It is hysterical what some people will fight over.
Favorite pens, football team and politics are fodder for office arguments.
And man they can get ugly. I have actually had to bring people into my office to settle disputes. There have even been times where I threatened termination over the way some people could simply not stop arguing. I understand that when you spend such large amount of time with the same people, it can get a bit testy. However, there are very few instances where as the boss I can simply eliminate a source of conflict. But, I just did that very thing not 2 weeks ago. The HVAC and the thermostat have been a hot topic since I arrived at this office. Either it was too hot of too cold. There just wasn’t any way to please everybody. The thermostat was getting yanked around so much I was afraid it was going to fall off the wall. Then it started getting where there were actually factions within the office due to the temperature. I even went so far as to lock up the thermostat but that did nothing but make everyone mad. So, I had an HVAC contractor come in one day to help me find a solution. Our office is one big area that takes up the floor of a building. There are very few walls. However, the entire floor is heated and cooled by one thermostat. The HVAC guy suggested we adapt our current HVAC system into a zone controlled environment. The upgrade was minimally invasive and not overly expensive. The beauty of it is now each section of the office has its very own thermostat. So, after a few desk moves, the office found peace on at least one issue.