The ten biggest office miscues

No one for all, all for none: this is roughly how the results of a survey conducted throughout Europe could be summarized. Even though the study mentioned above was actually about "IT satisfaction in European companies," some of the answers suggest that the dream of (IT-supported) teamwork has been shattered - in favor of the office mores that still prevail.

Sharing information? Missing

For example, almost half (46 percent) of respondents say that comprehensive sharing of information is not a matter of course in their day-to-day work. This means that one of the most important basic prerequisites for successful collaboration is not in place or is only in place to a limited extent - which in turn leads to inefficient workflows and has a negative impact on the company balance sheet. Just under 38 percent of employees blame this primarily on the technical equipment, which makes it difficult to share information with colleagues.

Watch out, colleague pig

The study also reveals a number of ego-related behaviors that dominate everyday office life and explicitly counteract the team concept. These include behaviors with serious consequences, such as a lack of care with passwords, which have a detrimental effect on the company's success. However, trivial and equally annoying habits that gradually lead to bad moods among colleagues also cause great damage in the long run. Empty printer trays, for example, are frequently mentioned here because a colleague has once again failed to refill the paper tray - this is something that one in two (50 percent) experience on a regular basis, and a further 23 percent admit to frequently failing to refill the paper tray themselves.

The top 10 office miscues:

1. Forgetting printed pages in the printer tray (84 percent)
2. Secretly changing the temperature of heating/air conditioning (79 percent)
3. Do not refill paper in the printer (73 percent)
4. Move documents/change folder structures arbitrarily (70 percent)
5. Password and access data wasted (64 percent)
6. Continue to work on own to-dos in meetings (61 percent)
7. Interrupting others (58 percent)
8. Ignoring technical problems with shared devices (54 percent)
9. Changing templates or not adhering to specifications (49 percent)
10. Important information is not shared (46 percent)

Swallowing anger or venting it?

Although they regularly suffer from these behaviors on the part of their colleagues, 27 percent of those surveyed still prefer to simply look past them and swallow their anger. 26 percent call the responsible colleague to account by e-mail, if possible, or complain to others. Another 21 percent stick a note at the scene or in a place in the office that is clearly visible to everyone. Things are apparently particularly uncompromising in the area of human resources management: Here, 35 percent of those surveyed stated that they prefer to vent their anger by notifying their supervisor directly. "Almost every employee knows such behaviors from personal experience and accepts the associated annoyances and disadvantages as part of working life," says Alexander Hermann, Vice President at Sharp Information Systems Europe. "If you look behind the scenes, however, we are dealing with a serious problem here: The team spirit suffers considerably or, in the worst case, is non-existent. If serious problems such as a lack of information exchange are added to the mix, a company as a whole quickly finds itself on the losing side. So it's imperative that companies create the best possible conditions to ensure this exchange - This applies to the physical working environment as well as the technical equipment and the corporate culture as a whole, which should focus on the employees."

Source and further information:  Sharp

Detailed results of the study are available here.