"Reply to All" drives colleagues crazy

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 30 Oct 2007 at 08:41

Work colleagues who spend their day surfing the web or who press "Reply to All" on e-mails are among the biggest nuisances in the office, according to a new survey.

A poll on the biggest pet peeves in the workplace by market researcher Harris Interactive found 60% of 2,429 respondents lists gossip as the biggest annoyance. The online survey, conducted for staffing firm Randstad USA, reveals the second biggest peeve is poor time management, which includes people making personal phones calls at work or surfing the internet during work time.

Also on the list of seven office peeves comes loud noises such as speaker phones, loud talking and loud phone ring tones, overuse of electronic communications devices in meetings and misuse of e-mail.

Eric Buntin, managing director of marketing and operations for Randstad, claims people are particularly irritated when people hit "Reply to All" on an e-mail unnecessarily, or used blind carbon copying (bcc). "No e-mail is private. Everyone knows if they are bcc-ing an e-mail it is like standing up and shouting fire in the middle of a building," he says.

But when it came to taking action against the offending colleagues, people are not so willing to act. About 42% claim they would say something directly to a person being too loud but only a quarter would approach a person directly about misuse of e-mail.

What annoys you most about colleagues' technology habits? Let us know on comments below