Dealing with constantly interrupting colleague

[xsquared]

A colleague interrupted a conversation I was having with someone else twice today, not even an “excuse me” before she did so. She has form for doing this to others, or joins a conversation and then hogs it.
How do you deal with people who keep doing this? She doesn’t even acknowledge me when she does this either.

this is a total pet hate if mine.
I am quite blunt and say "two seconds you are interrupting" or "hold sorry we are still talking about...."
But again I just really hate interrupters 😂😂

Say "Please don't interrupt me" then "I'm still talking" or "I hadn't finished" or just carry on talking loudly and slowly over her making a point that she's interrupting. Or turn your back abruptly once she starts and make it obvious that you won't engage if she interrupts. If she questions you tell her it's rude to interrupt. Pretend she's a toddler. I can't bear this and it has happened to me too much in the past. It's so rude.

Make an A3 flash card that says:
STFU
And hold it up when necessary.

A firm “let me finish please” the first time. And then bluntly “you’re being rude, can you wait until I’ve finished” after that.

April's idea may work!!
We have two colleagues like this. One is worse than the other and is a casual member of staff so not always there. I noticed a long time ago that other people will be saying what there plan for the day is and she just powers over it. It happened with me and at first I was like a goldfish with my mouth open and shut. However after a while I got completely fed up and started copying what other staff did which was to continue with the conversation that they had started and put a hand up with palms facing down and saying, hang on a second, let me finish this.

It works as far as you can finish what you are saying and you don't feel like your opinion isn't being talked over. She does stop and let you finish but has never leaned to let people have their say because 8 years later we are still flapping our hands and saying just wait a sec!!

The other is full time and is just enthusiastic. She realises she has butted in when everyone just carries on. We know finish our sentence and say' right. Your turn'. It is said in good humour and she apologises! ( still does it in the team meetings though!)

She does stop and let you finish but has never leaned to let people have their say because 8 years later we are still flapping our hands and saying just wait a sec!!

Gosh! How Teflon are some people?!

Oh no.
I worry that I do this when I have a lot on my mind.

Thank you for your replies. Thing is, she treats me as if I wasn’t there at all and that it’s just her talking to the other person.

She and I don’t really get on because she had a fallout with someone else and I had witnessed it.

I think I will need to be more assertive as I’m sure she must knows it’s irritating me.

Depends on the context. If you were having a general chit chat and she needed to ask about work, then I think that's ok. Although it would have been more polite to say excuse me!

Otherwise, I think you need to be more assertive and carry on talking when she talks over you, or say 'sorry, can you give us a minute?'.

Paddington Bear state until she shuts up.

mamma I'm sure most people do it it some time. I know I have and my friends have. It's usually when we are excited or keen to talk about something.
I think the problem in OPs case and in the example I gave is that it is constant! Even if we are having a general conversation this particular woman is pre emoting what she thinks you are about to say and says it for you. When this happens I have to correct her which then makes it look like I'm arguing or disagreeing with her. If I was just allowed to finish saying what I started she could then have her turn and there wouldn't be any misunderstanding

For example
Me. I'm thinking of taking the kids ( at work) to the....
Her are you going swimming, it's a nice day for it it
Me er no I'm going to the Park because....
Her oh, the town park, that's nice the kids will like it there
Me. Er no not the town park the par.....
Her oh, the country Park
Me ( now simultaneously.....k ! The Park the next town because
Her oh that's nice
Me there is a fair on!

That is a highly edited example of how things go.
If I just been able to say. ' I'm going to the park in the next town because we have tickets for the fair' it would be so less stressful!

Sounds more like passive aggressive bullying then if you don't like each other and she is isolating you.

It'll be interesting to see if all the folks from the other thread turn up to protest that constantly interrupting is somehow not rude

If you work in an open plan office with desks grouped together I don’t think any conversation can be treated as a private one. You have to accept that anyone within earshot might want to join in and it would be rude to exclude them. If you want a private convo take it outside.

However, interrupting and dominating the conversation is a bit different. In that situation I think it’s reasonable to retain control by saying “hang on, not finished” and holding up a hand (but not making eye contact).

Yes, I do wonder that Cloudcaptain. When she wants something from my area of work, she goes to my colleague rather than me.

To the pp who said it depends on the context, it was non work related.