Office Etiquette | upstartHR

Cube-dwellers are made fun of on a daily basis in many forms of media. And while I love reading â€œDilbertâ€ cartoons, some of the situations hit pretty close to home. If you\’ve never experienced the glorious experience of cramming yourself into a tiny space filled with office supplies and a back-breaking chair, then you are totally missing out on the fun. (Okay, maybe I\’m lying.) Read on to see a few things that I have learned from living in a cubicle.

Sickness-It may completely defy the laws of physics, biology, and chemistry, but a sneeze from twenty feet away can instantly give three people the flu. I have no idea how it works, but it’s universal!
Laziness-To me, laziness is spending Saturday afternoon laying on the couch watching TV. I am such an amateur. There are people that I have “worked” with before who never actually did anything work related after walking through the doors.
Sucking up-I am pretty much always cordial with my supervisors. Keeping that open, candid relationship healthy is a great way to have work you enjoy. While I think I\’m plenty friendly there are others that would happily staple their own forehead to stay on their boss’ good side. I just want to say to them, â€œCome on people, it’s your boss, not your spouse.â€ :-)
Weirdness-I have photos and other things decorating my space, and it helps me to feel more relaxed at work. I once worked with a person with a little dog that bobbed his head all day long. No, it\’s not a bobble head doll. It has a little light sensor that helps the pooch to shake his head at you like he knows something you did wrong…

So, while you may think that it is boring wherever you happen to be, there are always things going on that can turn that around in a hurry. So, if anyone in your workplace is carrying a disease, brown nosing the boss, or freaking you the heck out with weird desk ornamentation, I’d love to hear about it! Drop a comment below with your own funny office story.

A special bonus

And now, a funny short clip from Office Space, one of the best movies to illustrate office life at its nitty gritty core. Email subscribers need to click through to see the video.

I was flipping through an HR newsletter that our VP shares with the department, and one interesting piece caught my eye. The article talked about swearing at work, other “bad manners” offenses, and it cited a study by TheLadders.com.

The top five reasons for termination due to office etiquette offenses:

Bad language (38%)
Excessive workplace gossip (36%)
Drinking on the job (35%)
Leaving office without saying so (33%)
Too many personal calls (28%)

Hold up a second… Am I the only one that sees #3 sticking out like a sore thumb? I think drinking on the job goes beyond bad manners and into “Hey, I’m an idiot. Please terminate me!” territory. The other items are (unfortunately) all too common for most of us. I’ve written before about office gossip, and I completely agree that it’s a toxic problem for most companies, but it really surprised me to see swearing at the top of this list.