Stressful day? Blame it on your colleagues.

If you’ve ever shared a desk with someone who shouts down the phone all day, steals all your pens and never makes the tea, you’ll know that the habits of your co-workers can be extremely annoying.

And that’s before you start worrying about your heavy workload, long hours and demanding boss.
The day to day behaviour of irritating colleagues can send our stress levels soaring leaving us less able to tackle the demands of most professional office jobs.

We’re stresssed but we don’t complain

In our recent survey of over 1000 professional UK office workers we found that more than nine in ten (92%) of the UK’s office-based workers are stressed. Of the 92%, almost a third (32%) are often stressed and nearly one in 10 (8%) are always stressed.

In another survey conducted on stress in the work place by HR consultancy Ceridien, most surprisingly the vast majority of workers – around 58% – would not complain to their line managers or to their HR department about a co-worker’s behaviour.

It seems a British sense of stiff upper lip is prevailing, but perhaps it’s more to do with not stirring up trouble, or fearing recriminations from a difficult colleague.

Paul Avis from Ceridian LifeWorks, who works with companies to improve their HR practice and the wellbeing of employees, says: “There is often a perceived boundary between work and personal issues and many British employees are not comfortable communicating beyond a business level, as
they know they will have to work with their colleagues the next day.” He adds: “It may be they simply do not want to cause offence.”

Line managers should be on the case

It’s line managers who are frequently to blame for not tackling unacceptable behaviour in the first place, he explains. “Many line managers are very comfortable dealing with technical issues, but are ill equipped and ill trained to deal with the people side to being a manager.

“A good line manager who creates a culture of real open and honest communication, who is genuinely interested in the personal wellbeing of their staff, and the effect that it has on work, will have more open employees who engage with each other,” says Avis.

Bad habits in the office are also far more noticeable now than they ever were, and are hence causing a great deal more stress, because of several changes in working practice.

“We now work from home or have open-plan offices and these can undermine traditional social networking. As a result it is easy to see why some employees have tantrums in open spaces, as getting someone into a meeting room would be quite hard without being physical!

“In addition private conversations in meeting rooms, in break-out rooms or at lunch, are often seen as gossiping – while often there are genuine reasons for discussing colleagues and how best to work with them.”

Stress does affect bottom line

The danger is that if what is seen as annoying behaviour is not dealt with, stress levels among a workforce will increase and can lead to absence and poor performance.

The CBI estimates the cost to British business of lost productivity through mental illness and stress to be £5bn, so this is a problem that ultimately affects the bottom line.

So what can be done about perceived gossiping, open slanging matches, or repeatedly lazy colleagues if we’re too shy to come forward and complain?

“Every organisation needs an appropriate and well-developed framework to prevent or to tackle work-place stress,” says Simon McCarthy, Organisational Psychologist. “If your organisation ignores stress or has a culture where mentioning stress is seen as a weakness, sooner or later your company will lose its competitive edge to other organisations where stress is taken seriously.”

So what can you do to avoid getting stressed by your annoying colleagues?

• Be brave enough to speak up. Have an informal word with your colleague. If that doesn’t help, speak to their manager and ask them to address the issues with them.
• Be open and honest in your own dealings with your colleagues. If you’ve got something to say about someone, pluck up courage to say it to them first, not to others.
• Try to be as objective as possible; talk about what you see and hear happening and what you feel about it.
• If you can identify a direct negative impact on productivity, use this information as the key reason to seek a change in behaviour.

You’ll probably find that your colleagues thank you. And if you’re unhappy at work you’ll find more advice at www.happinessatworkindex.co.uk