How often do you complain about work? Our survey for working animal charity, SPANA, revealed that the average employee spends the equivalent of 2 working weeks a year grumbling. One in 20 will start moaning the minute they step foot in the office. Another 15% admitted they ‘whinge all day long’.
The survey of 2,000 office workers also identified the most common grumbles people have with the most common being getting a call 5 minutes before you’re about to leave for the day. Other top gripes included IT, air con and unnecessary emails.
IT issues form a major part of the top 50 list of grumbles – as workers complain about computers which are too slow or crash, printers jamming or breaking down and a bad phone signal.
The poll also found two-thirds of people are most likely to grumble to other colleagues but most are unlikely to do anything about their work worries – with more than two thirds owning up to the fact they wouldn’t confront a colleague who was annoying them.
Seven in 10 admitted they often feel irritable at work, and 52% admitting their whole working day can be ruined by just a few ‘bugbears’.
Other factors that affect how good a day is going to be include what the traffic is like on the way in (35%), and how much work there is to do (43%).
A further quarter say their day is affected by whether or not the boss is going to be in, while 27% say how early they wake up can ruin the day ahead.
The survey was part of a campaign with our partners, 72Point, who also produced a video to accompany the story. The campaign achieved widespread print and digital media coverage including in both the print and online editions of The Daily Mail, The Metro, The Sun as well as online on of The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, The Mirror, CityAM, Unilad and many more!
