Humor: The 7 Habits of Highly Annoying Co-Workers

We've all had those co-workers with the annoying little habits that drive us up a wall.  Here's a list of the 7 most highly annoying habits (plus some honorable mention candidates).  Enjoy.

Ditch Train the Trainer

In this increasingly competitive global economy, companies are always looking for the most efficient use of resources.  Understandable for sure.  But, sometimes I think companies have difficulty recognizing where to draw the line.  Employees are always being asked to do more with less.  But at some point, it's just less.

One area where this 'more with less' concept rears it's ugly head time and time again is training.  The Train the Trainer model has become more and more popular.  What's not to love?  It supposedly saves both time and money.  I'm not buying it.  Here's three reasons why.

Taking Control of your Calendar

Elizabeth Grace Saunders has a great post about respecting yourself and taking back control of your calendar.  This is so simple, yet so difficult for most people to accomplish.  Taking control of your calendar is critical to any hopes of accomplishing work-life balance.  As I mentioned in a previous post, it's really about choices. 

Why Work-from-Home Policies Work

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer made the bold move recently to rollback Yahoo's work-from-home policy and require all employees to work at Yahoo's offices.  Best Buy almost immediately followed suit and ended their work-from-home program.  There was a firestorm of media coverage on Yahoo's decision, most of it against the move.  Here's three different takes: New York Times, Forbes, and CIO.  My take: a laughably bad idea.  Here's why.

3 Reasons Why The Bad Boss Has No Clue

Most everyone has had the experience of dealing with a bad boss, some more than others and to differing degrees.  Here's a few articles on this topic:  Bad to the Bone, How to Deal: Don't!, Harvard Business Review.  Hopefully, none of you had bosses who made the Really Bad Boss stories (yikes!).  There's no doubt having a bad boss can truly be a helpless feeling at times.  An employee's relationship with his/her manager strongly influences the employee's overall job satisfaction. 

While many employees invoke the Peter Principle ("Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence") when discussing their manager, there's easily many other reasons why the blockhead boss has no clue.  Here's three main reasons why:

Is Age Just a Number?

Sure it is.  And 'experience' is just a word too.  I got a kick out of Brian Wong's post on LinkedIn.  Brian's a 21-year-old.  Although his age is stated in the article, I could have guessed he was a youngster just by reading the article.  I love his enthusiasm, passion, energy, innocence, and idealism. 

Staying Focused and Productive

It seems like everyone is perpetually looking for ways to squeeze more productivity out of their day.  Much like diets, there is no magic answer.  It all comes down to making better choices and having the willpower to stick with it.  If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you'll need to make an entire lifestyle change.  A quick fix diet will only put you on a weight roller coaster.  It won't address the core lifestyle problem.  Similarly, focus and productivity issues should be addressed by looking inward, not outward.  I like many of the points Nadia Goodman makes to train your brain to stay focused.  Another article embedded in Nadia's has some good tips for finding focus and nixing distractions.