To think that I should be allowed to work where I want to?

[HootyMc0wlFace]

I have just come out of a meeting with my line manager and told that I am no longer allowed to work in the library every morning. The "library" is actually a small meeting room with desks and a few books where we are allowed to work quietly and talking is banned. I work in an open plan office so this room is like heaven. I spend the morning there powering through the important work that I need to focus on, go to lunch then spend the afternoon at my desk.

So apparently my routine is sending the wrong message, somehow. I don't look like a team player, I look like I "hide" in there too apply for jobs, and other ridiculous allegations. Someone has been using that room to do some online shopping and I suspect they think that I also piss about in there not doing work.

But the thing is, this is the only time I get any meaningful work done. I resent each afternoon spent at my desk because I can hear every conversation and it is distracting. 100 people taking calls, talking to each other about clients or their weekend plans - the chatter is overwhelming. A task that should take me 10 minutes can drag out for an hour. I know some people listen to music but I find that too distracting.

I just need peace and quiet. Why is this too much to ask for? Why am I being punished? I know from prior experience that I'll get very little done if I am forced to sit at my desk all day every day.

Has anyone else been in this situation? How do I deal with this?

LotsofShoes

That is harsh and unnecessary. I don't think I'm special or deserve special treatment, I was just making use of available resources. As I said, there are other cubbies in the library so it's not like I am preventing others from using it.

Concentrate

Noise cancelling headphones, if you find music too distracting. I had an ipod loaded with classical music the last time I worked in an office, I can't deal with music with lyrics but classical is OK, would that work for you?

And yes, you can go back to your boss and present your case - I suspect someone's put the idea in his or her head that you're skiving.

But how is it less antisocial to sit there with headphones?

It isn't! It merely satisfies your need to be antisocial while physically occupying a pro-social space.

Which is why it looks like a good answer for you!

But you do think you deserve special treatment. You were given a desk just like everyone else. But you have decided it's not good enough for you and chose a different place to work every day that is not your allocated space. That is special treatment. Lots of people have problems with the open space offices but they find a way to make it work. They don't just decide to work in a different part of the building. And it will make other people in the team resentful -why can you have the quiet spot every single morning but they all have to make the noisy office work?

I suspect someone's put the idea in his or her head that you're skiving.

Yes. It happened to me, too, while I was on recovery from a breakdown. Someone else used the quiet room for skiving (I think they were shopping, too) so I had to give it up because the practice was now 'tainted'.

... It didn't matter that I could show what I'd been doing. The problem was everyone else's perception, which had now changed and was causing unrest.

Hooty have you ever been assessed for sensory processing disorder? Might be worth looking into because with a diagnosis work have to make reasonable adjustments.

I really doubt that during recruitment your employer said working in the morning for half of every day away from colleagues was one of the flexible working options!

Our office is v noisy due to squashing people in. We are all allowed to work from home one day a week and a couple of people use noise cancelling headphones for quiet work for a few hours a day.

If you can get away with using headphones, great.
Earplugs are more discreet and they work wonders.

I feel your pain. I find it harder to work in a noisy office, even worse I am now part of a team where we all have to work in the same room all the time. There are only 3 wifi cables and little room, so my output has suffered massively. But if I'm not in the room most of the time then I won't be part of the team and I will be scored down in my appraisal accordingly.

It sounds like the complaints may have been caused not so much about you working somewhere else, but in your team's perception of you, it seems they see you as aloof and not happy ( looking for another job?).

So for now if you wish to keep your job I'd focus on finding a way of making your office location work rather than questioning your managers decision, however irrational you feel it might be - make your office work be that noise cancelling headphones or whatever, but also put in some socialising time - block it out in your diary if it's not something that comes naturally to you, take 5-10 mins to chat to others.

Sadly these days it's not good enough just to be good at your job, unless you're in a role that requires no interaction with others, then you need to be seen as a team player.

If working from home is an option is that something you could do say one day a week?

Seven

I haven't but it might be worth a go. Any idea where I should start?

Hooty, wouldn't it be a good idea to try it with headphones and a leafy desk plant before putting yourself through a disability assessment?

Alot of people seem very unsympathetic on here Hooty, I honestly believe AIBU is one of the worst places to come if you have a genuine problem. You will be made to look foolish, stupid, precious, or alot worse (I've seen it many times, so I don't come here much)

The fact is everyone is different. Some people are just more sensitive to noise than others. Unfortunately working in a noisy, open plan office is some people's idea of hell and it really can get in the way of work (read book "Quiet" for more on this). I think OP can try some of the practical suggestions here, or have a heart-to-heart with her boss (stressing you work really hard but find the noise very distracting). If none of this bears fruit then I think probably the only option is to look for a job with a quieter environment. Good luck.

I am totally with you OP. Some people are not distracted by conversations and music, but I am. I notice my son's the same. We can't tune out of noises around us. It used to be handy for revising, I would record the material and listen back to it. Remembered much more of it!
I used to work in a big open plan office as a programmer and the management were very switched on, allowing us to book these tiny rooms for one person when we needed thinking/planning time. I would suggest noise-cancelling headphones too, DH has some and on a flight, they even stopped the constant noise of the air conditioning. You don't even need to play actual music in them. They're not that cheap though unfortuately. I agree with you though, you should be allowed to work where you like and where you work most effectively. In some jobs I used to take the work home, plan it there and just type it in at work as I couldn't concentrate in a large office.
A little harsh LotsofShoes, some people really don't want to chat all day, some jobs don't need the team chatting all day, it depends what the work is. Open plan offices are unsuitable for a lot of people and for a lot of jobs!

Earplugs (which dont work for me, I'll admit) or noise cancelling headphones 'sound like' (har-de-har) great suggestions. If the noise levels get so excessive that they penetrate such measures, you've probably got grounds to going back to your boss and asking to use the library again.

Honestly offices have open plan set-ups because they want people to be next to each other so they can interact easily. Partly so they can easily just be like - excuse me x, can you tell me .... - but partly too because presentation and psychology matter. it is much less antisocial to work at your desk with headphones on I'm afraid (people can easily tap you on the shoulder if they need to talk to you). I think yabu. I would invest in some good noise cancelling headphones and listen to white noise through them - I can't work with music or chatter either and this works for me.

My dd has Asd with a dx of spd, the Gp was the first port of call.
Have a read of this
www.autism.org.uk/sensory
See if anything applies to you ( you can have spd without Asd) then ask you GP for a referral.

From a team leader/line manager point of view, I would not accept a member of my team working independently of the team on a semi permanent basis either. It would not encourage interpersonal working relationships, knowledge sharing or impromptu work conversations that are generally positive and productive. This is for the type of work I do and in my office situation; I obviously have no experience of yours.

I appreciate your problem with the noise of an open plan office, but open plan offices are very much the norm these days. Office noise diminished hugely when we got internet phones with headphones. The headphones are also noise cancelling.

Well said, soundofthenightingale.

I think it depends what sort of work you do. If you are doing a lot of complex drafting, stuff that needs concentration, then, yes, you may need peace and quiet. Likewise, you may be the type of person who needs a more quiet environment to think clearly. We are all different.

We had similar debates when going "open plan". It was felt if you shut yourself away in an office on your own that you are not a team player, or not interacting. But in my opinion, it's all a question of balance - different types of environment for different types of work - I ended up splitting my time between working quietly on my own and then having open surgeries, and with wider group - and everyone knew the times I would be in silo mode and when I would be on the metaphorical shop floor.

I'd try and persuad your boss of the reasons why you need quiet time (and how they benefit your work) and how you will still be very much one of the team. If he/she is dead set in creating an environment in which you cannot function, or which makes you unhappy, I'd look for another job or think about your other options.

I'm not sure if this has been covered, but do you do the same job as the rest of the team? So these big things that you get done in the library in the morning, the rest of the team have similar tasks? If so, I can sort of see why they don't want you doing something different.

Having said that, if the team you are a part of aren't bothered by it then I don't see the issue. Mind you, we have things like that at our place. We're meant to be allowed to work from home one day a month, but you get so scrutinised for it, and fine to stand around chatting, or have a half hour tea break in the afternoon, but not to work through lunch so you can leave early on occasion. Daft double standards.

I don't understand why you are getting such a hard time. I think your strategy is a good one. Could you request working from home one or two days a week? Otherwise earplugs might be the answer. I like the foam ones from superdrug.

You definitely have my sympathies. I had to work in an open plan office once, for just such a daft reason, and it was very hard to concentrate. Unfortunately a lot of people seem to have a lot of time to worry about what other people are doing. In my case, we weren't doing any teamwork at all, each one was doing their own project, but people still got their knickers in a twist if they thought that someone else might be getting away with something.

There is some completely unnecessary aggression on here. It is ridiculous to assume that all people react to noise in the same way and that therefore OP is just being some sort of special snowflake. It sounds very much as if she has a sensory problem, and it may well be worth getting that assessed so as to demonstrate a disability for which she is entitled to reasonable adjustments.

Can you show your line manager that you do get through a lot of work in the library OP? If so, that should knock the idea that you're skiving on the head. If they are a good manager they should know whether you're a good worker or not,, but some people aren't very good managers.

When I was a manager - obviously one of the good ones - if people came to me with groundless complaints about others, I'd tell them to go away. Some people saw me as a cross between their mummy and an umpire and sadly for them, I didn't agree.

There are a few problems though. If your need for quiet means that some of the burden of other work, such as answering phones, falls on others, then that's not fair. Similarly if you are missing instructions or if your job relies on regular communication with others in the team - mine did, but maybe yours doesn't.

I do think that wanting to sit apart from others and wearing headphones or earplugs looks anti-social but I understand that it may be necessary for you.

Your biggest stumbling block is that people do skive. I worked with someone who I now realise might have had sensory problems. However, she was also lazy. There was no getting away from it.

Talk to you manager again calmly. Stick to your own performance. Don't bring up others who you've said also skive. You don't know that for sure and it's not your concern.