might have you checking yourself to see how many of these you might be guilty of.
Zoom out – the most annoying video call habits
As soon as the camera is rolling, you’re in the room. That room could be someone else’s home workspace, a personal desktop display in a far-flung office or, worst of all, a huge video wall in a packed meeting room.
Video calls and online meetings are the staple of many working days, and with them comes great responsibility. How you conduct yourself, from the biggest gestures to the tiniest little tics, can be picked up by your computer camera and microphone and beamed live to whoever’s on the other end.
And boy – have the great British public seen some stuff. Mobile phone use is certainly frowned upon – 16.3% of Brits find it annoying during video calls. It’s just plain rude – you’re meant to be paying attention, not playing Wordle. Coughing winds 17.5% of Brits up, but despite your eardrums reeling from a chesty hack, you can be thankful that at least you didn’t get coughed on in person.
What you wear matters too – yes, you might still have your pyjamas on under the desk, but at least make an effort with your top half! Revealing/inappropriate attire wound up 17.9% of those we spoke to, while a scruffy appearance fared worse by annoying 22.1% of video callers.
And the worst video meeting habit of all? Well – even worse than inappropriate comments (35.6%) and the unforgivable instances of burping or farting (37.3%) is eating – winding up a whopping 49% of the UK’s video callers. Let’s face it, nobody wants to see you munching and slurping your way through last night’s re-heated bolognese.
Feeling flush
18%
of UK workers admitto using the loo during
an online meeting
(with the camera off!)
Speak up
32.6%
of UK workers can’t standmumblers on video calls
Hard relate
33.4%
of UK video-callers hate beinginterrupted or spoken over
Stop it – the worst habits seen in the office
It's enough to put you off your spreadsheet. Turns out there’s plenty of annoying habits seen in offices up and down the UK, and we’ve managed to boil the list down to the top 15. From messy desks to dirty dishes in the common areas, not to mention vape breaks and sneezing without covering up (urrrgh), it’s all here in glorious, cringeworthy detail.
Brace yourself for the top 15, and see how many you’ve recoiled from.
The top 15 most annoying UK office habits
| Rank | Office Habit | % Who Find It Annoying |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Colleagues who chat excessively | 46.1% |
| 02 | Strong-smelling food in the office | 41.0% |
| 03 | Frequent interruptions while working | 39.9% |
| 04 | People coughing or sneezing without covering their mouth | 39.6% |
| 05 | Poor personal hygiene in co-workers | 36.2% |
| 06 | Dirty dishes left in common areas | 33.1% |
| 07 | Loud music in the workspace | 30.7% |
| 08 | Constant sniffing or coughing | 29.3% |
| 09 | Colleagues coming into the office when sick | 28.5% |
| 10 | Taking calls on speakerphone in shared spaces | 22.4% |
| 11 | Colleagues sharing too much personal information | 21.5% |
| 12 | Frequent smoke or vape breaks during work hours | 21.0% |
| 13 | Loud videos or media played without headphones | 20.8% |
| 14 | Messy or cluttered desks | 20.2% |
| 15 | Office gossip | 19.3% |
So, there we have it. Excessive chat takes the crown of annoyance in UK offices, with 46.1% of office workers just wishing you’d leave them alone to focus. You’ve also got another thing coming if you think you’re microwaving halibut in the staff kitchen or enjoying a beef madras at your desk too, as 41% turned their noses up at strong-smelling food in the office.
PCs that perform perfectly
Essentially, it all comes down to behaving as best as you can when you’re on camera or in the office. Those unwelcome habits won’t go unnoticed as we’ve proven here, and anything that adversely affects performance never goes down well.
But thank goodness you can rely on Currys. When it comes to PC hardware and desktop accessories that perform perfectly and always behave in A* fashion, we’ve got you sorted. Whether you need a wall mountable PC monitor for meetings or group calls, or an Apple computer monitor to boost the visual capabilities of your Mac, you’ll find what you’re after. We can also sort you out with a 144hz monitor or a 4K monitor resolution set-up if you have your eye on something specific, and we have plenty of accessories if you need a monitor stand or monitor arm to finish the job off.
Methodology
Multi-generational survey of 1000 UK-based office, hybrid, and remote workers was conducted using Pollfish between 26/09/2024 and 28/09/2024.
