Laughing Matters: The Grass Is Never Greener

What annoys you?

A boss who doesn't respect you? A colleague who interrupts your meetings as if to say, "Whatever you're working on isn't as important as what I want"? The unknown cretin who takes the last cup of coffee from the pot without making more? Idiotic columnists who ask rhetorical questions?

If you answered "yes" to any of these, you're part of a large and growing segment of American workers who find that more and more things tick them off. According to a survey by CareerBuilder.com, more than half of employees in U.S. companies say they "feel like they work with a bunch of monkeys."

And nearly half of respondents who report that they work with annoying individuals plan to change jobs within 12 months. Chances are, though, they'll find equally exasperating colleagues wherever they land. The only way to ensure that you don't have to work with irritating people is to start your own one-person business and hope like hell you don't have any customers.

Just what are the behaviors CareerBuilder.com identified as irksome, galling, nettlesome or vexatious? Consider these examples:

• The guy who steals his co-workers' food from the lunchroom refrigerator and then acts baffled when asked about it.

• The employee who changed his job title -- without his boss's approval -- to make himself seem more important.

• The manager who likes to cut his fingernails while standing in a colleague's cubicle.

• The employee who constantly e-mails her co-worker even though he's sitting right next to her.