Work Colleague

[snash12]

I know someone posted here earlier that this isn't a forum for employee / employer issues but I literally want to smash my stapler into my face right now, repeatedly.

I have one work colleague who just takes the piss all day every day. I genuinely wonder if she does any work at all. She is excellent at appearing busy / flustered when anyone asks her to do anything.

My main issue is her phone calls to and from her husband. On average i'd say it's anywhere from 10-20 calls per day for maybe 5-10 minutes or the occasional 30 minute call. She doesn't hide it, go outside, move to another room for these calls so it is so distracting.

Its infuriating for me because I sit right near her and its otherwise a fairly quiet office.

Because they speak so often they have NOTHING to say to one another. So I have a big chunk of my day trying to block out

"Yeeeah"
"No"
"How was the traffic" "have you had lunch" followed by 5 minutes of byes .
"alright then darling, I better get back to it.... what'?" and then it starts all over again
"okay then baby love you, love you, ... what?" starts again

WWYD - just tell her to shut up?! I've tried ear phones with music but she has a very loud laugh so it doesn't often work.

Has anyone been in this position? The bosses are fully aware because she often answers the calls in front of them or is on the phone to her husband when they enter the room. I guess it doesn't bother them so there isn't much point in complaining.

I had a colleague like this once. Drove me insane. She was the laziest fucker on earth. And sat next to an equally annoying colleague who, whilst didn't abuse the phone, would scrape her yoghurt pot a gazillion times. They described themselves as "work bezzies"

Aside from having to listen to the conversation, by far worse was the sheer irritation I felt. Wound me up something rotten. I now work somewhere else

Go do it!!!!!

Fuck it I'm going in.

omg.. waiting for results

Ask that your name is not mentioned, a Manager has to manage staff and not landing you in it is part of the deal. He can easily say 'it has been noted from different quarters that you are on the telephone a lot and it distracts others in the office' etc etc

p.s. why does she get to bugger off at 4.30? Bearing in mind she's on the phone all day, does she actually do any work?!

This would piss me off. I hate those who come to work and get paid for doing very little when i am working hard.

Feel your pain Shakey15000, i used to work with a yoghurt pot scraper. and then she used to eat crisps, un curl a paperclip and use it to pick her teeth

< not envy

He cut me off before I had even finished my sentence.

He said "I know" - "what can WE do about it"

I didn't really expect that response.

I initially said "I don't really know, perhaps a blanket policy sent to everyone about personal calls".

He kind of laughed and said "yeah, that won't be at all obvious".

I think he might be scared of her?! (I am)

He said he will think about it :-/

ten mins have passed.. i'm getting anxious

OOps x

I feel a bit crap now tbh! I don't know what I expected but it wasn't that.

that's like ridiculous.. if I made personal calls to that extent in work hours.. I'd be sacked....

That is ridiculous. Why is he the boss? Has he not got a backbone? So this woman can rule the office....

Sorry OP I'm not helping here, I'm cross on your behalf. He needs to man up and speak to her instead of putting it on you and asking you how to handle it!

What a spineless twit. What can he do? Erm -say CF, can you get off your phone now please as you are supposed to be working? I would do it in a second (own my own business).

He should be boss enough to say "I have noticed (not we, not you, but I) that you are on personal calls a lot...'

He said "I know" - "what can WE do about it"

Seriously?! You should have told him what he can do is grow a pair and manage his employees.

And who cares if it's obvious if they create a blanket policy? There's nothing wrong with her finding out that it's inappropriate to be talking on the phone all day.

Its quite a small set up here, so he bought into the company when another director retired. He kind of inherited some of the staff - her being one of them. I guess it's always been like this and now he doesn't know what to do.... I feel so deflated - I obviously expected too much from him!

Don't feel crap OP. At least he's aware that it's a problem. Hopefully he may eventually do something about it.

As an aside, why are there so many managers who seem to be scared of having a polite but direct conversation with their reports? I work with lots of weak/passive-aggressive managers like this and they just make problems worse unnecessarily. Is it an English thing?

Seriously snash you need to go and see him Monday afternoon and ask him what he has now thought about it and what he is going to do.

Don't let it drop.

I'm in shock that you had to suggest a course of action to him! (i.e. a blanket cutting down of personal calls)

He is weak and pathetic, is there anyone else you could speak to about it?

Dear Smash's manager.

If you are going to take the money, you should do the job.

Tackling unwanted behaviour is not fun, but it needs to be done if you don't want to turn the rest of your employees into resentful why should I botherers or drive them out of the door.

At least three times in my career I have had to tell people they smell; too many personal phone calls should be a walk in the park.

So tempting to buy a mobile phone jammer...

@Hundred

I really don't know. It's quite astonishing what she gets away with. You can tell he wants to put up a fight sometimes (like when she asks to leave early at least once a week) but he just doesn't.

@Namechangetempissue

What is this phone jammer you talk of??????