UK's most hated office habits revealed

Tardiness, whining, and pungent lunches all irritate UK employees, a new study has found, but only a third are prepared to do anything about it.

Constantly late co-workers came top of the list, which was compiled by Viking, with incessant moaning coming second. Interestingly, women are more likely to be riled up by an empty toilet roll holder, whereas men ranked office gossip as a top bad habit. The full table can be found below.

Only a third of those surveyed were prepared to attempt to rectify the problem, while a further 30% saying they have avoided the problem as they do not want to create any conflict. 51% would not consider leaving their job, saying that they “didn’t think it was that much of a problem.”

Speaking exclusively to HR Grapevine, Ruud Linders, Marketing Manager Europe at Viking, offered the following potential solution to office gripes: “A lot of the time, it can be hard to simply stop or diminish behaviour that could be perceived as annoying. For example, you can’t easily ban smelly foodstuffs, like fish, and you can’t ban pen tapping.