Over a third (34 percent) of office workers list gossiping as the leading cause of workplace disputes. Loud colleagues ranks second in top five popular causes of office-place disputes, irritating 31 percent of workers. Contributor Phil Jones, Managing Director – Brother UK.
Messy colleagues (27 percent), stolen items (26 percent) and late colleagues (26 percent) make-up top five, ahead of undeserved promotions (25 percent).
78 million working hours are lost every year as workers search for stolen items. Research from Brother UK, a supplier of technology solutions for business, has revealed the top five popular causes of office disputes, with gossip coming top. Over a third (34 percent) of office workers cited gossiping about colleagues and management as the leading reason for arguments and disruption in the office. Colleagues being too loud ranked in second place (31 percent), with messy colleagues (27 percent) being listed as the third most common cause of disputes. This was just ahead of stolen items (26 percent) and late colleagues (26 percent), which made-up the top five.
Stolen items such as stationery, sandwiches and mugs proved more irritating for office workers than colleagues being unfairly promoted (25 percent) and disorganised workers (25 percent), both of which sat outside the top five. Office workers may even feel their items were so at risk of being stolen at work, that 40 percent of them feel the need to lock their drawers, and when things do go missing, more than a third (37 percent) of people will spend at least an hour on average each month trying to retrieve them – that’s around 78 million hours a year lost across the country*.
The poll of 1,594 office workers nationwide also found that it’s not just disputes causing chaos in the office. Almost two thirds (61 percent) of office workers have at least four plugs under their desk, yet 71 percent of them admit they don’t know which plug belongs to which piece of equipment – posing a major risk of accidental shutdowns and hours of lost work. In fact, nearly a third (31 percent) admitted to having lost work in the last year due to their computer being accidentally shut down. Of these, 38 percent lost ten or more hours, equating to 2 million workers nationally.
Phil Jones, managing director at Brother UK, commented: “Offices that run most efficiently are those that get the simple things right. Many businesses focus on the big, complex solutions and lose sight of the smaller details which can make all the difference. Quick wins like labelling personal items as well as business critical wires and plugs can help avoid millions of hours of lost productivity caused by disputes among colleagues.” Often a part of office-place disputes, the research also found that nearly a third (30 percent) of office workers receive passive aggressive emails from colleagues at least once a month.
