Brookman Solicitors recently conducted a relationships survey revealing the most annoying habits displayed in relationships. It highlighted how the ‘little things’ bother and annoy us the most and could be just the thing ruining your relationship. Often the habits annoying your partner the most stem from people’s workplace behaviours. Therefore it’s important to know what these behaviours are and, even more importantly, how you as an employer can prevent adoption of these bad habits at work and subsequently stop employees also bringing such bad habits back home.
Clean up after yourself
It’s easy to become accustomed to having a cleaner at work picking up after you when you leave a dirty mug on your desk or drop something on the floor, but you cannot take this mindset back home. As an employer to prevent such laziness in your workforce it’s important you instill a clear-up-after-yourself culture, you could implement this by providing bins, areas to wash up, a cleaning rota and include such expectations in employee inductions which will all do wonders in eradicating such bad habits.
Stop yapping
Becoming too obsessed with your work can easily infiltrate into the home – talking constantly about work to your partner will quickly frustrate your loved one and this behaviour was voted as one of the top most annoying habits in relationships within the survey. It’s vital as an employer to promote balanced communication and ensure no particular individual is dominating the office’s conversations or decisions as well as ensuring the amount of conversation at work is healthy but not too the extent that chatting overtakes productivity.
Manage your anger
Interestingly Brookman Solicitors’ relationship survey has unveiled anger management, for example having a short temper, as one of the top worst habits people found that their partners have. Certainly, work can be stressful at times and this can result in employees taking out their work frustrations on those closest to them such as their colleagues, family, friends or partner, which can have damaging effects on relationships and family dynamics. If you identify signs of stress or anger in an employee you need to take action. It’s recommended as an employer you have a one-to-one chat with the individual to see how they are coping or to establish if they are struggling with their workload or a particular deadline, this conversation will help confirm the problem and identify a potential solution if there is something going on behind the scenes.
Help employees’ improve their eating habits
Snacking is a bad habit prominent in office desk jobs where it is very convenient to snack your way through the day. Snacking can be caused by many reasons such as boredom or stress. Nevertheless no matter what the reason is for snacking it tends to have a domino effect once one person brings out a snack in the office this leads to a downward spiral for the whole team. This behaviour often creeps into home life as your stomach has expanded and subsequently expects more food, this combined snacking habit both at work and at home can have a negative impact on your employee’s health. You cannot control what your workforce bring in from home to eat however you can make office adaptations that encourage a more healthier lifestyle such as removing snack trolleys and vending machines or switching these to only have healthier options, this will assist in removing the temptation for a quick chocolate bar, fizzy drink or a packet of crisps.
Switch off
It is easy to let your work overtake your home life with the rise of technology and the societal expectation that everyone should be available constantly online. A simple reply to a work email here and there can quickly get out of hand and disrupt your work life balance. The recent relationships survey revealed 75% of respondents believe technology has a negative effect on their relationship. As an organisation you must respect employee’s private time such as weekends or when they are on holiday and only contact them regarding work related questions if necessary. This ensures your workforce have time to switch off which will make them more motivated when they return to work and will help prevent any tensions with their loved ones back home who would like quality time with their partner or family member. 
