An employee’s antisocial habits can drive their colleagues to distraction. How do you stop irritation spiralling into conflict? You might have employees who annoy colleagues by doing such things as singing to themselves, making loud personal phone calls or leaving smelly gym equipment under their desk.

These may seem minor irritations, but if you don’t act they can become major problems, as Afsheen Latif finds out.

“Bad habits such as untidiness and a lack of personal hygiene can cause offence at work,” says Dr Jaafar El-Murad, lecturer at Westminster Business School. “Too many long personal phone calls can also be annoying, not only because it means the person isn’t working, but also because it distracts others.”

Irritating behaviour tends to be magnified by modern open-plan offices, where a lot of people can be affected by one person’s thoughtlessness. But traditional shared spaces, such as kitchens and toilets, are also hotspots for annoyance. Common annoying habits include allowing food to go mouldy in a communal fridge or leaving used mugs, plates and cutlery to stack up in a sink.

Unless such issues are dealt with by managers, they can easily become a source of tension between colleagues and even escalate into open conflict. Some may also have health and safety implications, and touch on an employer’s duty of care towards their employees.

Taking action

“Ultimately, anti-social habits in the workplace are the responsibility of senior managers – they need to act,” El-Murad stresses. “Have a policy that provides guidance on what is and isn’t acceptable and get all employees to sign up to it. This will give everyone clarity on where you stand on anti-social habits. The document can be referred to easily in the event of a problem.”

Most situations can be resolved by having a quiet word with offenders. “Deal with things quickly,” advises Stephan Lucks, occupational psychologist at workplace consultancy Pearn Kandola. “Take the person to one side and have an informal chat in private.”

Timing is important. “You don’t necessarily need to tell somebody they’re doing something annoying after the first occurrence – it may be a one-off,” adds Lucks. “But don’t wait too long either. The offender might find your criticism hard to deal with or feel uncomfortable that you didn’t bring it up sooner.”

If employees fall out over anti-social habits, failure to act might mean a small problem escalates. “Make employees aware that it is their behaviour that counts, even if they don’t deliberately intend to annoy others.

“If, after having an informal chat, the problem persists, you will need to initiate formal grievance procedures,” he concludes.

What you can do:

• Create an office conduct policy – ideally with the help of staff – and ask employees to sign up to it.

• Encourage people to speak up when they have a problem with a colleague’s behaviour.

• Train managers to handle difficult conversations with employees.

• Have clear discipline and grievance procedures for dealing with conflict.
 
• Consider introducing conflict management training, or locate an outside organisation that can act as a mediator.

• Address problems early. If you allow the situation to fester, it will increase the bad feeling between colleagues and escalate into open conflict.

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