Whether you think so or not, you're annoying. Maybe not all the time -- maybe not even some of the time -- but at least once in your life, you've annoyed someone.


We asked bosses to tell us what their employees do to irritate them on a daily basis. Straight from the source, here are 11 things you do to annoy your boss:

1. "By far the biggest annoyance is when their actions don't even faintly reflect a minimum level of enthusiasm for a given project and despite being told how excited someone is to be working on something, you wind up with items that either have obvious errors, common sense mistakes or show a minimum of effort.

Bottom line: You can tell when someone has phoned something in, and it's aggravating having to micromanage and go back to fix obvious hiccups that could easily have been prevented. Which always fascinates me: How do people not think you'll notice?" -- Scott Steinberg, CEO, Lead Analyst, TechSavvy Global

2. "Asking the boss to make your life easier.

True story: 'I would like to work from home three days a week. How can you make this happen for me?' This one really ticked off the boss.

Try instead: 'What would I have to do to make telecommuting three days a week possible?' Now you sound like a contributor!" -- Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach.

3. "Consistently going off on personal tangents in meetings. Get organized and get to the point. Time can make or spend money. Which do you think the boss prefers?" -- Nasser

4. "Many of my contract teachers annoy me -- why? They ask things that make me question whether or not they are actually 'all there.' Because of the nature of this job, everything is communicated online. I send VERY detailed e-mails with all the information plus some -- and yet still get silly questions. 'What are the hours again?' 'What days do I work?' Another annoying thing is when I hire a teacher -- and they accept all of the terms and then play the 'I want more money' card because they feel they deserve it.

It also annoys me when I do interviews. I set up a time to interview people and they don't answer their phones. Or they don't include their number in their confirmation e-mail. Make my life a little easier -- please and thank you." -- Jillian Zavitz, programs manager, TalktoCanada.com


"When I was an HR Director and now, when I'm a career coach, what annoys me a lot was/is:

5. Questions asked before information was presented (because the answer was usually in the presentation.)

6. Employees who 'miss' the spirit of the issue and make literal (unimportant) statements or who respond with the 'rules' because they miss the point.

7. Employees who make no effort to get along with others in the department and look for faults.

8. Employees who forget that no matter what their job is, they work in a business that needs to make money."

-- Bettina Seidman, Career Coach, SEIDBET Associates

9. "An employee who consistently, day after day, arrives a few minutes late and/or leaves a few minutes early. [Also], when an employee's personal cell phone rings. I don't mind if it buzzes or vibrates, but I ask that all ringers be turned off." -- Alexander Seinfeld, Executive Director, Jewish Spiritual Literacy, Inc.

10. "Where do I start? I own a boutique public relations agency, and the most irritating thing my employees do is they do not check their work. I've told them innumerable times how to compose successful e-mails to clients and press, and each time they write an e-mail it's like the first time all over again. Spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes, missing info -- even though they've seen me craft identical e-mails dozens of times, could simply use spell check, and do a quick re-read to find and fix their errors. It's beyond irritating, especially because it's so preventable. It's gotten to the point that I have to write every e-mail for them before they can send it -- even when it's as simple as 'Hi there, I just wanted to check in to make sure you received the package we sent you last week' -- otherwise it will be filled with errors." -- Samantha Slaven-Bick, Samantha Slaven Publicity

11. "Working in numerous radio stations, I've been supervisor and trainer to many newcomers. The one main thing that positively drove me crazy was that people would come to me with questions before they'd even attempted to find the answers on their own. It was the largest red flag of laziness. I'm always happy to answer questions, but if you have no ability to answer them yourself or seek out the answers yourself, why did we hire you into your role, again? -- Natalie Nicole Gilbert