'[They] respond to my emails by calling. Every. Single. Time': 20+ Coworkers whose irritating habits are driving their coworkers up the wall

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Jan 23, 2025 3:00 PM EST

There's no better way to realize exactly how much a person's small habits can annoy you than to be trapped within inches of them for 40+ hours each week. You start to pick up on little things, like the way one coworker slurps their drinks loudly, or the way your boss complains nonstop about every little thing, or the way the higher-ups laugh so loudly in their offices that you get a headache from it. 

I've never understood why some office workers choose to have personal conversations in front of their colleagues. Some workers spend a full 8 hours on the phone, yapping away to their ex or their family members. Are they just blissfully unaware that everyone else can hear them, too? Would they stop yapping if the people around them asked invasive follow-up questions, like "Hey Denise, how is your daughter's roommate's cat doing after the surgery?" If you ever get the chance to do this, please write in and let me know, because it sounds both hilarious and effective.

After you read about some coworker habits that are driving people up the wall,  read about the waiter who told his friend group about the "bad tipper" who left just 10%: 'He's telling mutual friends I'm cheap'.

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  • 01
    Cheezburger Image 10458348544
    via Kateryna Hliznitsova For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 02
    What's the most obnoxious thing a coworker does at your job (without getting fired)? I'll start. There was one guy I used to work with, lets call him "S". When S got bored at work he would randomly go up to headphone-wearing colleagues and say "IPOD CHECK!", and he
    via u/[deleted]
  • 03
    would then loudly announce what the target was currently listening to. He outed me listening to pro wrestling entrance themes at work on more than one occasion.
    via u/[deleted]

    I'm so sorry to doubt this person, but that is incredibly hilarious, and I applaud their coworker for this move. 

  • 04

    She sounds just awful

    f... Complained about everything, constantly. And if the thing she complained about changed to what she wanted, she'd still complain! Literally all day. I'm a patient person, I tried to even make a game of it, but she couldn't even go a few minutes without harping on about something. Imagine every single day, eight hours per day, every 2-3 minutes,
    via u/fludru
  • 05
    complain whine complain. It was agony. And I do mean everything. Our boss. Our co-workers. Company management. Any other employee. Her family. Her friends. Her car. Her health. Her mother's health. Her mother's house. Her mother's house repair bills. The cafeteria's poor quality of soup (which she still bought every | day). The building. Her desk. INFINITY.
    via u/fludru
  • 06
    For example, she complained all day that she was so overworked and underappreciated, she doesn't have time for all of these tasks that people send to her, on and on. Our boss sends us a task assignment with no deadline listed, sends it to the both of us and basically just says "get this done". She whines and complains for about 6 hours that she can't possibly
    via u/fludru
  • 07
    do it. I tried asking her when she would be free, if I could just do it, and she just basically huffs and puffs and never answers, no matter how direct I am. Finally, she leaves. In the half hour between the end of her shift and the end of mine, I complete the task and send it on to the boss, CCing her. Next day, I come in and she's giving me the silent
    via u/fludru
  • 08
    treatment. (Couldn't have been more happy, by the way.) After about an hour she says, out of the blue, "You know, there's no I in TEAMWORK!" really loud, and them stomps out of our pod. Whatever. I ignore her the rest of the morning. When I go to lunch and come back, she's written "No I in TEAMWORK" in huge letters, with circles and arrows, on our shared white board. Later, when the silent
    via u/fludru
  • 09
    treatment was over (sad face), she said I was hogging the credit and trying to make her look bad. I had enough and said "Look, you said you were busy and had no time. I asked you. I gave you chances to do it, but I didn't want to get in trouble and you didn't give me any reason to believe you were going to be available soon, so I did my job. If you have a problem, talk to <boss>."
    via u/fludru
  • 10
    That shut her up. Well, about that. She was right back into complaining about other sh all day. She still cried when I quit a few months later. Also, she was a help desk technician and didn't know how to change fonts in Word. I had to show her. Every time she did it.
    via u/fludru
  • 11
    [deleted] Just doesnt show up for a shift. Three times now... Still not fired. But then again I havent seen my boss in a month. Worst run business ever... Its appalling.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 12
    Hickspy Talk on the phone. To everyone. About everything. Insanely personal things that the people around her should not hear. Seriously I know more about some of my coworkers' kids than I do my own family.
    via u/Hickspy
  • 13

    This is the kind of behavior that makes you wonder if the email recipient is even literate

    [deleted] Responds to my emails by calling. Every. Single. Time. I wrote you an email because I wanted your answer in writing. This is especially tedious when I've asked a question about a process or protocol that we only use, say, once per year-
    via u/[deleted]
  • 14
    -if you just answered the email, I'd be able to search for it the next time this issue comes up. It doesn't help that you talk so quietly I can barely hear you, and every other word is "umm."
    via u/[deleted]

    Maybe they can't read, and are trying to disguise that by calling to "confirm" every email instead of actually writing out a reply. 

  • 15
    Lionhearted09 Customer service sits right outside my office. I know everyone Michele has cheated on her boyfriend with, I know all the crazy drink stories about Jessica, I know what went on in Casey's doctors
    via u/Lionhearted09
  • 16
    appointment, and so on and so forth. They let the phones. just wrong and leave people on hold for 10 to 15 minutes to finish a stupid story. It kills me hearing this everyday.
    via u/Lionhearted09
  • 17
    stevenlss1 There's a woman in my office who refuses to do anything that is remotely outside or her job description but has no problem asking me (who's well above her on any org chart you can find) to constantly assist the janitorial staff in moving things around the building. I run projects valued in the millions and never once have
    via u/stevenlss1
  • 18
    I turned down her request to help but anytime I need to ask her for information or to handle something it's the end of the world because she's too busy and it's not like that's in her job description. NOTE: providing me with the information I need is her job and it's the second line on her job description.
    via u/stevenlss1
  • 19
    [deleted] This is not something that warrants anyone being fired over, since it is technically our jobs, but.. I work in IT and do helpdesk every now and then, and one of the things we do is move people's computers around and set them up because half our staff is incapable of this. The problem is is that the third floor people usually move about 5 times a week
    via u/[deleted]
  • 20
    because they all want to trade offices, it is the most obnoxious thing in the planet, there is no reason to move offices they just want a different one.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 21
    Even worse is they expect us to jump at the chance to do it, like it's all we're there for. I keep your company web pages running and make sure you can even do your job, stop playing musical offices and let me do something meaningful with my time, or at least realize we don't only cater to you you self-centered ride folk.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 22
    Cheezburger Image 10458346752
    via Andrej Lišakov For Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 23
    DoctorinaBox For some context, I am a lifeguard. I hate it when my co-workers throw kickboards, the swim coaches a) steal our chairs to sit in during practice and b) throw those chairs into the pool. A few of my co- workers also deem it
    via u/DoctorinaBox
  • 24
    acceptable to text while on the stand. I don't give it if it's a slow day, when your're on the stand, your only job is to watch the_ and they fail at that miserably. pool,
    via u/DoctorinaBox
  • 25

    They should've reported him the first time he broke the rules!

    bruzdnconfuzd This was at a physical therapy clinic, by the worst tech ever... "J" • Violated HIPAA in every way possible... all in one instance. • Lined up one of each flavor of the Keurig coffee cups, deciding which order to drink them in and log opinions in his journal.
    via u/bruzdnconfuzd
  • 26
    • Greet patients with a high-five, shoulder and elbow patients . included. Disappeared into the women's health room when it was empty, then locked the door. • Ate cans of tuna (several per day) straight from the can, usually topped with various hot sauces.
    via u/bruzdnconfuzd
  • 27
    Then didn't understand when his stomach was so often upset. • Showed up to work reeking of cigar smoke. • ...too many others. It hurts my brain to remember it all.
    via u/bruzdnconfuzd
  • 28
    ohsillylily My line manager loves power. She'll call us out in front of everyone if we make the smallest mistakes. If she makes a mistake she'll fix it in secret. Just an all around flap really
    via u/ohsillylily
  • 29
    [deleted] Every week a co-worker of mine calls in sick on either a Monday of Friday, sometimes both. He has been here forever and had banked tons of sick hours,
    via u/[deleted]
  • 30
    but I've been here one year and know that if I was calling in on Monday or Friday more than twice I'd probably have a sit-down with management about it. EDIT: I care because I get stuck covering his workload as well
    via u/[deleted]
  • 31
    TheGreatPastaW... When they come up to me for no reason and just start talking. They just want to chat. What is this nonsense. I'm not here to socialize. I'm at work. I'm busy. Stop interrupting me. I'm busy trying to browse reddit.
    via u/TheGreatPastaWars
  • 32
    [... I have an on-campus job at my college. I absolutely cannot stand the kids I work with because of how immature and disrespectful they are, especially since it's a sweet job. Yeah we're college kids and I shouldn't be surprised maybe, but I don't care, it bothers me. And I can't wait until they have to go out into the real world.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 33
    I'm an art gallery sitter. The job = sitting at a desk in a quiet, peaceful gallery surrounded by art and playing on the computer or doing your homework. For money. You also meet famous/professional artists. regularly and work with them one-on-one. Recently we had Michael Beirut, a famous Graphic Designer (did the Times building in NYC.)
    via u/[deleted]
  • 34
    Let me tell you about these ah les. Showing up late consistently is a big one (10- 15 minutes if they show up at all.) Multiple coworkers do this. I'm a commuter. I think that's what really gets me about it. I can get up extra early to make sure I drive here on time but you can't roll your a out of bed to walk across the street.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 35
    Showing up late leaves me alone to struggle to get things in order and open on time. I then get yelled at when my boss saunters out of her office to find things not perfectly in order on time. But when the hag who shares my shift comes rolling in 10 minutes later, signs in for her original time? NOT A WORD FROM ANYONE. And no, these kids do not lose their job. True story, that.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 36
    Obviously we are professionals and the job needs to be taken seriously. Come the f on. That includes sweeping a bit if there's a huge mess somewhere, not showing up 15 minutes late to open in the morning, not playing music or calling people on your cell phone... I hate kids these days.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 37
    Edit for rage. On the plus side my bosses are in love with me so at least I know they aren't totally ignorant to what's going on.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 38
    stentuff One of my co-workers thinks he's my superior. I tend to ignore his orders until they turn into requests. Still annoys me though.
    via u/stentuf
  • 39
    AGuyReading Thi... We have someone at work who doesn't know how to speak. When you speak with him he interrupts almost every sentence trying (usually incorrectly) to guess what you're about to say. If you try to keep on he gets louder and louder to drown you out.
    via u/AGuyReadingThisSite
  • 40
    If he has nothing to add or can't guess he blows you off mid-stream with yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah... ever louder until you stop.
    via u/AGuyReadingThisSite
  • 41
    Cheezburger Image 10458348032
    via THE 9TH Coworking on Unsplash+

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • 42

    Please, do not stop your cat from learning to write

    [deleted] I work at home so the closest thing I have to coworkers is my cats. But almost every day one of them will walk across the keyboard, causing me to write stuff for clients like, "When estimating the curing time for your concrete walkway, you have to tak||||||||||||||FFFFFFFFFFSSSS SSSSSSSS" Meh. I learned to hit ctrl-S very frequently.
    via u/[deleted]
  • 43
    threeonone I work shift work in a power plant and we sit in a control room to operate our equipment (picture Homer Simpson at work, but with 7 guys). On night shifts I'm agitated quite easily. There is an old man that is very overweight that is on my crew. He's a very nice guy, but he has this problem where he burps honestly every 30 seconds - 1
    via u/threeonone
  • 44
    minute. They aren't the quiet ones either. Now imagine this for 12 hours straight. It takes everything in my power not to scream and kick him in the back of the head and say, "STOP IT RIGHT NOW ". I fire some ear plugs in to try to not have to hear this so much, but it just muffles the sound and sometimes irritates me more.
    via u/threeonone
  • 45
    perry4234 A coworker has OCD and we work in a Pharmacy. Every day he goes around to all the computers (15 or so) and turns off NUM lock every time he sees it on. For the amount of numbers we enter it is entirely frustrating.
    via u/perry4234
  • 46

    It's the one food you're never supposed to reheat in a closed space, yet so many do

    seriot Microwave fish.
    via u/seriot
  • 47
    Cory_mathews We had a girl who had her first day today. We have a big conference room that acts like a cafeteria. We had a presentation going on with about 8 people. She comes in talking on her cell phone way too loud to her boyfriend and it ended up in a screaming match.
    via u/Cory_mathews

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