Annoying coworkers, toxic bosses, filthy workplaces: Why more employees are avoiding the office
Doing a load of whites while on Zoom. Kicking off early to catch your kid’s soccer game. Eliminating the hourlong commute. Many are the benefits of remote work. But apparently, many of us also prefer to work from home because the behavior of our coworkers has become unbearable.
In fact, 1 in 5 employees is choosing to work from home more often because they simply can’t stand the gossip, flirting and swearing of their office mates, the employment website Indeed found in a survey of more than 1,000 people in the U.K. And it’s not just the rank and file, with one-quarter of senior managers also dodging their colleagues by keeping close to home.
Another work-life peeve? Oversharing, with 1 in 5 also complaining that their colleagues talk too much about their personal lives and the lives of others.
It’s yet one more hurdle for employers aiming to get staffers to return to the office full-time in the wake of the pandemic, when remote and hybrid workplaces became the norm. Boeing and UPS are among the latest companies to insist that employees come back five days a week, while Dell warned that those who don’t will not be considered for promotions. Still other employers, including many media companies, say they will continue to operate under a hybrid arrangement for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, as far as bad behavior goes, remote workers aren’t completely off the hook. In-office employees have their own list of grievances against their remote colleagues, according to Indeed—among them, not responding to messages and emails (34%), vaping or smoking on video calls (26%) and forgetting to mute or unmute calls (23%).
Regardless of whether they are working from inside or outside the office, staffers complain that others are taking credit for their work (46%), talking over them in conversation (36%) and micromanaging (34%). Nearly half (47%) agree that what’s considered professional behavior has evolved.
“There’s always going to be colleague habits that frustrate us and some behaviors that are simply unacceptable in the workplace,” said Danny Stacy, U.K. head of talent intelligence at Indeed. “But what’s important for employers is to create moments of connection for employees, no matter where they’re based, to maintain relationships and ensure environments where everyone can do their best work.”
But it’s not just the behavior our coworkers that’s soured us on the office—it’s also terrible bosses.
The management and skills training service Corndel, in its Workplace Training Report, revealed that one-third of 1,000 workers surveyed in the UK reported having a toxic manager in the past five years, while 4 in 10 left a job because of it.
What makes a boss “toxic”? Micromanaging, inflexibility, gaslighting colleagues and shirking responsibility are all having a significant impact on the employee experience, per the report, with about half of those polled signaling that a positive work culture makes them do their jobs better.
The thing is, HR managers are fully aware there is a problem with bad bosses, with 7 in 10 admitting it’s prevalent at their companies. Out of 250 HR executives surveyed by Corndel, only a little more than half (54%) say their company leaders possess the necessary skills to cultivate high-performing teams.
“In an era where company culture is actively promoted and workplace mental health is marketed as an employee benefit, ensuring that employees’ lived experiences meet their expectations for management culture is key,” said James Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Corndel, adding that HR decision makers “must prioritize finding solutions for toxic workplaces.”
As if all this weren’t enough to keep people away from the office, how about filthy, germ-ridden desks?
In its survey of 1,000 workers in the U.K., the online printing service Instantprint found that just 1 in 10 Brits clean their workstations at least once a year — when they clean them at all — even though most admit to eating at them. Among other icky revelations, one-quarter take off their shoes at the office (yuck), while 1 in 9 admit to not washing their hands every time they use the facilities (double yuck).
In fact, as more employees return to the office, workplace etiquette has become such a problem that some are even sending their people to charm school to get training in everything from how to dress businesslike to how to comport themselves on video calls.
“The soft skills that are necessary to have a harmonious workplace were not being used” when most of us were still remote, Elaine Swann, founder of the Carlsbad Training Institute, told The Los Angeles Times. “Utilizing those skills is almost like a muscle—if you’re not using that muscle, it can become weak.”