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Coworker never shuts up.
snowkissed
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Registered User regular
I'm working for a small software company for the summer until I start up my second degree in September. I'm a programmer and we're in an open office setting. It's a huge open space and there are multiple desks set up where people sit. No cubicles.
So this new guy just started working and is a couple desks down. This is obviously his first job as a developer or he's just crazy excited all of the time which would be creepy. He seems like a nice enough guy, he gets really frustrated easily when things don't work out right with his code (god knows how he'll stay sane...) and he talks too damn much.
He talks to himself. He talks out his problem. He randomly says stuff that seems to have absolutely nothing to do with anything. The coworker that's between us obviously gets irritated with this and answers everything. She is non-technical and the new guy is constantly talking about what he's doing (JSP, CSS). You can tell by her tone of voice that she'd rather not be answering him, but she's too nice to ever say anything.
He irritates me because of the fact that he doesn't shut up and disturbs other people's work. I realize it's a downfall of working in such an open setting, but I'm just wondering... if someone were to tell you that you should pipe down, talk less, talk quieter, something, how would you prefer to hear it? Should I go through upper management?
I typically have my iPod on while I'm working, but keep it pretty low because I need to be able to hear what's going on. Unfortunately, he's usually the one that's "going on".
Thoughts?
So this new guy just started working and is a couple desks down. This is obviously his first job as a developer or he's just crazy excited all of the time which would be creepy. He seems like a nice enough guy, he gets really frustrated easily when things don't work out right with his code (god knows how he'll stay sane...) and he talks too damn much.
He talks to himself. He talks out his problem. He randomly says stuff that seems to have absolutely nothing to do with anything. The coworker that's between us obviously gets irritated with this and answers everything. She is non-technical and the new guy is constantly talking about what he's doing (JSP, CSS). You can tell by her tone of voice that she'd rather not be answering him, but she's too nice to ever say anything.
He irritates me because of the fact that he doesn't shut up and disturbs other people's work. I realize it's a downfall of working in such an open setting, but I'm just wondering... if someone were to tell you that you should pipe down, talk less, talk quieter, something, how would you prefer to hear it? Should I go through upper management?
I typically have my iPod on while I'm working, but keep it pretty low because I need to be able to hear what's going on. Unfortunately, he's usually the one that's "going on".
Thoughts?
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snowkissed on
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Baring that, strike up a relationship with the guy, take'em to lunch, and ask'em to chill out as nicely as you can.
Just avoid "Hey New Guy, shut the fuck up!" It's unproductive as well as unprofessional.
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Buh? How is asking a disruptive co-worker to be a little more considerate "unproductive and unprofessional"? It's not like the OP needs to scream at the dude to shut his fucking noise-hole - something along the lines of "Hey, would you mind talking a little less? It sometimes makes it difficult for me to concentrate on my work" should suffice.
Don't go and whine to your superiors; that sort of passive-agressive bullshit will just make the situation even more uncomfortable than it already is. Talk to the guy, explain your concerns, and hope that he responds like a reasonable human being. If he doesn't, then take it higher up.
That's exactly what I'd say. But I prefer being direct and no one yet had minded. YMMV.
Protip - always give the coworker a chance to shape up before dragging your boss into it. So try just asking him. "Hey - can you keep it down? I can't concentrate on my slacking-off." and if whatever variation of that theme you choose doesn't work then talk to management.
If that fails, then take it to the boss.
I said exactly that to a similar co-worker. They know they're noisy. They just need to be reminded to shut up every so often. To a degree you have to deal with it too though. (unless you WANT to bring management into it)
The chick in the middle should put on some ear phones since she's too shy/polite to tell him to can it. Opportunity to ask her questions will be removed if he thinks she's listening to music or whatever - or atleast gives her an excuse to ignore him entirely. (she doesn't even have to have music playing)
It's not asking him, it's the manner in which you adress said co-worker (IE, profanity laden advice to cease incessant blabbering).
Of course, i'm not suggesting that's the OP's M.O. - just to avoid it.
I'll try the nice, good humored approach. If it's still bad next week (I'm "sick" on Friday...) I'll have to try another approach.
I'm pretty certain he thinks it's pretty weird that you guys never say anything when you're working. It's just a personality difference. You can mention it to him, but you need to present it more that you know he's gotta talk, but that you get distracted cos you think he's talking to you. So ask him to keep it at a lower volume, unless he wants to get someone's attention.
Even if that's true he needs to be considerate of his coworkers. He doesn't have an office, and neither do the people sitting right next to him.
I prefer to work while listening to loud music, but I don't. Out of consideration for my coworkers. This guy's constant blabbering is - or ought to be - no different.
We just got a fairly new guy, this isn't his first job though, he's been doing it for like a decade. He does the same thing where he will read code out loud and bitch to himself about problems sometimes loudly.
I've noticed he does it alot less though if he is working on a project with someone else. So maybe someone that does his type of work should offer to have him just ask if he needs help or gets stuck on anything, or stick him on team projects.
But with these type of people it's a psychological thing, I truly believe, they are afraid to ask for help directly so they just say their problems out loud hoping someone will tune in to the station.
we also talk about other random shit and clown upon each other
Ignore it. Tell your other coworker to ignore it, too. Only respond if he says your name or if he obviously says "hey..." If he starts to get concerned or bugs you guys like "hey how come you never answer me," just honestly reply with "you talk all the time, I figured you weren't talking to me."
Seriously, I had a guy at my work who would hum to himself. Sometimes loudly. And he still talks to himself, and I used to do the same thing. He would be like "that's weird..." or "duh, I should've looked at that before." I used to respond to him, thinking he was being helpful. Of course, I would respond and he would usually already have an answer and would sound annoyed that I butted in
So I ignore it. He still says stuff, and I only respond if he says my name. He's stopped humming and the few comments I've made of "sorry, didn't know you were talking to me" has made him a bit more self conscious about it.
We all just did the myers-briggs test in our department and sure enough he's an extrovert. The other person who thinks out loud in the office? Yeah she's also an extrovert
What you COULD do is tell the guy you listen to podcasts, and that since it's all talking you can't hear it when he says stuff. Say that he should still ask questions and stuff, but if he could keep it down so you can hear what's going on in the headphones so you can listen to what people are saying it would be helpful. Might work.
One of my coworkers regularly listens to audiobooks, and she was very vocal about being interrupted
And then you can just say "ARG, hey mr. guy, I'm listening to an audiobook and your talking is making me miss stuff!" That way you're not just calling him out because it's "annoying," but because it's actually doing something that is very easily to understand how talking disrupts it.
Oh, bollocks. Extroversion =/= lack of office social skills. Guy needs to learn a little self-control. He won't until people tell him that he's being disruptive. No-one needs to get aggro with him or anything, but you can't use generalised pop-psych personality traits to justify that kind of behaviour.
Your other coworker is annoyed at answering... STOP ANSWERING
Don't like to hear mumbles around the office? Invest in headphones.
You are *really* in the wrong enviornment (open work spaces vs cubes) if you hate coworker interaction & noise. That set up is specifically FOR communication. Find another workplace ?
All that being said... thats the route to take if you can't be mature enough to calmly catch him while he's alone, and ask to tone it down a bit.
i mean seriously... why not just ask him politely ?
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Under my breath.
There's a big difference between speaking loudly so that the whole office hears you and speaking quietly under your breath to yourself.
Did you read the post? I listen to my iPod. That means I do have something in my ear. Mumbles around the office is fine. Full on conversational volume non-stop is not fine.
1. You're making a huge assumption.
2. Find another workplace? Great answer. That is even more passive-aggressive.
Talking to yourself is not communication.
This ... this is a joke, right? You're seriously saying the OP should buy an audio book with the intention of being interrupted while listening to it - just so he can tell the person who interrupted him to shut up? I'd like to see what your advice would be if he lived next door to noisy neighbours. "Just have a baby! That way when they wake the baby up by being noisy, you can tell them to be quiet without seeming like an asshole!"
For fuck's sake. This guy, the one who's making all the noise? He's a human being. In my experience, human beings tend to respond well to reasonable requests politely made. Who gives a shit if he's an extrovert? His personality type isn't the issue. It's his behaviour.
No, I'm not suggesting she buy an audio book, I'm suggesting that if she wants a nice, non-confrontational way to approach the "problem" without it becoming an actual problem, making the excuse that she's listening to something that involves speaking (such as an audiobook, or podcast, or whatever) is an easy way to do that.
Sure, she could also just tell the guy off, tell him to shut the hell up and if he doesn't, bring it up with a manager. I get the impression that she doesn't want to become confrontational because, uh, she works with him every single day for 8 hours.
After all, from this guy's point of view, he's doing nothing wrong. He's just talking and he thinks it's perfectly normal. If someone comes up to him and says "Hey, that thing you do? Yeah, it pisses everyone the hell off, so cut it out." If he's new, he could just up and quit, that it's everyone's way of telling him that he's not wanted. It gets rid of the "problem" but it's a pretty dickish thing if talking is the only thing he does "wrong."
I understand that people who work in software companies usually keep to themselves and don't feel the need to socialize, but the "quiet geek" thing is hardly a rule, and there are plenty of people who feel that if they're around other people, that it's OK to talk. I've had exactly the same situation at my work. My personal approach was outlined in my post -- ignore them purposefully, even if they seem to be talking to you directly. Eventually they'll get the point. In the same situation, a coworker of mine started listening to audiobooks, and it unintentionally had the same effect, as she made a point that she was listening to something that made talking to her just plain not work.
A manager could take either side. What if the manager says "so.. he talks? Yeah? on the phone? No, just about work stuff? So... ignore him?" Just because SHE thinks it's a problem doesn't mean the manager is.
Which, of course, is entirely different from noisy neighbors or people who are obviously disturbing the peace through being loud or obnoxious. She said he talks. Not extraordinarily loudly, or about whatever thing he did over the weekend. But about work.
There's a difference between telling someone to "shut the hell up" and politely pointing out that their behaviour is distracting. As I said above - this dude's presumably a reasonable human being. There's no reason he wouldn't respond well to a polite request to keep his voice down. And if it turns out he's unreasonable, then you've got good reason to take it higher-up.
Oh, and snowkissed? Apologies for referring to you as a "he". I guess I didn't read the thread closely enough or something. Sorry about that.
say this:
"hey man, you're being a little loud, mind keeping it down a little? I'm having a little trouble working, thanks duder"
say something similar every time he does it and he'll stop. Despite how they might come off, most people would like to work in an environment with little conflict. A lot of the time, people don't realize they're being annoying.
Don't go over his head or complain to a boss or supervisor. Solve your own problems, especially one as minor as this.
But keep in mind that upper management might have designed the open office layout because they wanted people to work more like he does.
I run an open office layout, and the employees who put on headphones piss me off. The ones who stay alert and vocal get a lot more done.
but it's not an issue of friendliness
it's an issue of someone talking and talking and talking and talking
not even TO people, but to themselves, and loudly.
If you were a manager and you were actively letting your workers annoy each other, you'd be stupid
I had a coworker where instead of doing what he was supposed to be doing, he spent his time talking on his cell phone managing his band, surfing the internet. This was not only time he was getting paid for by our company, but that he was billing our clients on. This guy does not take criticism well, so I just gave my manager a heads up saying that it was becoming a problem, and if my manager could just address it to him. Everyone had noticed it, including my manager, and she was happy to do it. Our working relationship is fine, and the problem was resolved (for the most part).
Chances are there are other people who can hear this guy, too. If you think he's going to resent you by telling him he's "a social nuisance" (which is probably how he'll understand it), then going to a manager might be good. In fact, that's really the manager's job- to make sure people are working productively.
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