To be hacked off with "loud" work colleagues?

[Salmotrutta]

Those Who Must Be Heard.

I'm not denying they may have interesting perspectives/tales/opinions and that they have every right to verbalise them.

Just not quite so loudly ...

'Kay?

I have the rage at loud parenting at school pick up.

People who say:-

"And I was like, what/No!/Yes!/No Way!/As if!...etc" should be imprisoned for life.

That wouldn't be long enough though.

They'd get out after 12 years to annoy us all over again

I had to listen to a loud persons views on child rearing today.

I restrained the urge to kill them and bury them in the long jump pit.

Yanbu. I work in a big open plan office, there is the woman with the screechy high pitched voice, there is another who speaks very loudly and at a million miles an hour. There is the bloke that laughs and sneezes really loudly and shouts across the room at colleagues using their full name every time, even though nobody else shares their first name. There's another guy that yawns and sighs just to get a reaction from you. Then there are the departments downstairs who seem to sing Happy Birthday to somebody twice a day, every day.

I could go on.

I have a colleague who gives us all a running commentary? On every single little thing? She does? Which would in itself be irritating, but she uptalks in a supremely irritating, self-consciously baby voice. And she's on some sort of weight reduction plan which she also talks about all the time which would work better if she didn't think a full-size Cornish pasty was a between-meals snack.

Yes! I have a colleague who claims the mobile phone reception near her desk isn't very good so comes to stand next to my desk and make VERY LOUD phone calls, where she calls everyone Sweetie, gives them medical advice that she is completely unqualified to give (think overriding doctors' orders to parents of prem babies when we work in a related field but in an admin office) and then starts trying to promote whatever crackpot and downright unhealthy diet she is currently an agent for!

Yes Bluestocking - why does the fattest person in the office seem to be the one who thinks they're most qualified to dish out diet advice? Juice plus anyone? No I don't want to buy any because I'm not overweight because I don't eat 50 "Weightwatchers" bars a day and say "Ooh aren't I naughty" if I go near a biscuit!

"And I was like, what/No!/Yes!/No Way!/As if!...etc" should be imprisoned for life.

Innit ?
D'ya no wot I meeen, like ?

(culprit rolls eyes and turns back to her iPhone screen when Head clears his throat to start Briefing, bringing our suffering towards a conclusion)

It's a huge relief when he starts up !

Woman who sits next to me also gives a running commentary of what she's doing all day and talks to herself, then when she is actually asking a work related question doesn't explain it properly so says things like, 'so is the 25th going to work?' with no context of what or who she's talking about or to?!

Oh yes! I am not the only intolerant one! In a company where you can work from home you should when you have conference calls ALL day and you talk soooo loudly.

... and to make matters worse, the serial offender in our Staffroom has additionally, recently, become a CEREAL offender too - waiting until the Head has started speaking to pick up a large plastic mixing bowl of cereal, spooning it moronically into mouth between slurps (not having had the chance to shovel it in before Briefing due to boring us about exploits of the weekend / night before / gym). Kill me now, just thinking about it ! If you want breakfast, what about eating it at home, before coming to work ? Are the students allowed to eat their breakfast during Form Time ?! (sorry I'm getting institutionalised here !)

I've got colleague A, who has no other topic of conversation than her daughter, her partner and her ex partner. Colleague B who never shuts up and doesn't understand that something is not a fact just because it's what she thinks. Colleague C who waits until you are really busy before coming over to tell you all about how he enjoyed his hobby at the weekend and colleague D who only has two volumes; loud and off. Unfortunately, the off switch appears to be broken.

I have begun saying 'Colleague A, I need you to be quiet please. I'm trying to concentrate and you're disturbing me.' It's working wonders! People were a little surprised at first, but they're beginning to understand that I don't want to have to stay late to get my work done because I've had to listen to their inane drivel all day. It's incredibly liberating.

Lol Ella ! Does Colleague B take notice of what you say to Colleague A ? Do you have to put up with this all day ?
Why, just why, don't people ever reflect on themselves ?

In a company where you can work from home you should when you have conference calls ALL day and you talk soooo loudly.

Ah yes, the sort of person for whom the magic of telecommunications is irrelevant, because they can probably hear him in France even when he hasn't picked up the phone. We've got one of those.

Print this out and stick it above your desk.

Am I the only person who dreams of shouting this during Briefing, meetings, training etc. ? I am told that my face shows this, but am speculating on how it will be when software allows our thoughts to be read from a 'thought bubble' above our heads ?

I work in an open plan office and have a colleague whose work is much more important than anyone rakes and has a much bigger caseload .

She is VERY loud on the phone but tuts when anyone else is on the phone talking in an office considerate tone.

She also left out of date fish in the fridge and half a cup of tea on her desk and is now on leave for 10 days.

Colleague who constantly mentions she has "too much work to do" every 20 minutes to anyone and everyone.
No love, you have the same amount of work as everyone but your time management is poor. I've seen you unnecessarily copying & pasting documents. And maybe if you didn't break off every 20 mins to tell everyone you have "too much work to do" you might actually get some done!!

I feel like this quite often... It's not so much noise that's the problem, it's just people.

Am I the only person who dreams of shouting this during Briefing, meetings, training etc. ? I am told that my face shows this, but am speculating on how it will be when software allows our thoughts to be read from a 'thought bubble' above our heads ?

That would be a disaster. I can cope with the "I am going to have to kill him/he is such an incompetent idiot" thoughts - but if it's also going to show the mental pornographic film starring our director, which has got me through more than one meeting, then I'm in big trouble.

This is all so true. Then we have the colleagues who HAVE to make announcements during Briefing - sorry, another teacher here -; we only have 15 minutes and you have already sent the entire staff an e-mail about this matter, which actually affects about 10% of us, so SHUT UP and give us time to go to the loo, please!

I think my pet hate would be someone who wanted to copy something, went to the copier and found it was out of paper. So instead of opening the drawer and refilling the copier [with the paper stored on the shelf right next to the copier] it is far easier to wander down the office until you find a copier you can use ending up about 6 banks of desks down from your "own" copier which is for some reason not working...

I work with the public in a very busy noisy building and want peace and quiet to recharge when i get a break, and yes i have said this to colleagues that are talking pish at high volume!

In meetings same colleague also insists on asking questions that have either already been answered / explained at least twice or that are totally irrelevant to the topic. Everyone else just wants to get back to work or grab some lunch but she insists on dragging it out until the scheduled end of the meeting or longer.

why does the fattest person in the office seem to be the one who thinks they're most qualified to dish out diet advice?

I have someone like this in my office. Everyone else just wants to lose a stone or two, she has 8 stones to lose. She think her diet is the best and criticises everyone else's diet. She is always saying she is hungry. She looks like thunder when the other people lose weight week after week and she hasn't lost a pound

On the other side, though, I have Over-Sensitive-to-Noise colleague. We are in an open-plan office, with some meeting rooms down at one end. Yes, we did indeed have some problems with people congregating outside the offices and chatting. This has been addressed, and I was one of the people disturbed by the noise, so I'm aware of the issue.

I had visitors in recently. We left the meeting room and I was directing my visitors to the toilets, then waiting to let them back into the secure area of the office. OSTN colleague comes marching down to tell me, in front of my visitors, that this is not a break-out area, you know, and other people are trying to work. Yes, I know, I am directing people to the loos, and we will be back in the meeting room once everyone's had a pee. And once everyone has left, I will be telling you, my junior, not to speak to me like that in front of external visitors ever again.