Employers may need to alter some elements
A new survey suggests lazy coworkers are employees’ biggest pet peeve in the workplace — followed by bad attitudes.
Employees who are 18 to 24 years old, however, say people having a bad attitude at work is their biggest annoyance, followed by lazy coworkers.
All generations of employees ranked poor communication skills as their third top pet peeve in the workplace.
Distractions Can Slow Things Down
Employees also identified productivity issues in the survey. Forty-five percent say poor management and leadership is the top productivity killer at work.
Most age groups feel chatty coworkers pose the second biggest challenge to getting things done. Mid-career professionals who are age 35 to 44 say chatty coworkers are actually the No. 1 employee productivity killer.
The survey respondents also identified another major productivity issue: meetings. Forty-one percent feel there are too many and/or they’re unnecessary. Workers who are age 45 or older, in particular, dislike meetings — they chose them as the top employee productivity issue.
In addition, the survey found office politics is the job element employees dislike the most, according to 44 percent of respondents. A lack of transparency/hierarchy is also a detriment for 25 percent of employees.
Enabling Workers to Use Their Time Constructively
While offices may present a number of distractions, employers can take several steps to help employees stay on track during the day.
Given the survey found poor management and leadership can be an issue, the researchers suggest organizations evaluate how managers interact with workers to see if changes might help improve their productivity.
With the responses clearly indicating older employees find the abundance of meetings frustrating, companies may want to revisit how their gatherings are structured. Our blog posts on positive actions that can affect meetings and ensuring committees are effective offer additional information on the subject.
For more on Mavenlink’s survey results, view this information on the findings.