For those of us who work in an office, there can be times when sitting at a desk all day is actually not as peaceful as you might think.
For the majority of us, we go to work, sit at our desks, complete our daily tasks and converse with our colleagues. Unfortunately, sometimes, some of our fellow employees/employers have other ideas.
We have picked out the top 10 unspoken rules for working in an office, please read on to see if you agree!
Don’t do any of the following:
- Leave all your dirty dishes in the sink – it’s not a pleasant sight, and who else are you expecting to clean up after you? Just a quick scrub won’t consume too much of your day; it will also benefit the general hygiene of the office kitchen!
- Another amongst kitchen etiquette includes heating up fish in the microwave, or the general consumption of smelly foods at your desk. Although eggs and onions might add extra flavour to your meal, they are unpleasant smells that could make the whole office have an unwanted odour.
- Come to work ill enough to pass it on to others - although this sounds selfish, and most people don’t generally stay off work because of a cold, passing on coughs and sore throats are hugely annoying to people who have a heavy workload!
- Ignore important emails that require an immediate response – there’s nothing worse than sending an email to a colleague with an important nature and you need an answer straight away. After staring longingly at the screen willing them to reply, you have to trudge up to them and ask them if they got your email, don’t they understand that nobody likes talking face to face anymore?
- Not flush the toilet – I think this one speaks for itself.
- Complain to the IT department that your computer’s not working before attempting to restart it. Nine times out of ten, you could probably fix the ‘technical issue’ you are having yourself, rather than calling over the IT manager.
- Linger over someone who is in the middle of a conversation with someone else. Although you may be waiting harmlessly to ask a question, this can still be portrayed as rude through interrupting a potentially important conversation. Try and approach whoever you need to talk to when you can see that they aren’t busy.
- Take your shoes off – it might feel like you spend most of your time at work, but there’s a time and a place for this sort of thing, it’s called home!
- CC people on an email that they do not need to be included in – this creates confusion and uncertainty for staff and could ultimately see them running around the office trying to figure out why they were sent an email unrelated to their department.
- Schedule a meeting that doesn’t bear great importance – there’s nothing worse than getting in to the swing of your daily duties at work and then you are called into a meeting that potentially may feel like it has nothing to do with you.
What are your opinions on these unwritten rules? Do you have any more that you think we’ve missed? Let us know on either of our Facebook or Twitter pages.
Alternatively, for everything office related that you might need to keep your office astray from these rules, visit The Workplace Depot website - everything for the workplace!