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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Apparently I type too loudly

186 replies

Tabsicle · 23/03/2017 08:14

So, I work in an office. Normal open plan.

Apparently one of my colleagues has put in a complaint about me. She says I type too loudly. I do, to be fair, type quickly (90 wpm) and that means I tend to bounce around the keyboard rapidly, and other people have said I type as if I'm in a bad mood (I'm not. I just type at thinking speed).

Nothing else - I don't eat at my desk, I don't really talk much, I don't wear heavy perfume. My boss has been very nice about it and said I'm doing nothing wrong but would it be OK to get me a quieter keyboard, and if that doesn't work, colleague will have to live with it.

AIBU in how I type? Is she? This feels really petty and while I know we don't get on (she's been really ratty and competitive with me recently, which I think it because we work in a target based environment and I've had some very good results lately) I'm a bit thrown that she has actually put in a formal complaint. It seems rather weird too. MN jury?

OP posts:
BerylStreep · 24/03/2017 23:53

.

Strigoi · 24/03/2017 23:54

I still remember being in massive demand as a temp because I knew WordPerfect AND Word 3.1! Grin

morningconstitutional2017 · 25/03/2017 00:03

I used to work in the office of a library and the perfectly nice boss used to type so loudly it fair made your ear lobes rattle.

We tried to take no notice but just sniggered quietly to ourselves. I suppose he was just more heavy handed.

As has been suggested, a rubber mat under the keyboard might help. Perhaps your colleague is jealous that she can't match your speeds. or has other things on her mind and your loud typing is getting the blame.

PyongyangKipperbang · 25/03/2017 00:51

Its a target driven job, so as soon as your typing is quiet it will be something else, as a pp said.

When I worked in a target job, all sorts where thrown around "I didnt hit my target because......." and it was always someone elses fault. Do your job, get your bonuses and let your boss deal with the moaner. You boss wont want you to slow down because achievements (of lack of) affects their bonuses etc.

Megatherium · 25/03/2017 07:16

It makes me feel horrendously old to find that someone actually has to google to find out what the end-of-line ding was for ...

JS711 · 25/03/2017 07:35

I love a clicky keyboard. I TouchType at about 80wpm and get compliments from my colleagues Grin
A formal complaint is a bit ridiculous. Clearly a person without enough to think about.
Maybe try a softer keyboard but if that doesn't help they need to get over themselves. Or move.

Megatherium · 25/03/2017 07:48

I don't get why a mechanical keyboard is suggested? I just went googling as I hadn't come across these, and everything I found suggested that they're significantly more noisy than ordinary ones. Mind you, I'd like to have one.

intheknickersoftime · 25/03/2017 08:02

This thread is interesting. I can touch type but am relatively slow at around 70 wpm so i can imagine it would create a clatter if your typing closer to a 100. I have a small amount of typing to do in my job every day and know I'm faster than most people. Touch typing is a lost art. It's no wonder your boss doesnt want you to slow up. You can probably do the work of two people.

impostersyndrome · 25/03/2017 08:06

I think you should get yourself a Hanx Writer app.
appsto.re/gb/Z3zWZ.i

But seriously. I'm another fast typist (learned on a manual aged 16 and still remember struggling to get the A key down with my little finger), and your thread has made me realise that I may be annoying my office mate with my loud typing. He's too nice to complain, but my former colleague did mention it once as a reason to not want to share offices with me. I just thought she was being fussy.

Still, I too think it's the best skill I learned. I'm sure my productivity is helped by my speed (though I never learned to be that accurate, thank goodness for spellcheck).

Off to look up silent keyboards...

magicstar1 · 25/03/2017 08:24

I'd tell her that the loud typing helps to drown out the crunching and munching from your colleague...if you're going to be quiet so should she.

ddssdd · 25/03/2017 08:42

You need a quieter keyboard. My typing speed is a little faster, op but I'm very quiet. My fingers caress the keys, rather than pounce on them Grin However, if I have PMT, it may be a completely different ballgame!

VelvetSpoon · 25/03/2017 08:48

I type loudly. However it's partly deliberate, I am surrounded by people who make so much noise yapping to each other, shouting across desks, standing right behind my desk and having conversations that it's impossible to concentrate. So I vent my frustration on my keyboard, when I'm not sitting with my fingers in my ears mentally drafting what I need to type next.

Blackbird82 · 25/03/2017 09:10

This would really annoy me I'm afraid! Not sure I would put in a complaint but it would definitely throw me off my stride and affect the way I worked...

tabbymog · 25/03/2017 16:16

A mechanical keyboard is a good idea because they come with a choice of keyswitches. Ordinary keyboards have a continuous plastic sheet under all the keys, if one patch on it wears away the entire keyboard needs replacing. This is why they're so cheap. They're also very bad for your hands and arms.

Mechanical keyboards have an individual switch beneath each key and a keyswitch can be replaced if it wears out which can happen, eventually. But there's a choice of keyswitches depending on what you want from your keyboard. The ones I know are the Cherry MX series, which come in four variations of different travel, tactile feedback and sound effect, but there are other excellent switches. I suggested a keyboard with the Cherry MX-brown key switches because they're silent. I have the same keyboard as the one I linked to but with the Cherry MX-blue switches; they're famous and beloved of a lot of very fast typists because of the audible feedback they give, they're really noisy clicky keys as well as having a great tactile feedback. Typing on my keyboard sounds a lot like a machine gun; it's really satisfying. You have to be a typing geek to like this, but they really are much admired. We don't begrudge the high prices of these keyboards (they're cheap per use, though) because typists like me really, really like touch typing fast, accurately and totally smoothly, there's a peculiar satisfaction about it. Geeks R us. Grin

mamma12 · 25/03/2017 17:06

Your colleague sounds like a twat Grin if it bothers her that much she should have made a polite comment to you and certainly not raised it formally. My colleague types loudly and eats pringles loudly which riles the hell out of me (esp when I have pms) but I just put headphones on and listen to music.

BeMorePanda · 28/03/2017 16:05

People who can quickly touch type make a very different noise from "loud typists".

It's not being a good typist that makes you loud. More the type of keyboard and the way
The keys are hit.

I've shared spaces with fast typists and it can be a very pleasing sound.

DancingDragon · 28/03/2017 16:21

Theres soneone in my office that types too loudly. She types really fast and slams her fingers down on the keyboard. Maybe theres something wrong with the keyboard too. I dunno, i've never heard anything like it before. But it is annoying.

ilovewelshrarebit123 · 28/03/2017 16:38

We have a loud typer in our office to, it's so distracting and I hate it!

I type as fast as you and I'm not loud though. Could you be more mindful of it?

RegTheMonkey1 · 28/03/2017 17:26

drifts off into memories of learning to touch type at secretarial college 40 years ago. Our manual typewriters had no letters on the keys, instead we had to look up at a big diagram on the front wall of the classroom with the keyboard printed on it. I can still type with my eyes shut. When we were learning and were still a bit slow, we used to have to type to the theme tune from Monty Python, it gave us a good rhythm and the 'ding' at the end of the carriage return fitted in nicely. Then when we were faster, we had to type to the circus clown music, think it's called the Entry of the Gladiators. sighs again

However, I think your colleague is a moany old pain in the neck.

RegTheMonkey1 · 28/03/2017 17:26

Didn't mean to use bold!

anotherpoisonprince · 28/03/2017 17:31

I type too loud. I am very aware of doing so and how very annoying it is for the others in my office.
And yes I did learn at school onehundredeleventy years ago before IT was invented

lalalalyra · 28/03/2017 17:33

I had to have a soft touch keyboard and a mat (like a rubber mouse mat) in my last job for office days because my colleagues hated the sound of my typing. To be fair to them click-clack keyboards are really annoying!

limitedperiodonly · 28/03/2017 20:25

I've been dying to comment on this all day but I don't post from work.

I've had this from a colleague who said my noisy typing set off her misphonia. I'm another one of those whose mum insisted on her learning shorthand and typing in case the A levels didn't work out. You could get a really good job with A levels when I was young.

The thing is, I found this colleague's telephone manner extremely distracting. I found it impossible to work through because she had a WAY of loudly ENUNCIATING certain WORDS that was VERY DIFFICULT to ignore. INDEED.

I didn't ever complain about it, because being forced to put up with other people at work is the tragedy of not being important enough to have your own office.

I just used to wait until she'd finished phone calls. She's fucked off now. STUPID COW

BerylStreep · 28/03/2017 20:43

Limited was she from Northern Ireland? I think we have a funny tendency to emphasise random words in a sentence.

Brian Cox does it too though.

limitedperiodonly · 28/03/2017 20:57

Other people are annoying. I wish I didn't have to mix with them, but sadly I have to on a daily basis in order to pay my bills.

This is a list of things that people do at work that annoy me:

  • Pressing the lift button as soon as they get in without regard to all the other people behind them so the doors close painfully on your arm when you try to get in; *Standing in front of the lift buttons chatting and being surprised when you ask them to move so you can press your floor;
  • Getting off at the first floor and saying: 'Ooh! I'm so lazy.' I don't care how lazy you are. I'm lazy. Just own it; *Filling up litre bottles from the slow running cold water dispenser when I only want a glass;
  • Burning breakfast toast in the kitchen that I sit directly outside of; *Cooking extremely stinky stuff at lunchtime in the microwave in the kitchen that I sit directly outside of;
  • Glaring at me for intruding on their private meetings in the kitchen that I sit directly outside of when I go in to get a glass of water from the cold water dispenser;
  • Putting up passive aggressive notes in the kitchen about washing up or fridge etiquette. Particularly notes with Minions and a feeble joke. I deface them all but reserve my utmost foulness for these;