Well, maybe one or two - not wanting to generalize here. Thanks to fellow blogger Andy who provided me with a ton of laughter last night, I'm feeling much more chipper today. And thanks to my latest bathroom reading I've got more food for my giggles today.

Ran across a fun article on the office jerk and things that annoy us. Seems that my grievances aren't so far fetched as CareerBuilder actually did a real live survey about just this thing.

There are a few of us in the office less than happy about the fact that when we arrive in the morning, the coffeepot is either empty or has one cup left in it. Either way the person being lucky enough to arrive first has to make another pot. How rude! (My best Stephanie Tanner impersonation yet) We've tried sending threatening emails but the practice has not ceased. Perhaps we could ready the pot for the next day and lace the grounds with some ex-lax. That'll teach'em.

Same goes for stealing food/drinks whatever out of the fridge. I know who the culprit is and one time I actually caught him red handed. He walked by my office with one of my V-8's in his hands, looked at me sheepishly and said, "You don't mind do you?" Uhm. Yeah, I do. Unfortunately he's part-owner of the company so I wasn't sure what to do. I quietly seethed and watched the remaining cans of V-8 disappear after that. I'm contemplating a personal fridge for my office.

Oh! It irritates me to no end when I am on the phone, someone enters my office and just stands there. To me this says, "I don't care that you are on the phone - I am way more important." How rude! I try to ignore them in the hopes they will eventually just give up and leave; it's tough carrying on a conversation with someone staring at you though.

The other side of that coin is when you're in a meeting (that you deem important, or else why bother having the meeting?) and the phone rings. Instead of letting voice mail get it - they pick it up. And then - it's even worse if they put up the index finger to indicate "one second" - which invariably turns into 5-10 minutes . So in other words - whatever is on my mind really doesn't matter anyway, so they might as well pick up the phone. How rude!

Such rudeness in the workplace (and I could go on and on) is probably not a new phenomenon, I just seem to notice it more the older I get. Perhaps I still have some old school etiquette left in me, who knows. It goes against my nature to take other people's food from the fridge, interrupt phone conversations or meetings, take the last of anything (coffee or the last piece of pizza/cake whatever - all qualify) or generally be an annoying co-worker and human.

I wonder if they make funny posters I could hang in our common kitchen? I will go on the hunt right now. Ha!