10 Types of Coworkers That Drive Us Crazy

I am one of those rare people who is married to their job out of love. Even the weekly brainstorming sessions bring me joy. I find pleasure in everything: meeting deadlines, the divine fury that the director unleashes on the department, but what brings special delight is the occasional flare-up of hatred towards colleagues. Don’t get me wrong, they are brilliant people, but everyone has their quirks that become triggers over time. Inspired by this dislike for certain types, I decided to tell you about the office stereotypes that annoy us the most. Maybe you will find some of your coworkers among them.

The Office Hamster

This coworker is constantly on the lookout for something to eat. They are hungry from the morning, and by the middle of the workday, they become as voracious as a shrew. Never show them your lunch container brought from home!

It’s worth noting that they prefer food with a strong smell, not something bland like kefir. So, if the Office Hamster is eating alone, the stench can fill the entire department.

The Social Butterfly

If you work in a young team, making friends is like the meaning of life. You might go to a local bar with someone after work, or someone might become your best friend for life, with whom you discuss former colleagues even after leaving the job. But when a Social Butterfly appears in the office, the work process starts to lag. This coworker is excessively friendly and wants to impose their company on everyone, not just after work but also during working hours.

They might have all the traits of a good friend: giving advice, sympathizing with you if your day is going badly, and being sensitive to your feelings. The only difference between you and them is that they feel this way about everyone and bring up their problems at the most inappropriate moments.

The Stream of Consciousness

The Stream of Consciousness is a coworker with an important mission: to burn hearts with words! This type includes colleagues who are convinced that their important opinion on any matter should interest everyone. Did someone post news about new parking rules in the work chat? They will express their opinion, even if they don’t have a car. Did someone forget an umbrella in the hallway? They will inevitably make an unfunny joke about forgetful people. In short, they just want to have the last word. This is a separate art form for the Stream of Consciousness.

The Privileged Friend

A stumbling block for office well-being, a source of toxic atmosphere, and a real pain in the neck is a coworker with whom you had something… Just a month ago, you had a romance and you flew to work on the wings of love, but today your friendship with benefits is in the past, leaving only awkwardness that interferes with normal life and work. If you are adequate people, you know that what happened in bed stays in bed, and at the office, only professionalism remains. But most often, the situation turns out badly: coldness when seeing each other, resentment, anger, and, God forbid, unrequited love that the whole team talks about. You can safely quit or start pushing your ex-lover out of the workplace.

The Free Spirit

This type is not encountered very often, but those who have had the chance to work with them will definitely recognize them from the description. The Free Spirit is the cause of stagnation in the team. They love to drink, so they never miss corporate parties; they start philosophizing when they need to work; they constantly make mistakes; they come when they want, due to frequent dates with the Green Fairy, causing material damage to the office. In other words, they corrupt the work atmosphere in every possible way.

Oh, if only the demonstration of free thinking ended all the problems! But no, the Free Spirit also drags colleagues into their celebration of life, constantly seeks fun, and does not accept refusals, because their main trait is uncompromisingness. As a result, you drink to love, and you get reprimanded, because they are a creative, unpredictable nature, what can you take from them?

Cover for Me

The most hated type for me is the coworker who constantly needs someone to cover for them. They can make mistakes out of nowhere and ask you to help them. Just as a friend, of course. If they are late, they beg you to lie to the boss, come up with a ridiculous legend, and defend their professionalism in front of others. This person constantly needs to go somewhere, borrow money, explain how to do their job, but in front of the boss, they are a master of their craft, and you can’t say anything because you covered for them.

The Open Book

This type tells all the details of their personal life when no one even asks them. They are sincerely convinced that everyone is interested in what is happening in their family and relationships, in what positions they and their partner like to make love, and what an unbearable burden it is to pay the bills themselves.

The Open Book is not embarrassed to talk about their health and physiology, stubbornly not noticing the embarrassment of others. But what remains a mystery is whether they are pretending to be poor or simply do not notice how skillfully they cross the boundaries of other people’s comfort zones.

The Great Critic

The Great Critic is a coworker endowed with divine knowledge not available to others, so they try to share it with everyone, give paternal advice. They themselves have never risen above an ordinary position, but they know that people around them work incorrectly! Chronically, the Great Critic is dissatisfied with their own position, and their complaints and rude comments about other people’s work are called constructive criticism. If not them, then who will raise Russia from its knees?

The Cutesy Pie

The Cutesy Pie is a special creature that can appear in any office. Most often, this is a female who uses diminutive suffixes in their speech. They say things like “eat an apple,” “open the window,” “hello,” “goodbye.” It’s completely unclear what causes this stream of endless cuteness, but it is this harmless coworker who annoys the most.

Ironically, a person who, it seems, consists of ponies and rainbows, is perceived by others as universal evil. No matter how much good they bring to the work atmosphere, it will annoy you because: “Life is shit. Why are you so good?”.

The Sex Symbol

It might seem that there is nothing wrong with a handsome coworker strutting around the office. But every coin has two sides. The Sex Symbol is a very attractive coworker whose physical talents have already been appreciated by the entire female half of the team. They are always well-dressed, perfumed, and their body says: “Yes, I do fitness seven days a week, baby.” Next to the Sex Symbol, you don’t notice how you start flirting and even inviting them on a date, hoping that something will happen between you.

What’s wrong with such a coworker? The fact that it’s impossible to work next to them, except maybe in the movies… All thoughts are focused on concentrating internal eroticism: how not to take them right here, on the work desk.