Team Building Tips

Can't get along with your co-workers?  Before you quickly point out their imperfections, consider that you might annoy them regularly with unprofessional behavior.

Whether talking too loudly or unknowingly upstaging a colleague, here are five surefire ways to annoy office co-workers that every employee should avoid.

1) Forwarding obnoxious emails that you think are funny, but they are not.

How many times at work have you received an email with 15 thousand addresses attached to the top, followed by a zany you tube video or an unfunny silly joke? Perhaps you've received or sent a few hundred of these jewels per year. There is a strong possibility that you are annoying your coworkers. Think about your workplace reputation before you send another irritating email off into web oblivion.

2) Coming to work sick.

Got the sniffles mixed with a phlegm filled cough? Yuck. Stay at home. Very few people want to follow your trail of soiled Kleenex to the office. Whether highly the cold or flu is contagious or not, take the day off and your co-workers will be less annoyed when you return. Spread love, not germs.

3) Talking loudly on the phone at work.

 No one wants to hear you loudly give condolences to your Aunt Lulu because her pet goldfish Henry died. In corporate America's closed-quartered-cubicle-culture you can easily annoy your coworkers with loud talking and non-work related conversations. If you must handle a family emergency or a personal matter, take your discussion outside of the office.

4) Stealing credit from your co-workers.

In a behind-closed-door meeting your boss asks whose idea it was to successfully pitch a new client. You take the credit, when it fact it was your co-worker who planned the win for the team. Instead of applauding your co-worker's initiative during the weekly staff meeting, you receive the credit. Now you've alienated the co-worker and risk the chance of remaining trustworthy in the eyes of your peers. You deserve a one way ticket to Dante's inferno for your sneakiness and disloyalty.

5) Bringing your family or relationship drama into the office.

Stories about the major fight with your boyfriend, the booty call gone wrong or the crazy stalking ex-wife who jumps out of bushes at night are thrilling to you, but will annoy your co-workers. You'll be seen as a co-conspirator with all the psycho people in your love life. Because birds of a feather usually flock together, leave the crazy stories and drama kings or queens locked in your bedroom closet.

Some of your co-workers are far from enamored by your time wasting escapades, loud talking or lack of teamwork. They might not tell you, but secretly your colleagues are wishing your would stop these distracting and annoying behaviors...and get to work!

Mechele Pellebon writes expert career advice for women at http://www.careervanity.com