Dive Brief:

• Employees' top annoyance is when coworkers come to the office ill, a survey by Zety found. The poll, updated Feb. 24, surveyed 1,026 Americans through Amazon's Mechanical Turk.
• Rounding out the top five pet peeves among survey respondents were: slow computers or malfunctioning hardware; coworkers who come to work late and leave early; coworkers who don't wash their hands before leaving a restroom; and coworkers who call meetings when an email would suffice.
• Annoyances broken down by demographics showed that men were more peeved than women and Gen Z and millennials were more annoyed than baby boomers and Gen X.

Dive Insight:

Zety survey respondents may have reason to be worried about their coworkers coming to work ill; an Accountemps survey released in October 2019 found that 90% of respondents admitted coming to work sick. To eliminate the spread of infectious diseases, employers should encourage workers to stay home when ill and maintain a culture that doesn't make workers feel pressured to come to work when they should stay home. One way to combat this could involve offering more paid sick leave.  

Zety survey respondents also have a reason to be annoyed about malfunctioning office electronics; a B2M Solutions poll showed that more than half of the respondents said that they experienced the breakdown of at least one mobile device a month that hampered their job performance and raised their stress level. Tech's importance to the employee experience has pushed HR and IT to form a stronger collaborative bond to ensure workers stay on board.

While no workplace can entirely rid itself of peeve-makers, small actions can go a long way in helping employees still feel like part of a solid team. In fact, a Peakon report showed that managers who greet workers each day with a simple "hello" can go a long way in making them feel valued and part of the team.