The office ‘offences’ that 81% of Brits would FINE their colleagues for committing

Working in an office is undoubtedly an interesting experience. With so many different personalities, it can often feel like a dysfunctional family. Just like in any dysfunctional family, not everyone is going to adhere to the set rules and expected etiquette.

So, when a professional does the break rules/etiquette, should they be appropriately punished?

Frank Lampard, head coach of top-flight English football club Chelsea F.C, certainly thinks so –heavily penalising his players for aspects such as being late for the start of training sessions (£20,000 fine) and their phone ringing during a team meal or meeting (£1,000 fine).

Interested in office discipline, commercial property agents SavoyStewart surveyed 1,466 office workers from across the UK to find out which unprofessional actions they would fine their colleagues for and what ‘rate’ they would set the fine to for each misdemeanour. They found that the majority of British office workers would fine a colleague who is unnecessarily being rude/offensive (81%) and on average, this fine would equate to £25.00.

Thereafter, 77% are keen to penalise any co-worker who does not meet a set/agreed deadline and £30.00 is the fine they would levy on them for the poor time management/planning.

Interestingly, 69% take issue with a colleague who makes/takes multiple personal phone calls during working hours and would fine them £14 for the unwarranted liberty. Whilst 65% share the same sentiments about those taking a longer lunch break than allocated and would give them a penalty of £8.00 for doing so.

“Working in an office can be fun as well as challenging” Darren Best, Managing Director of SavoyStewart commented. “It’s an environment where people don’t have control over who they necessarily work with but should make every effort to be respectable and professional at all times. But unfortunately, this does not always happen, and people’s actions/behaviour in an office can be aggravating. This research highlights the unprofessional actions/behaviours that office workers most have grievances with, certainly enough to fine their colleagues considerable amounts for committing them”.

On the other end, only 26% would fine a co-worker for their personal phone ringing during a meeting and £2.50 is the charge they would put in place for the disturbance/ interruption caused. Those surveyed were also asked how they would primarily use any money accumulated from employee fines in the workplace.  From this SavoyStewart found that most workers (35%) would like the funds generated from employee fines to be put towards improving the general office environment (e.g. better furniture, new equipment/technology etc.).

Opposingly, just 3% think money collected from employee fines should be awarded to the top performer of the month in the department/company.

Overall, 62% of British office workers think a fair fines structure in the workplace will make everyone much more accountable for their actions/behaviour.

Further information about the findings and SavoyStewart can be found here.