In her decades as a workplace-behavior expert, Fran Sepler has come across her share of galling behavior, from toenail clipping during meetings to an employee who persisted in addressing a post-maternity-leave peer as "Mommy."
The bad news for Sepler and other human resources folks: It's getting worse. Or more precisely, new problems are arising, and the old ones haven't gone away.
"We still deal with all the things we did before," said Sepler, president of Sepler & Associates, "but I'm amazed at how often I get called to deal with new things."
For example, even in an area that might have seemed fully mined -- odoriferous problems -- old standbys (too much perfume, B.O.) have been joined by the scent of unusual dishes, often ethnic, as workplaces have diversified and by spoiled food in office fridges as the down economy prompts more workers to bring in their lunches.
Technology has exacerbated exasperation, as well: jarringly loud talking on cellphones (and unattended phones' ringtones), cheap earbuds bleeding sound into nearby cubicles, or Facebook "friend" requests from casual co-worker acquaintances. Oversharing, either via social media or office chit-chat, is rampant.
And as more companies lump together vacation and sick days, anywhere from 40 to 55 percent of us sometimes come to work with a contagious disease, according to a 2010 study by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center.
Sepler cited many factors contributing to the avalanche of irksome actions:
• More "in your space" physical proximity with open seating setups.