The Journal Times Online - Racine, Wisconsin

Full-time employees usually spend a lot of time at the office, and interacting with co-workers, while necessary, can be trying.

In staffing firm Randstad USA’s survey of employee pet peeves, office gossip was the top vote-getter, with 60 percent of respondents citing it their primary irritant.

Office workers were also vexed by co-workers’ poor time management skills, with 54 percent naming that most annoying, while 45 percent of respondents cited messy common areas.

"Open workplaces are becoming more prevalent," said Eric Buntin, managing director of marketing and operations at Randstad. "A lot of the pet peeves deal with workplace intrusion ... with how people are interacting with each other on a frequent basis. It’s not an individual job anymore, it’s a shared work environment."

Other workplace annoyances:

- Strong smells, such as food, perfume or smoke: 42 percent.

- Loud noises — yellers, cell phone rings or speakerphones: 41 percent.

- Overuse of phones and other personal communications devices in meetings: 28 percent.

- E-mail abuse: 22 percent.

Randstad’s unscientific survey was conducted by Harris Interactive in July. Respondents were U.S. adults who agreed to participate in the online panel.