Citrix work/life survey pinpoints top workplace annoyances

Citrix has revealed the results from a national survey it recently conducted that focuses on office life and the work-life balance.

Simply put, Citrix asserts that these findings shed some light on the reasons why many employees prefer to take a break from the office.

For reference, the survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,013 American office workers, ages 18 and older, between June 8th and June 14th, 2012, using an email invitation and an online survey.

Here's a snapshot of some of the most popular (and most peculiar) results:

• Some fantasize about having a fictional TV boss as their supervisor (No. 1 is Gibbs from NCIS; No. 2 is Miranda from Grey’s Anatomy)
• Almost half of office workers work with a "know-it-all," and 44 percent work with a whiner
• 74 percent of office workers have at least one company event they secretly dislike (i.e. costume contests, baby showers)
• The worst type of boss is a boss who steals their ideas (37 percent), followed by a boss that “knows” it all (33 percent)
• The top reason people have slipped out of the office in the middle of the day is to exercise

So basically, most of these read like basic plot lines from the last eight seasons of the U.S. version of The Office.

The only one that strikes me as odd to include is the note about exercising during the middle of the day. Now, some offices and employers might not allow this. But it's would be an interesting difference between traditional workplaces and newer ones in Silicon Valley that encourage such behavior and even provide facilities for this. (For just one example, see Google.)

Although I have to conclude on the note that the best excuse for not coming into work was "I drank too much Sunkist and was too tired to come in."

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