To really struggle working with the same person all day every day

[Onanotherdiet38]

I've posted before, it's the nature of the role, there's a third person but she's rarely there, so it's the 2 of us for 7 hours. We don't have to directly work as such together for 7 hours straight but we're always in each other's vicinity.

She's not a bad person but it's just in my nature, I'm very introverted and I am really struggling. I'm finding her a little irritating, just things she does that she views as funny but I just find it annoying.
I don't agree with some of the ways in which she works either.
I can't imagine doing this for the foreseeable future. I'm not saying I'm perfect, she maybe thinks the same of me but i just don't get a break from her all day. I'm considering leaving as a result, would you be able to work like this?

Anyone please?

I don't think this is the right role for you. That is a hard place to be in as there is no dilution so that you can share conversation (or keep out if it!) Bizarrely as an introvert I think you'd do better with more people but not a very big office.

Small shop work is like this. All day with only one or two other members of staff. Great when you get on - a grind when you're in all week with the one you find annoying.

YANBU - but no choice other than leave really.

It's not unreasonable to find that difficult. There are no objectively correct or incorrect reasons for leaving a job. If it's not working and there's nothing you can do to make it manageable (politely putting some measures in place that give you brief breaks from one another, telling her you focus better when listening to music through your earbuds, etc.), yanbu to look for another job.

No, you're not being unreasonable.
I've worked in an environment where I'm sat next to one other person all day long in an enclosed space and after 10 minutes you run out of small talk.

It was like Japanese prison torture.

I agree you'll need to find a different role for the sake of your mental health.

Change jobs.
And choose something more suited to you.

I’m not sure.
What happens if you leave because of her only to find yourself working with someone equally as irritating or worse?

Leave for better pay/ promotion /work life balance or the workplace is toxic but leaving for irritation- think you could end up in the position.

Ive worked with people who can't manage to disguise their dislike of me, even though that irritates me about them . I hide it.

No I couldn't do it, that would drive me nuts. I'd struggle even if it was someone I liked and got on with - but with someone I have nothing in common with, no. Couldn't do it. I'd have to leave. Promotion, better pay etc, are good reasons to leave, but so is preserving your mental health. Just make sure that the next job is an improvement!

Thanks for the reassurance. Luckily it's agency work so I'm not contracted to that place. I just found it draining and too intense, though I know in future roles I will be expected to build relationships with colleagues (hopefully it will be a less claustrophobic situation though) but I do need to make an effort in future roles

I couldn't cope with this either!
Your thrown together with someone spending more Life time with them than your own family!

I feel like this some days too, I work with 2 others in a tiny office. It can be quite draining, however I feel for me it’s a better the devil I know situation.

I’m introverted too and have the same issue with a coworker. Luckily we work from home now so she’s not as irritating. We share an inbox so sometimes how she handles requests/emails irritates the piss out of me. But it’s easier to deal with since I don’t have to interact with her face to face much

How is 'better the devil you know an option when you are this miserable? Line up another agency job and get out now. Life is too short. I've been there. Spent 17 months and one week in a place where I was in an office with one other person, her former office buddy had been promoted and was now our boss, in separate office...office buddy wasnt nasty, a kind gentle neurotic soul really. But SO dull. SO set in her ways. Pleasant but incompetent. Of similar age to me, but her opinions, likes , dislikes attitude to work were the polar the opposite of mine. I felt my body physically despair every morning when I walked in the office and then feel a weight lifted when I left each evening. And I never ever want to listen to Smooth Radio again. Her radio, her choice. No support from boss, having been the former office buddy she was out, and nothing I could do was right for Her and I was expected to put up with office buddy's neurotic foibles, even when it was detrimental to our work. They were just dismissed.
The only thing I am grateful for is that a small part of my job job gave me a little experience in something I had never done before. That little experience helped me get a new job specialising in that very same thing.. I would not have got the job without that experience.
I love my new job, even though I can end up bringing work home, can work my lunch break and work some Saturdays. But my work colleagues are the absolute best, and that is priceless.. For your mental wellbeing, GET OUT NOW

I used to work in an office with one other person and actually most of the time it was fine. Mostly because we were always skiving. DH came into work to see me once and my colleague was reading Take a Break and I was painting my nails. Can you tell this is public sector? We did occasionally argue but generally it was fine 😆