'I typed too loudly': Employees share the pettiest work dramas they've ever been involved with

A mums' forum asked other commenters to share their own examples of the pettiest work drama they have ever been involved with. Photo / 123RF

Anyone who has ever worked in an office will know they are breeding grounds for personality clashes and outlandish vendettas.

And that's why a new thread on popular parenting forum Mumsnet is so entertaining.

After sharing her own funny anecdote regarding unrequited love in the workplace, poster IntrinsicFieldSubtractor asked other commenters to share their own examples of the pettiest work drama they have ever been involved with.

The thread was flooded with hundreds of stories which range from hilarious to downright bizarre.

Irritating meetings were a common theme, with one forum user writing: "They discussed cleaning the microwave for one hour in a team meeting."

Another said: "Managers' meeting spent a considerable time arguing about what colour folder was to be allocated to different categories of file. Once the decision had been made, and after the meeting, one colleague continued to lobby for his own choice of folder colour at every opportunity."

There was a battle over office graffiti. "Senior team had photos on noticeboard. Someone drew moustache and glasses in green pen on photo of bullying manager. Desks were searched for green pens."

And another involving dirty mugs. "An ex-colleague, who had gotten rather too used to having the office to herself before I started, once went off on me because I didn't bring her dirty mug out to the kitchen ... She also complained I typed too loudly to the boss and asked him to intervene."

One poster even got a talking to for being too good at their job. "I got told off in one job for working too hard. Some other people in [the] same position as me but different section (big open plan) had complained that I made them look bad. I was told to slow down."

There were plenty of examples of office stoushes over lunches, with one poster sharing: "Many, many years ago someone would peel the corner of a yoghurt and take just one teaspoonful. It caused ructions."

Another wrote: "Someone reported my friend for eating boiled eggs several desks away from him as he believed she'd done it deliberately as a form of bullying. She was annoyed at being called into the office and being grilled quite seriously by two managers over it, so she wrote a statement to them in her defence, titled 'I ate an egg sandwich'."

In fact, food-related fights were common, with one commenter posting: "The day after the EU referendum we received an email from the CEO: 'Due to the uncertainties caused by Brexit, [company] will no longer be able to provide free milk, please pay £1 (NZ$1.95) per month to [secretary]."

And another wrote: "I don't drink tea or coffee. Or milk. Yet it was 'suggested' that for team morale I should pay £3 (NZ$5.90) a week of my £45 (NZ$87.90) a week wage to the tea fund. There was a huge drama when I refused."

After reading the anecdotes, several commenters with children said they were glad to be stay-at-home mums.