I find it mildly infuriating that some coworkers think entering a break room gives them license to play loud music over speakers, use obscene language (especially to and about other coworkers), and disrupt the fifteen minutes of peace and quiet some of us crave in the workplace.
I also can’t stand the fact that smokers can take unlimited ‘breaks’ whenever they please just to come back stinking up an entire room with their smoke.
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I’m missing something… what about this photo makes your coworkers terrible?
They didn’t put the paper towels in the center of the table.
OP added context. Their work colleagues relax on their breaks in a different way than OP does and this is the end of the world apparently. Everyone must sit in silence, no music, no swearing, no smoke breaks. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that OP isn’t exactly well liked by their colleagues…
To be fair, people should wear their fucking headphones.
I do agree with OP on the thing about smokers though. You shouldn’t get special privileges just because you’re a drug addict.
Maybe OP should just go out for smoke breaks and not actually smoke
Lmao! Do you call tea and coffee drinkers “drug addicts” too?! Yup, smoke breaks should either be deducted from the allotted lunch break, or all employees should be allowed to step outside for 5 mins or whatever.
I’m sorry but comparing coffee/tea to nicotine is like comparing OTC Tylenol to illegally obtained oxycodone.
It depends on how often they use their drug and how they act about it. If you can’t function and treat people like shit because you haven’t had your coffee/tea yet, you’re a drug addict.
This is an emotionally manipulative tactic, and not a great look. It’s no different than calling copyright infringement “theft”, abortion “murder”, or someone who speeds a “criminal”.
Note that you’re not wrong. People that get cranky if they don’t get enough caffeine are probably feeling some withdrawals from it, and caffeine is a drug, but calling those people “drug addicts” leverages the emotional connotation from it’s more colloquial usage. If you can’t support your stance without emotional manipulation, you don’t have much of a stance, yeah?
Who am I manipulating? It’s just my opinion.
I can still work while drinking coffee or tea. Smokers get to go outside and smoke for 10-15 minutes while NOT working and get paid for that time.
go outside for a break then. who says youre not a smoker?
r/whoooosh
Your comment is full of massive assumptions about OP. Some people don’t want to hear loud music and want noise to be at a volume where they can actually think and focus. There isn’t anything wrong with that. Is it the end of the world? no, is it mildly infuriating for OP? yes. The post fits.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that OP isn’t exactly well liked by their colleagues…
I’m not nearly insecure enough to need the validation of other people to function; that’s a weak disease.
You’re not sorry and I’m not offended. There’s no need for fake platitudes on the internet.
Are you neurodivergent by any chance? Aside from smokers getting extra work breaks, the things you’re complaining about are not mildly infuriating, they’re other people’s personal choices that don’t impact your ability to do your job. They’re examples of completely normal experiences that nearly everyone has to deal with - mild annoyances at best. You don’t get to police what people do on their breaks. You don’t get to police what people do to their bodies. You don’t get to police what language people use when talking amongst themselves.
If you’re so offended by bad language and music, wear some noise cancelling headphones on your break. That will have to added bonus of stopping people from talking to you at all, so you can get that decompression time you need in order to do your job properly. You should definitely start taking your own non-smoking smoke breaks if your boss/HR won’t address the issue of smokers getting additional break time.
Focus on the things that you can change to make your work environment more palatable because that’s all you can control. And try not to be so judgemental. You may not say it out loud but I’m positive your colleagues can feel your distain for them, and that won’t help foster a mutually respectful environment at all. Good luck.
You’re disagreeing, but that shouldn’t invalidate what mildly infuriates people. What mildly infuriates one person, doesn’t mildly infuriate another.
You’re talking like everyone has the same feelings about things, which isn’t the case at all. I don’t like this habit people are engaging in where because something doesn’t bother you another person isn’t allowed to be bothered by it.
Having people blast out music on a bus is mildly infuriating to me, so is people talking really loud. The misophonia probably doesn’t help but in my eyes that is mildly infuriating and it is to other people.
I love running into people like you. Cream of the crop.
Disgraceful.
I bet they left the washup sponge in the sink as well.
And the sugar spoon in the coffee. That may be a UK thing only though.
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oh, uh… Rod did that too? hmm
The post pertains to break room etiquette. The header image is a break room.
Workers taking smoke breaks is fine. Anything that gives workers more breaks is good. You can takethose breaks too. Just tell them its a smoke break. If management says anything, tell them you have just as much need for it as anyone who smokes. Don’t get mad at your fellow workers. Get mad at the employer.
As a former smoker I can relate to both sides. Cigs are pointless crap and I hate them even when I’m smoker myself (I went out of addiction and back several times over years).
Having short breaks for smoke or whatever else is perfectly fine for me, unless everyone do their job. For me personally they’re help, not distraction. If smokers have a special privilege for some reason, it’s super stupid, but that’s on the employee, not smokers.
i used to call them passive smokos
Anything that gives workers more breaks is good.
You’ve got me there; lung cancer and heart disease do make for irrefutable excuses to cut out.
Anyway, my complaint was more about the smell of smoke and how it lingers on clothes and in the air for nonsmokers. It wasn’t mentioned in-post, but I’m constantly hearing wet coughs as well, which is both disruptive to my workflow and is just gross (especially in a post-pandemic work environment where people refuse to even cover their mouths or use sanitizer anymore).
Wow. You’re really sensitive to external stimuli, huh? Even just hearing someone cough disrupts your entire workflow? You know that’s not typical, right?
Second hand smoke CAN actually make you sick, even if it just hangs in their clothes.
Are you sure you replied to the right person?
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You sound fun.
I love when people downvote a logical response simply because they don’t agree with it.
Its not logical. You wanna be logical, factor in what makes an efficient worker. Frequent breaks and if they happen to be addicted to nicotine, which isnt great for their sake, tending to their addiction so they dont become less efficient. And thats looking at it from a non-empathetic, nurturing POV. Throw in basic human empathy and you have a lot more reasons to why this wasn’t a logical response.
I also can’t stand the fact that smokers can take unlimited ‘breaks’ whenever they please just to come back stinking up an entire room with their smoke.
That feels like a workplace problem. Why would a workplace give them unlimited breaks? And why would nonsmokers not be allowed comparable breaks? This feels odd to me. My recent jobs have been ones where nobody is micromanaging my time, so anyone can take whatever breaks they want. As long as productivity doesn’t obviously suffer, nobody cares. My past jobs in retail didn’t allow smokers to take extra breaks. They’d get the same breaks as everyone else (for an 8 hour shift, that meant a 30 min lunch and 2 x 15 min coffee breaks).
If you want peace and quiet a workplace generally isn‘t it. Cities and towns in general, I think it drives a lot of us crazy this constant noise and bustle, so little quiet places. I found a corner behind some building in my workplace where rarely anyone ventures to take my break and that‘s the best I could do.
Don’t you have HR-manager/department to deal with such issues? Personally I wouldn’t hesitate to report it if it affected me and I don’t speak about going for some hard consequences. There are plenty of things HR could do in such situations to improve the work place culture. Maybe they’re used to do what they were always doing back in high school days and need to learn that work place isn’t exactly like that?
