Sure, it may seem like a minor thing to you, but if you’re pulling out your phone while talking to someone, you’re almost certainly getting on their nerves by doing so. According to a survey conducted by late academic PM Forni, co-founder of the Johns Hopkins Civility Project, and the University of Baltimore’s Jacob France Institute, using a cell phone mid-conversation was named among the top 10 rudest behaviors by survey respondents. And if you want to curb those bad habits, Almost Half of Americans Won’t Date Someone Who Does This. It may not bother you, but that noise you’re letting your whole workplace hear during online meetings is definitely annoying to everyone else. According to an April 2020 survey conducted by answering service company Moneypenny, among 800 full-time office workers polled, not muting during meetings was identified as the most annoying habit their coworkers engaged in. You may like the scent of that new fragrance, but that doesn’t mean everyone around you does. According to a survey conducted by Stratus Building Solutions, 51 percent of individuals polled said they’d found themselves olfactorily offended by a coworker’s fragrance, making it the most annoying or distracting behavior among those polled. However, not all bad behaviors are entirely your fault: You May Have Your In-Laws to Blame For This Bad Habit, Study Says. Of course, you want to get your point across, but using all capital letters isn’t the way to do it—and doing so is definitely annoying other people. According to a 2020 study from HR tech company Perkbox, 67 percent of respondents said that getting an email with all caps in it was annoying to them. Think that purse is too precious to sit on your lap? Make no mistake: taking up an extra seat with your bag is annoying others. In fact, according to a 2018 survey conducted by the Japan Private Railway Association, respondents named this the most annoying behavior they saw on public transportation. And for more great information delivered to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
We all have days when we’re eager to share a personal victory, but don’t know how to bring it up without sounding like we’re patting ourselves on the back. Unfortunately, in many cases, what comes out is worse: the humblebrag, or “backdoor brag,” a way of boasting without outright saying what you’re proud of. For instance: “I had to hire a housekeeper because my new house is just too big for me to take care of alone.”
Despite what many people seem to think, there are rules for using an escalator. Unless you really want to annoy other people, move to the right when you’re standing still, and stick to the left side if you’re walking up or down.
Just because you’re in a rush to get your morning coffee doesn’t mean that’s an excuse to be rude. However, despite our best intentions, many of us still place an order—in cafés, in bars, in restaurants—with, “Can I get a…?” instead of the more polite, “May I please have…?”
If someone holds the door for you, it’s your job to grab it and hold it for the next person. Unfortunately, when we’re in a rush, many of us forget about this crucial etiquette rule, leaving the person who held the door for us initially to play de facto doorman for another 10 people before getting a break. However, you also don’t want to hold the door open for someone who’s too far away, forcing that person to speed up to receive your kind gesture.
Sometimes, you’re so in love with a new significant other or so wrapped up in a conversation with your friends, you don’t want to stop walking in step with them. But this presents a very annoying situation for practically any pedestrian near you: They either have to slow down to walk at your pace or try to get around you (often to no avail).
We all sing along to songs sometimes, regardless of our actual skill level. However, the one thing more annoying than listening to someone’s off-key rendition of “Don’t Stop Believin’” is listening to them try to deliver an American Idol-worthy performance when the rest of you are just goofing off.
Sure, we all have those times when bringing the cart back to the store seems like more trouble than it’s worth. That said, there’s virtually nothing more annoying than finding the perfect parking spot in front of a store only to realize it’s already occupied by someone’s runaway cart.
No matter what your job, your family situation, or your list of hobbies is, chances are, you consider yourself a pretty busy person. If you’re constantly talking about how busy you are, however, it comes across as the most annoying kind of humblebrag.
Why is it that people in offices forget their manners with such shocking frequency? Tapping your foot under your desk does more than create distracting noise; it also has a tendency to shake whatever’s on your coworkers’ desks.
We’ve all been there: You’re in a hurry to get into the store before it closes and you wind up parking your car a little too close to the line in the parking lot—or, worse yet, over it. Unfortunately, when you do this, you might just be the one who pays the price, in dings or scratches on your precious ride.
Whether it’s a forgetful habit or just a lazy one, we’ve all been guilty of putting an empty container back in the fridge after you’ve taken the last bite or sip, setting someone else up for disappointment down the line.
“Reply All” is a great function when you’re working on a group project or delivering information to your whole family in one fell swoop. However, in most settings, there’s no reason to send your response to everyone on an email chain: Thanking your boss for your holiday bonus doesn’t need to be something the whole office sees.
So, you’re at the grocery store and you realize that you just picked up the wrong kind of bread. What do you do? Unfortunately, for many of us, the answer is, stick it on any nearby shelf and hope someone finds it. We all get surprised and scared at the movies from time to time. That said, we know better than to scream, “Don’t go in there!” at the screen—or at least, we should.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Come on. The sign overhead says 10 items! All you have to do is count up to 10! Why is this so hard?
It’s fine to talk at the gym, but taking a phone call is particularly annoying. The gym is a meditative space for plenty of people, meaning that petty argument you’re having with your spouse is just about the last thing they want to hear. It takes mere seconds to replace a roll of toilet paper when you’ve used the last of it. If you leave an empty roll or just place a new one on top of the old one, make no mistake: You’re guilty of some seriously annoying behavior.
Just because your jam comes on doesn’t mean it’s time to sing along. There is an even greater offense out there, however: humming. Nobody’s ever thought, “This song would sound so much better if it was kind of amelodic and had no words.”
“RSVP by” dates are there for a reason. If you’re leaving your RSVP until the last minute or not RSVPing at all, you’re definitely holding up the hosts and possibly guaranteeing yourself a spot on next year’s “don’t invite” list.
Unless you think it’s hilarious to have someone else fall into toilet water, it’s time to start putting the toilet seat down—and the lid, too, for that matter.
We’ve all had that moment of realization while walking when we remember something we needed to do and it stops us in our tracks. Unfortunately, it’s always pretty annoying for the person behind you who’s forced to suddenly navigate around your stationary form or risk bumping straight into you.
That corn kernel stuck in your teeth from earlier is annoying. The only thing more annoying? Watching you pick it out.
It’s not always easy to tell how loud your music is when you’ve got your headphones on. The sound of the beat blasting out of someone else’s earbuds, however, is never not incredibly irritating to hear.
Sometimes, you just don’t feel like blowing your nose. But while loudly honking into a tissue isn’t exactly cute, nonstop sniffing is infinitely more irritating to those around you.
It’s totally understandable that you’d want two armrests—you do have two arms, after all. Still, you never want to be the person who’s always stealing both sides. You get one to yourself, and the other’s for sharing.
Whether you’re slurping soup or taking big bites of a salad, we’ve all been guilty of eating loudly at one point or another. And if you’re a person who smacks their lips or kind of moans when something’s really delicious, someone out there is definitely annoyed by your dining habits. People will do virtually anything in pursuit of the perfect Instagram photo. Regrettably, that often means taking up the entire width of a city block to do so, slowing down everybody else in the process.
Do texts sometimes come in when you’re on the sidewalk? Of course. Does it annoy your fellow pedestrians when you keep bumping into them because you refuse to look up from your phone? Also yes.
Everyone wants to talk about themselves—it’s just human nature. That said, if you find yourself talking about your personal life when you went over to a friend’s house to console them about a breakup or a death in the family, you’re definitely guilty of an annoying habit you should break, stat.
Lines are pretty simple: You stand behind the next person until you reach where you’re going. That said, we’ve all been guilty of trying to add to lines in our own creative ways, whether that means creating a perpendicular line or deciding that the existing line is suddenly double-file or just straight-up cutting, which is frankly the rudest.
Just because you’ve mostly mastered the art of standing in line doesn’t mean you’re free of annoying in-line habits. Case in point: all of those people who will get so close to you in a checkout line that you can feel their breath on your neck. It’s a shame that pens are so fun to click over and over, because there are few sounds more infuriating, particularly in close quarters like an office.
We’re well into the 21st century—there’s no excuse to keep your read receipts on at this point, especially if you’re not going to respond to the texts you’re opening. Unless, of course, you’re just trying to make it clear to specific people that you’re deliberately ignoring them.
It’s always annoying to find yourself waiting for what seems like an interminable amount of time to find an elevator you can squeeze yourself into. But no matter how rushed you are, there’s no excuse to not let the people inside get off first.
If you start a sentence with “no offense,” you’re just queuing up some offensive thought. And unsurprisingly, it’s annoying!
We all have those days when we just can’t seem to get anywhere on time. That said, if you’re consistently late, it’s pretty annoying for all of the people waiting on you. Commonly known as “vague-booking,” posting cryptic statuses on social media about your life has to be one of the most annoying habits of all time. Seriously, you took the time to write, “You know what you did,” but won’t tell any of your rapt audience? Come on!
Those who follow strict etiquette rules will tell you that chewing gum is a pretty major faux pas in the first place. If you’re also snapping it while you chew, you’re definitely making everyone around you annoyed, too.
Those nicknames you have for your significant other and close friends are cute. Calling your coworker “sweetie” or “hon,” however, is nothing short of annoying. Not to mention a potential HR violation.
That batch of steamed broccoli or reheated salmon that you decided to bring to work has to be one of the greatest olfactory office offenses. There are few things more irritating—or nauseating—than having the entire office fill up with the scent of someone’s questionable cuisine.
We get it: You’re tired and a little distracted after a hard workout. That said, unless you’re trying to get yourself banned from the gym, it really is your responsibility to personally wipe your sweat off the machines.
Unless someone asks you about your diet, odds are they don’t really have much interest in hearing about it. Your friends probably get the gist of going vegan or ditching gluten. They don’t need you rattling off everything you ate last week.
Is new love special and magical? Of course! Is it really, really, really annoying for someone else to hear why you think your significant other has the world’s most perfect calves? Absolutely.
While science has yet to confirm it, virtually everyone can attest to the fact that the sounds made by another person’s phone in public are at least 1,000 times more irritating than the sounds made by their own devices.
Sure, everyone gets flustered from time to time when they reach the counter after waiting in a long line. However, unless you’re consciously trying to annoy everyone behind you, there’s no reason to not know what you’re getting by the time you reach the front of the line—even if you can’t see the menu, this is what smartphones are for! Want to avoid putting other people off? This One Question You Always Ask Can Kill a Conversation, Experts Say.
