Gossip — that perennial, guilty-pleasure workplace pastime — was ranked No. 1 in the "Top 7 Pet Peeves in the Workplace" survey released recently.

The Harris Interactive survey of more than 1,500 U.S. workers, conducted for the staffing company Randstad USA, started with a list of seven pet peeves gleaned from previous workplace surveys.

Participants were asked whether each was a pet peeve and were allowed to say yes to as many as they wanted.

Sixty percent said yes to gossip, putting it at the top. No. 2, at 54 percent, was "others' poor time-management skills," followed by "messiness in communal spaces," with 45 percent.

Rounding out the list: potent scents (42 percent), loud noises (41 percent), overuse of electronic personal communications devices in meetings (28 percent), and misuse of e-mail (22 percent).

While 57 percent of those surveyed said they would say something either to the offender or to a supervisor about loud noises, and 51 percent said they would complain about overuse of electronic devices, just 42 percent said they would complain about potent scents or gossip.

PAY ON THE LEVEL: Salary increases in 2008 will be consistent with those in the last two years, averaging 3.8 percent, according to a new nationwide survey of nearly 1,400 employers of all sizes.

The Salary.com survey found that 64 percent of companies plan no change in salary increases, while 26 percent are planning larger raises and 10 percent are planning smaller raises.

ON THE JOB: Within the last year, nearly a third of U.S. workers have been contacted by a recruiter or hiring manager about a job opening, and more than half of the work force believes they would have little trouble finding another job.

That's according to a September survey of more than 2,000 workers nationwide by the staffing company Hudson Highland Group.

There were some positive findings for employers: 72 percent of surveyed workers said they would recommend their company as a good place to work, up from 62 percent who said so when the same question was asked in 2005.

And while only 40 percent of surveyed workers in 2005 said top performers stayed with their companies, this time 59 percent said top performers were staying put.