Coping with office chat

[Rafting2022]

We have had a recent seating move round in our office - prior to that I had my own quiet corner on a desk of 4 where we all quietly got on with our work. We shared pleasantries at the start of the day but most other (minimal) chat was work related.

I’m now on a different table of 4 (same job but different reporting structure), right in the middle of
the room and I can’t bear it. One of the 4 has to ask for advice on every single email that comes in, a second has to share every thought she has with the group then everyone else chips in with whatever follows on. Plus other staff shout across from different parts of the office to join in. It feels like a social club rather than an office.

I’ve tried putting music on through my headphones but then people are constantly asking ‘do you want a coffee’ ‘are you sure don’t want a coffee’ so that’s pointless. (It’s the same headphones I use for phone calls so they don’t perhaps realise I’m also using them to concentrate.)

I just want to go to work and get my job done, exchange some general pleasantries without having to hear the minutiae of everyone’s life/stream of consciousness thoughts.

My role is detailed and I need to concentrate.

How do I get past this?

Say "I really need to focus, so I'll be on 'do not disturb' for the week," and repeat until they get out of the habit of including you.

I like that!

Tell your boss the current setup prevents you from being productive, and ask for a move. It's a legitimate work-related request.

For what it's worth, I often listen to white noise calibrated to block background speech on headphones in the office when I'm doing detailed technical work and need to concentrate. I like mynoise.net.

Ok thanks

This sounds identical to a pod I was on once. We genuinely got on really well so it was too easy to get involved chatting so instead we had a red card which we put up when we were in Do Not Distub mode.