What's your office pet peeve?

[mcbethers]

How about people trying to use your desk as a temporary storage centre or as a place to work, while you are sitting right there, trying to get your own work done.

It happened yesterday, when I was on an important call, I needed to use my computer and deal with some papers at the same time, and two people decided that this would be a great time to invade my space.  One wanted to get archived info from the shelf above me (you have to stand on my desk to get to it).  Another was prepping to photocopy and was dumping everything they had on my desk.  Both of these could have waited - but no, they wanted to do this right then.



AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!

[Katie G]

I do the travel/expense reports for our department.  I love it when they forget (read "lose") a receipt and expect to get it reimbursed anyway.  And then expect ME to argue with the accounting department!  A receipt for a cab is one thing but in one case it's a $235 lunch!  Our accounting department is NOT going to cut a check for $235 without a receipt, period.



Oh, and how about the one who comes to you with, "I want to fly from Philly to Rochester, NY tomorrow leaving at 7:30 in the morning and coming back around 6:00 in the evening.  And see if you can get it for under $200."  Or, "Find me a hotel in downtown Boston for this Friday and Saturday night for under a hundred bucks."



These both actually happened to me.  The $235 lunch is STILL an issue!

[msepulv854]

My greatest pet peeve is when I go to make copies and the machine is not cleared from the previous user or better yet, there is not one single sheet of paper in it.  So annoying.  The other annoying thing is when messages are left on the voice mail and the speaker spoke so fast or in such a low voice that the message is difficult to undertand. It gets me so aggravated.

[kitchenwitch]

What's the first thing you do when you walk into your office?  I sit down to check messages, drink my tea and turn on the phone.  I've sat on some really important stuff first thing in the morning that way, and then they wonder why the contract (or whatever it is) is ripped, wrinkled and generally "butt damaged".



Final peeve for the day....I hate when people don't let you finish speaking and then just start booming in with their ill-formed opinion based on half of what you were TRYING to say in the first place. Oh, and customer service reps who hang up on you when they can't solve your problem and then you can never find them again.  Oh, and people who don't replace the paper towels or soap in the bathroom (I mean, really, there are six of us here, ladies, obviously someone is the culprit).  And people who think it's my job to stay late on Fridays and do their job for them while they go to a concert.........



AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.....runs screaming out the door.....



Have a great day, everyone!

   

[bethalize]

I HATE it when you ask a caller for their telephone number when taking a message and they say: "Oh, he has it", as though my boss keeps ever scrap of paper he ever wrote something on right in front of him, and he really wants to look up your number when he has a hundred other things to do.



And people who don't THINK and try and solve a problem just dump it on you expecting you to know.



 

[deedeeb]

Just for today, here's my favorite - my boss will make a decision that something needs to be done (usually an action I am required to take) and then just assume that our psychic bond transfers the information to my brain directly--without him ever TELLING me!  The most recent example was setting up work space in another building.  The team, working on a temporary project, will need phones, furniture, printers, etc., etc. and he wanted this yesterday.  Guess when he told me?  You got it!  YESTERDAY at 1:00!!!  He has known this for almost 3 weeks and never a peep from him!  AAAAAGGGHH!  Here's another - needy, selfish, inconsiderate people who think that I exist to serve them, whether or not they even work in the same department!

[spitfire78]

I agree with you, Bethalize.  In line with that, I hate it when callers won't tell you why they are calling.  These same people would probably throw a fit if their secretary gave them an incomplete message, and yet they expect me to do that to my boss!!!

[ozbound]

The last-minute thing tops the list for me, too...especially when I've been twiddling my thumbs for the better part of the week, waiting for work. Then they pile it all on at once on Thursday or Friday and of course everyone expects that I can get it done right away because "gee, you weren't busy yesterday..." They never seem to realize that because everyone else procrastinated too, now they've got 3 people in front of them who also need their stuff ASAP!



My other peeve is when people assume that because one of the other admins knows all about X (this copy job, the courier's schedule today, etc.) I must know all about it too. Oh really? I'm not psychic!  And we don't have time to brief each other on every little thing that's going on. It's even worse when the person who DOES have the details is out of the office - try getting them to wait until that person comes back in!  

[yankeestarbuck]

When I'm sitting at my desk with the Tupperware FULL of spaghetti, the fork IN my mouth and someone walks over with work for me to do.  Some say, "sorry, can you call me when you're off lunch?" This is nod or smile at and agree to.  If that happens, I will even finish up early to help out.  But my favorites are those that stand there and wait for me to notice them or ask me flat out to do this, "while you're wating?"  "No.  I don't get paid for my lunch hour, I come in at least half an hour early a day, you can catch me later."  "But I need it now."  "Sucks to be you, huh?" Yes, I said that to a manager.



If I'm on the phone, I ignore the person.  My fiance does that and I ignore him, too.  I've learned to ignore most things around here.  About the broken office machine stuff, I had one male (not a real man in the classic sense of the word) came to me, poked his head in my cubicle and quickly state, "small copier's broken," then ran away.  I thought he broke it.  OK, things happen.  IT NEEDED TONER!  TONER IS KEPT IN THE CABINET DIRECTLY UNDER THE COPIER LABELED "TONER"!  That feels better.

[lioness70]

Here's one that floored me that happened while I was at the front desk.  A client came in to pick up something, then asked me if I could copy it for him!  Hello...who's going to answer the bazillion calls that come in while I'm making copies for you?  So, I told him where the copier was, he was welcome to use it-and he had one of the OTHER admins copy it for him.  I don't see why he couldn't copy it himself...or wait until he got back to his office...I had to bite my lip to keep my mouth from falling open after this request!  Yes, another helpless type, and I wonder what his admin (if he has one) goes through daily!

[laundryhater]

1. Yes, Officeduchess, I hate it when people ask, "How will Mr. Smith be on the phone?" As much as I wish I were, I am not psychic!



2. Your procrastination does not make it my emergency!



3. Stupid people. "Can you help me with my Illinois paperwork?" My response, "No, this is the State of Iowa. You'll need to hire someone who is familiar with Illinois laws or call the Illinois State Department" Her response, "Oh, then can I just turn in my completed Illinois paperwork here and pay it here?" My response, "No, this is the State of Iowa (said slowly with emphasis because she apparently did get it the first time). You'll need to mail it to Illinois" I wanted to say, "No, you moron! You don't pay for something at McDonald's that you ate at Burger King, do you?



4. Lazy people. Just today, for example, I gave a customer an instruction booklet which has forms attached inside it that the customer can fill in, tear out and mail back to us. This lazy guy asks, "Do you have any loose forms?" My reply, "You can't just tear out the forms already in there?" His reply, "No, I like loose forms." In hind site, I should have asked him for the book back, torn the forms out myself and handed them back to him with a now-that-wasn't-so-hard-was-it smile. But I didn't. I gave him a loose form just to get him to go away.



Ugggh!!!

[radaro]

Wait I have another one!  Someone gives you a job to do, then asks you every 15 minutes if you have gotten the work done.

[ozbound]

Another one is when I have to cover phones & take a later lunch, sometimes people think my lunch is still over at 1, so they start asking me to do stuff, even when it's obvious I'm eating lunch or my phone has an "at lunch" message on it.



And then there are the "vague instructions." Got one of those this morning--I couldn't figure out WHAT the heck the person who asked wanted (I honestly don't think he knew, either), and the more questions I tried to ask, the more confusing it got. So I finally decided I needed to ask someone else what was going on, except the person I needed didn't come back in until it was too late. arrgh!  

[vinicool]

One of my top pet peeves is the BLAME GAME.  I hate being blamed.  I also loathe watching people wiggle and squirm as they avoid the simple words "I'm sorry".  

[ccolleen413]

And another one ........... when you are the phone with Client A rescheduling an appointment and bossie makes you put Client A on hold(strict no-no in our office)because she thinks that you are talking to Client B and you are explaining the situation "all wrong"  The reason for this confusion?  We were discussing Client B when the phone rang.  Ummmmm ....... I haven't even called Client B yet, how could they be calling back already???