A new research study by thinkmoney reveals that employees consider annoying colleagues as their biggest source of frustration in the workplace.

Top gripes also include patronising co-workers, loud talkers, and people who eat noisy or smelly food. These distractions can affect an employee’s productivity, which can be detrimental to the business.

Employees are also affected by the physical conditions of the office. For instance, lack of access to natural light and unstable temperature settings in the building have also been cited as barriers to performance.

Pointless meetings full of jargon frustrate many employees, especially when they are forced to sit through them. Furthermore, two-thirds of workers are unhappy in their roles because of the mismatch between their responsibilities and the compensation received in terms of appreciation and remuneration.

Workers are also affected by the lack of integrity and unreliability observed in the behaviour of some of their colleagues. For example, employees that came in late and left early were deemed to be particularly irritating. Similarly, dishonesty and untrustworthiness were also leading causes of frustration among staff, particularly when it came to attendance.

The attendance problem is endemic at several workplaces with managers reporting instances of workers who clock in at the wrong time, or in some cases, get someone else to clock in for them.

Buddy fraud and tardy employees can cost firms a significant amount of money. The Mitrefinch biometric time and attendance technology can prevent these practices among employees by ensuring everyone is paid only for the hours they actually worked.