For many of us, foul mouthed tirades, public verbal lashings, frayed tempers, slammed doors and interrupting colleagues are just standard features of office life.

You can add to this heady mix the obnoxious aroma of boiled broccoli emanating from the office kitchen, the waft of curry chips from a nearby desk and the constant drone of other people's telephone conversations about childcare arrangements.

According to a new survey from the recruitment firm Sharp Consultancy, 42% of us cite bad manners as the most annoying office habit.

Office etiquette is far from dead, but the unwritten rules are changing, and many office workers are struggling to come to terms with them.

There have now been hundreds of books written about the subject, and there are also countless subcategories that are now almost fields of study in themselves: office party etiquette, email etiquette, mobile phone etiquette and even printer etiquette (apparently you should allow colleagues who are printing only one page to go first).

So what are the manners expected in the workplace - and should we pay any attention to them?

Greeting colleagues

Tedious as greetings may be, you can always start your crash course in corporate courtliness by saying 'hello' to your colleagues every once in a while.

And try saying 'thank you' and 'goodbye", especially when they have the good grace to leave.

It is a time-honoured maxim that you should always be friendly to people when you are on the way up in business, because you'll probably meet them on the way down again.

Avoid prairie dogging

It is wonderful to see fellow office workers in trouble and a good row always livens up a dull afternoon.

But avoid the temptation to suddenly raise your head above a partition (prairie dogging) when a fellow staff member goes postal. It is considered rude, and someone might take a swipe at you.

Desk code

According to the website, askmen.com, you should not leave old ham sandwiches edging on to your neighbour's desk, and not flick bits of old tissue paper on to their 'in' tray when they are not looking.

Dress for success

As a general rule, ambitious types tend to dress up rather than down - even in offices where casual dress is the norm.

A suit makes a man look like he means business, even if he spends the day betting on the internet and talking nonsense to the speaking clock.

One person's easygoing dress down Friday, where staff are encouraged to arrive in casual dress for one day every week, is another man's slovenly bad manners. In some workplaces it is considered bad manners to wear the same pair of trousers two days in a row. In other offices such as the civil service, however, you are fine wearing the same trousers two months in a row.

Turn down drugs

Cocaine has become so commonplace that office etiquette experts now offer advice on how to deal with it.

In the New Office Etiquette guide, George Mazzei says: "It is perfectly all right to refuse a gift of cocaine or some other illicit drug from a business associate - but be polite."

Don't follow the example of Woody Allen in the film Annie Hall and blow it all away with a sneeze.

Phone tone

Etiquette experts advise that you should smile when you are on the phone, because it makes you more friendly (or should that be smarmy).

It is always tempting to transfer awkward callers to someone in accounts, but you should really tell them first.

Don't leave callers on hold for more than five minutes. Even the most avid muzak fan eventually tires of listening to Greensleeves. Conducting three mobile/landline conversations at once may make you seem important, but it is also a sign that you are an impolite dwark.

The Match of the Day ring tone was faintly amusing on the first occasion when it rung at a business meeting, but its attractions begin to pall after a year.

Be punctual

Different rules apply to different grades. If you are a junior minion, you should arrive no later than five minutes after a meeting starts, and apologise profusely, citing pressing work reasons rather than over-sleeping.

If you are a senior executive, you should always be late.

Remember, the later you are, the more important you will seem.