Coworker annoyed at unused time on microwave, is it that serious?

Jesus, I can’t stand people who get their panties in a twist about stupid tiny things like this.

I don’t see why anyone would be bothered enough by that to bring it up, but I also don’t see why you can’t just clear it when you get your food. If you don’t, then the next person has to. It’s your micromess, so spend a millisecond and tidy it up.

I don’t like when someone who opens the microwave while it is still running. I want to be able to have children one day and don’t want my parts irradiated.

She is nuts. It does no harm at all. This woman is completely anal.

(on the other hand, how hard can it be to push the reset button?)

To play psychologist—- the woman has other issues – maybe with you and maybe not – and she is using this issue to vent.

Just laugh with her and let her know that you really tried to care but couldn’t.

@talljasperman – any microwave manufactured in the last 25 years has a door interlock that turns off power to the magnetron when the door is opened.

@CugelTheClueless I did say that I’ve been trying to remember. It’s not like I do it on purpose.

Wow, what a nothing thing to be peeved about.

OCD is a wonderful thing . . . .

Probably doesn’t wear a watch and uses microwave as a clock.

She is not joking when she says “no you haven’t”. Unless it is her personal microwave, you should not apologize. The next time she asks “who left time” you might joke “the food gnomes” or something that would let her save face, but clearly letting her know that you don’t take her seriously.

Meh, nothing I don’t think will create a hostile work environment, at least I hope. Other than that we get along. She is easily with attitude though towards life but easily uplifted by her little favorite things like coffee.

She is a huge diva claiming having all lights on in an office hurts her eyes and she will wear sunglasses. It became a huge issue to the point we took lights out. They wed normal office lights. Oh and I didn’t wanna know this but she has to get naked to take a crap so she holds it in till she gets home lol.

I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t crazy about this situation and if anyone has suggestions to deal. My whole life of a habit being corrected in a couple off weeks lol

If it makes you feel any better her significant other or cats are probably miserable.

I certainly wouldn’t call you out for it in the way she did. If anything, I’d find a way to do it in a more joking, much less serious way, because it really wouldn’t be that serious to me.

To some people, it can be quite disruptive. Possibly disorientating. The light sensitivity is another sign. I have issues with both. I also have issues when something is not where it’s supposed to be.

It may seem absurd to you, but if I’m right, it’s covered by the ADA.

It’s fascinating the way certain people are wired. In my youth I knew this beautiful woman who had this thing about hanging up the telephone receiver. The phone had to be in the cradle with cord from the receiver on the same side as it was in the cradle. If she encountered the receiver facing the other way, there was hell to pay. It didn’t help that I couldn’t control my laughing when it happened. In some ways it was awful. When some unsuspecting person would use the phone, then hang it up “backwards”, I would burst out laughing, but try to hang it up right. If she were in the room when the phone was “violated”, I’d just run out of the room (and sometimes the house) laughing like a hyena. My face is red now just thinking about it. I know I shouldn’t laugh, but it just never stopped being funny, especially when caught off guard. I mean we’d walk into a restaurant, and there would be a phone at the hostess station. One look at the thing, and I would crack up even before she would lunge for it. I will always smile at the thought of her, and I sometimes wonder where we would be had cordless phones been as common 5 years sooner.

I will stop a microwave before it reaches the end of a cycle; usually with seconds left on it because that little beep that tells you it is done irritates me. I have never had anyone complain however. I think it must be an OCD thing and so, yes, it seems minor to you but it is a big deal to her. Still, we all have to make allowances for each others little idiosyncrasies. Do your best to remember to clear it and let her little bitches roll off your back.

When I was younger and less tolerant we did a job in an office where there was someone who had to have everything just so. No changes in routine were allowed. A couple of times I made the mistake of plugging an electrical cord into a power strip under his desk because it was closest to where I was working. Even though there were several open slots on the strip, it irked him to no end because it wasn’t supposed to be there; at least not in his world/mind. I would be in the middle of using a hammer drill when it would die on me, only to start up a short time later. Turns out he was unplugging me and moving my cord to another outlet not at his workstation. To be fair, he always plugged me back in but it irritated me to have my work interrupted and I did not understand how important it was to him to have things remain as they always were.

I got back at him (as I said, I was younger and less tolerant) by moving one of his pencils from his desktop to his drawer or some other location on his desk when he went to lunch. He would spend several minutes staring at his desk when he got back, knowing something was not right but not being able to discern exactly what was wrong. All his work ceased until he made the connection and put the pencil back where it was supposed to be.

Then he would glare over toward where we were working for the next 20 minutes.

If remembering to press the clear button makes life at work better, just do it.
There are bigger battles than this silly shit.

Many people use the microwave as their clock. If the microwave is left showing unused seconds the clock isn’t displayed.

Sure, it is a small thing but it is a courtesy to others to leave the microwave as you found it. How would you feel if someone left a mess in there? “Oh, just one bean popped. Don’t get your undies in a bunch.”

Here’s a relevant, 1.5 minute video by Daniel Koren: The Microwave. Enjoy!

Even if it’s something that seems trivial to me, I like to weigh the benefit to effort.

The amount of effort it would take on your part is so little compared to how much it bothers her.

I’m with @rojo. I also am very irritated by the sound the microwave makes. If someone’s sleeping in our house, sometimes that ding will wake them up. So I often set the microwave to run longer than it needs to, and pull out my water before it dings.

I would continue to try and remember to clear out the time (how did people even know what she meant by “leaving time” on the microwave?), but if she brings it up again, I would remind her that I was trying to break my habit, but also ask if there was something else about me that was bothering her besides the microwave. It sounds like maybe she is complaining about the microwave, but it represents something else to her. Maybe she thinks you take shortcuts to make your life easier and don’t think that is causes more work for others. Or maybe that is her pet peeve (making things easier for yourself, but harder for others, for example) and even though this is a benign manifestation, it still sets her off.

Yeah, as far as the light issue, I’ve been experiencing more snd more sensitivity to bright light myself…don’t know if it’s my diabetes or not.