5 Ways Youre Unintentionally Scaring Your Co-workers

5 Ways Youre Unintentionally Scaring Your Co-workers5 Ways Youre Unintentionally Scaring Your Co-workersIf you overheard a few co-workers talking about you outside the office, what would you want to hear? Brilliant? Insightful? Truly inspirational- she has enough willpower to hold off on eating zu sich lunch until 1201 PM every day?All of the above, of course.Well, what if instead you heard means well, but, yes, that email thing she does is horrifying, hes without a doubt taking years off my life.Thats bedrngnis as fun. So, how can you avoid this hypothetical situation from ever happening? Well, you can make sure that youre bedrngnis accidentally committing any of these common mistakes that tend to scare people. And not scare, like Boo Ive been hiding under your desk all day- but scare like forcing people to ask themselves questions like Does this mean Im getting fired tomorrow? and Do I have to cancel my vacation now?Confident that youre not that person? Trust me So is everyone else . Why not double check and make sure youre definitely not doing any of the following on a regular basis. 1. Delivering All Updates Using Your CAPS LOCK VoiceYou receive an email from a client that the presentation needs to be revamped by end of day tomorrow. Do youA) Forward the email to your co-worker with a few thoughts on how this can be best be accomplished. B) Spot him heading out for the day, chase after him and yell, Crap, I need to send you that client email. Were royally screwed No way were keeping this account and hitting goal this year.While it can be tempting to go with B when youre in the heat of the moment, its much more helpful for everyone involved if you take a deep breath, decide who needs to be looped in (hint not everyone), and write out your thoughts on practical next steps to take. If those steps include sleeping over at the office to get this done and finding innovative new ways to say the f-word, take another breath and try again. 2. Sending Emails With Vague Subject LinesDo you know whats horrifying to get in your inbox when your teams currently struggling with goals and the boss has made it clear that things are not good? An email that says Team Adjustments. Before you can even open it, youre mentally calculating if you can survive on plain pasta until you find a new job. But then team adjustments turns out to mean that youre all moving to the floor upstairs. Im a big believer in being as specific as possible in subject lines in general, but you should definitely be extra cautious about sending vague ones when everythings not going 100% great at your company. Even if you feel confident in your positions security, theres likely someone on your team whos secretly panicking about getting fired and is currently reading into every little thing. So before you send out your next email, do your (paranoid) co-workers a favor and make sure that the subject cant be misinterpreted. 3. Using Any of These Words Without ContextExcept, problem, urgen t, wait.In an article that goes into depth on the topic of unintentionally horrifying words, Muse columnist Sara McCord writes that these words that you might use regularly make people thinkfire drill, resulting in an almost visceral response.And its true. How often has a co-worker said, We might have a problem with the deck, and youve thought, Cool That makes me feel good inside and out.While its nearly impossible to avoid them altogether, do make sure that youre providing as much context as possible so that you can avoid that fire drill feeling. For example, the sentence above becomes, Everythings in place for the deck tomorrow there might be one slight issue with the timing, but I think well be able to fix that pretty quickly if we can meet with the marketing team today.4. Sharing Cringe-Worthy SecretsPersonal secrets, company secrets, your colleagues secret relationship with your CEO- no secret is a good secret when youre sharing for gossip-y reasons. Not only because youre now responsible for contributing to a clich middle school environment at your adult workplace, but also because it puts a lot of pressure on the people you share them with. Especially if theyre not just juicy, but also involving unethical behavior. Now theyre the ones lying awake at night wondering what to do. Trust me, I know how hard it can be keep something under wraps, especially if youre not sure what you personally should be doing with the information. But telling the person sitting next to you wont help. Instead, if you find yourself in this situation and are truly worried about the implications, bring it up to your manager, or your HR department, or to someone outside the company who you respect and trust to keep it confidential. And if its not that grey area, but still in the I wish I didnt know about that relationship area, just keep it to yourself- or to a couple of your closest non-work friends over happy hour.5. Coming Up From Behind When Someones Wearing HeadphonesOK, doin g this literally scares people. There are few things more frightening than typing away at your computer, turning around to say something to a person nearby, and seeing a human figure looming ominously above. So, if you find yourself in a situation in which you need to speak with someone whos wearing headphones, approach him or her from the front or the side, or send a message first that youll be coming by shortly (and shortly does not mean Im mere steps away from you). And there you have it five incredibly common habits that just happen to make your co-workers break into a cold sweat. Are they overreacting? Sure. But who among us doesnt have that one pet peeve, that one trigger that they could do without. Be the person who makes your colleagues lives easier, not scarier. Did I miss any common habits? Tell me on Twitter Photo of annoyed person courtesy of Westend61/Getty Images.