Tell me about the co-worker that drives you nuts.

[undeterred]

So maybe mine won't seem so bad.

He doesn't COMMUNICATE. He thinks I should have to ask him five hundred questions in order to figure out what he wants me to do instead of him just telling me. That way if there is a miscommunication its all my fault all the time. If I don't know something its my fault for not asking. Its called TRAINING me.

[Chan790]

1. I got this guy...

who refuses to go out and pound pavement to scare up new clients because as long as there's no work he can watch Game of Thrones and Fringe on-demand on TV.

The worst part...I've got to look in the mirror to yell at him and I can't fire him.

First-world independent-contractor problems

[tabbycat31]

2. your post describes a man I dated last year

Are you sure you don't work with him?

[undeterred]

4. Well, it does seem to be a common problem with men

even though most of the other men in the office are better at it. But even when this guy tries to communicate he's just terrible at it.

[auburngrad82]

3. I have the opposite of that guy.

You tell this guy in passing "nice day" and he says "yes, but..." and tells you for 45 minutes why the weather could change, what he had for dinner the consistency of his stool, his kid's food allergies, and on and on.

I'll trade you.

[WillParkinson]

5. Sadly I cannot...

I *am* the coworker that drives everyone nuts.

[Enrique]

6. a few of my coworkers were like that

then they got a new boss and she got them to change.

[Mopar151]

7. He may not know HOW to condense his thoughts into coherent instructions.

I had a job go bad on me largely because I was supposed to divine what my bosses were thinking before they thought of it.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. When I get lots of followup questions I feel like I fucked up giving the instructions.

I've got a great team and I just feel like I've let them down sort of when they feel they need more than minor clarification before they can get going.

[bigwillq]

9. Really none of mine do

We all annoy each other at times, but no one drives me nuts.

[blueamy66]

10. none anymore

I quit that crappy place 2 weeks ago.

[Populist_Prole]

11. Good you asked, as lately one has been irritating the hell out of me

Constantly ( I mean like every minute or 2 ) makes these disgusting noises that I can't tell if it's severe vomity belch, or clearing his throat of a glob of phlegm the size of a softball. I can NOT be around him more than a few minutes at a time. A few times I can't take it anymore and I'll snap, like Jesus frickin Christ, what the f--- is wrong with you you f---ing pig!!?? He meekly says he "can't help it" but with just a bit of a smirk as well.

Clincher is: I've been around him a few times outside of work with others, and he DOES NOT do that, or does it much less often and much more discreetly.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. The coworker that drove me nuts retired a few years ago.

Rather abruptly, as I recall. We all suspected that he didn't jump but was pushed. The guy was in his early 60s, was well-educated and intelligent (though nerdy), but was also one of the most annoyingly weird people I've ever had the displeasure to work with. If you look up passive-aggressive in the dictionary his picture will be there. He'd greet you with this big phony "Gooood morning!" and then stab you in the back by sending around emails about how you and everybody else in the department was doing their job wrong. These would be written as if intended to "help" the newer employees, but we all knew he was trying to make it clear that he was the only one there who didn't suck.

There was one email that had no less than 42 bullet points detailing errors "some" people were making. Interestingly, most of these so-called errors weren't errors at all - he just thought things should be done his way and not the way this (very highly-regulated, procedurally structured and standardized) company required.

There was one new employee he especially didn't like because she insisted on doing things the way the boss wanted, not the way Mr. Perfect wanted. What particularly infuriated her was that he'd cite the official policies and procedures and insist she follow them, then he'd turn around and do things his way and get mad at her because she didn't do things the same way he did. He told one of the other employees that he was going to do what he could to get her fired. He did not succeed; she's still there and he's not.

He would never socialize with the other employees, even just go out to lunch. By the time he left he would barely speak to any of us. Nobody knows what became of him after his retirement, but it was really nice not having him around.

But I don't work with anyone who annoys me any more; I also retired at the end of 2011. Now I am annoyed only by me and three pestiferous cats.

[rainbow4321]

13. Oh where to start..

I work in health care...so my co workers provide direct patient care in some fashion or other. Well, let me put this another way. Some do patient care, others spend more time literally with their feet up, or on their cell phones (using their ear phones/buds), going to the hospital store or cafeteria, going to other parts of the hospital to hold flirt sessions with other workers.
Unfortunately for the patients and the rest of us who work our asses off, the above people are in the majority. So while the rest of us are chasing our tails trying to take care of our patients, we get to trip over the above workers. I am SOOOO tired of seeing these workers on their damn cell phones as they at the medicine carts getting patients medications ready--ok, really, do you really need to talking on the phone to your BFF when you should be 100% focused on medications that could kill/damage your patients if you dispense it wrong?
And it is these same people the whine/moan/groan about lack of team work, being left work from the previous shift (never mind the work is being left over by people just like themselves--slackers who sit around on the computer or cell phone all shift). Their wailing in the monthly meetings....OMG...why is it the squeakiest wheels who have the most faux outrage who are the guiltiest parties?
Walk into a patient's room...full urinals, dirty meal tray, dirty linen laying around, empty water jugs, messy IV tubing that should have been tossed. The same room that you left nice and tidy 12 hours before when your shift ended...has been left in shambles. And the patients in those rooms are feeling really neglected--and usually angry. Because the nurses and techs who are supposed to be there to take care of them--well, they were MIA for the previous shift. So it takes like the first 2 hours of your shift to calm them down and meet their needs (that have been ignored for the most part since you left).


Those of us who truly try to do right by the patients spend our days exhausted and our evenings recuperating. And then we start the whole process all over again the next day for our 8 (or 12) hour shift!

[undeterred]

14. kicking for morning stories...

[HopeHoops]

15. A guy I worked with like 14 years ago. He was the travel grunt (hauling equipment around).

We were all in the programmers' pit on the 6th floor with a beautiful view of a lake/wetlands below. It was usually rather quiet. The guy comes in quietly, stares out the window for a minute or two, then turns around and says, "Man, I was in Seattle and I met this chick and took her back to her place and FUCKED her brains out!" We continued typing. I think someone said something like "That's nice, Vinnie" (not his real name - he reminded us of Vinnie Barbarino from "Welcome Back Kotter" - John Travolta).

On another similar occasion, he went into a detailed explanation about how Seattle has the best hookers because they can slip a condom on using their teeth and you never even feel it.

This is also a guy who had so many moving violations in so many states that he couldn't get insurance without using a fake address in yet another state.

[Locrian]

16. well

The guy who holds conferences on his cell phone. In the bathroom, on the toilet.

The women who BATHE in some kind of cheap, neurotoxin-rich perfume or hand lotion and it follows the jet stream directly to my cubicle.

[Mopar151]

17. I know that guy!

He worked for the landlord, who had an office cubby carved out of our space - but used our bathroom. He'd walk into the can talking on the cell, leave 1/2 hour later still talking on it. Judging on frequency, he was on a high-silage diet.