Poor time management has overtaken office gossip as the biggest annoyance in the workplace, a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults has found.
The top three workplace pet peeves emerging from Randstad's Work Watch survey were poor time management (43 per cent), gossip (36 per cent) and messiness in communal spaces (25 per cent).
Other annoyances included loud noises (21 Per cent), potent smells (20 per cent), overuse of personal electronic devices in meetings (15 per cent) and misuse of email (12 per cent).
Exploring the time management issue in more detail, the survey found that the single biggest gripe we have is with co-workers who take excessive breaks - long lunches, smoking breaks, or long periods of personal web surfing.
Other annoyances include people who abuse sick days, meetings without agendas or structure or that cut into personal time, start late or run over; people who are distracted on their Blackberry or who text during meetings and people who consistently miss deadlines.