Was I rude to my colleague?

[Neversayever]

She’s been temping in my department - this is the second time.

She keeps coming over to talk to me. Or more like moan until my ears bleed.

For 20 minutes at a time every single hour. To the point that she’s just sat there staring at me because I’m not making conversation as I’m working.

Me and another colleague have both had to ask her politely to leave us so we can finish our work.

No you weren’t rude, you have work to do. You asked her politely so I don’t see an issue.

Sorry I meant to add that she seemed pretty offended by me asking her to leave

I think that’s her problem though, it’s a workplace. As a temp I’d think she’d want to make a better impression anyway, not chit chat all day.

You were fine to say you’re busy. Is she chatting about work or just general stuff? Is she unsure what she’s supposed to do? If she knows then she’s either trying to be sociable and/ or pad out her time so she doesn’t have to do as much work- 20 min every hour or so is about 1.5 /1.75 hours during her working day plus her lunch break gives her a chunk of time not doing much!

No you weren't rude. She seems a bit dim though. Can you just breezily say "I'd love to chat but am snowed under"

It depends how you said it.

If you said "god I'd love to chat but I'm under pressure. Can I come find you when I'm done and we can finish our chat".not rude.

If you said " can you leave. I'm busy" then yes it's a bit rude.

She knows what she’s doing and there’s enough work there.

She moaned at me for 20 minutes, then went to toilet and then came straight back to sit with me. I just said, sorry I’ve got a lot of work to get done.

She said fine huffed about it and walked off.

Who's her supervisor? If I had a temp working for me, I'd expect to be paying them to work, not sit around.

I encountered a fellow council worker similar to this.

She complained that she had so much work to do that shewas 6 months behind . . . and then spent 7 hours of her 8 hour day looking at holiday photos, shining her mates, reading magazines and doing sod all (the other hour was spent in the toilet).

If she's wasting that much of her employer's time then she's a CF. Forget about whether you offended her.

Quite honestly, I would be speaking to the manager. This would annoy me horribly. She’s taking the piss.