Pet Peeves

Thanks to a new survey, we can now form a mental picture of the worst co-worker in the world: He or she talks too loudly on the phone (and overuses the speaker phone), constantly complains about assignments, forms cliques with colleagues, is late for work and meetings, chews gum, eats noisily and/or smelly foods, takes cigarette breaks and doesn’t respond to e-mails. Those habits, in that order, were the ones deemed most annoying by office workers who responded to a recent survey on the TrueCareers Web site.