Attention seeking woman at work driving me insane

[Gloc]

Name changed as outing to anyone that works with her!

She’s driving me insane, seriously - to the point where I have urges to shout at her or literally walk out. Shes so loud, constantly shouting and screaming. She’ll literally scream all of a sudden, waits for everyone to ask what’s wrong and then will say “I’m just so bored!” Or “I’ve just remembered it’s pizza for tea!” Or some other stupid shit.

She’ll randomly throw her papers up in the air and say “it’s stressing me out!” And everyone laughs. What exactly is funny about that?? Maybe the first time I’d laugh but when it’s a weekly thing - not so much

On Friday she suddenly slammed her laptop shut and screamed. Of course everyone was like “what?? What??” And she’s sat there lapping up the attention before declaring “I’ve just seen that my favourite band are touring”. Everyone laughed and said “Jesus I thought it was something serious”. It’s never serious, it’s always something stupid.

She’ll get up and suddenly start dancing - even getting up on the tables etc. at Christmas she brought in a load of those dancing snowmen/santas/clapping monkeys etc, set them up all around the office and turned them all on together. The voice was unbearable. The manager made her get rid of them in the end so she screamed and pretended to cry.

The woman infuriates me. I don’t even know why she annoys me so much. I seem to be the only one not laughing! Before anyone says I’m jealous, trust me - I’m the most introverted person ever, the last thing I want is to be centre of attention

She’s actually making me consider changing my job. I can’t stand it. I’m literally dreading going in tomorrow.

😂😂😂

I know you're bothered about outing etc but the best thing that could happen is that she sees this thread!

If you're reading this, pipe down lady!

You know mums whose kids have ADHD, or you know mums who have kids and also ADHD?

I hope you're not seriously comparing the behaviour kids with ADHD with the behaviour of a woman in her 40s in a professional and serious setting.

I have ADHD and also have teenage DC with ADHD. I know several adults with ADHD. None of us act like this. It's insulting to suggest it tbh.

Op I'd definitely speak to your manager. HR fears or not this could be seen as a hostile workplace. Screaming randomly and this level of dramatic is not professional.

Timing might be key - as soon as she does it develop a really bad, enduring, loud cough to drown her out and deprive her of attention.

You are a genius I love this!

Yep. I have ADHD. I work as a healthcare professional and I don’t do this! In fact I’d struggle like OP with the noise.
OP maybe you should get ear defenders? When she starts, don’t say anything, just put them on. Every time. Peace and quiet and makes the point without actually saying anything!

You're coping much better than I would. By now, I'd have buried her remains in five separate locations and be googling how to get blood stains out of the boot of my car.

Totally unnecessary and frankly nasty comment.

The individual clearly has some level of additional needs as what the OP describes goes beyond the behaviour of someone who is just flamboyant or attention seeking.

Really, really difficult situation as I can see how stressful and diverting it must be for those required to work in the same space. Is there a way to suggest to the office manager that there is a reorganisation where several people move desks and she is placed somewhere where she is less disruptive (but without pointing a finger at her as a number of people are moving too)? Just a thought.

Otherwise I was also going down the path of noise cancelling headphones, though that may be a problem if you need to hear the phone ring!

She sounds like your one (Kelly/Kerry) from Big Brother & she also worked for the NHS

It must be very startling, to have someone scream unexpectedly near you.

Imagine if you were carrying an open bottle of ice cold water! Or glass of milk or something. It might end up all over her!

Although I suspect she'd be more cautious about screaming like that in future.

I knew there'd be Sistine chapel comments in here and you lot didn't disappoint 😂💖

On the plus side there seem to be several people just in the NHS who behave like this, so OP won't be outed!

I worked with a woman who was spectacularly uptight, would completely transparently try to flirt with any man her age who was more senior than her. I say try to because it was the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. Lots of touching her own chest and laughing, except the laugh was an actual ear splitting scream, no warning, just sudden SHRIEK!! You'd see the poor bloke who only wanted help with the printer or to know if we had any A4 envelopes flinch away from the noise.

She used to do it on the phone too, I used to imagine the poor person at the end getting a perforated eardrum.

The weird thing was she never laughed normally. French and Saunders could have done a turn around the office and she would have humpfed and muttered something about being too busy for such nonsense.

But Gerald needs a second class stamp? - Funniest. Thing. Ever.

I was thinking Catherine Tate, too!

I'm so startled....

Erghhh God. Sounds like the batshit woman I worked with. Would lift her skirt up to a fan and waft it and say oooo need to cool my fanny down. And people would laugh ffs. Hide under the desk for a laugh when the manager was looking for her. Stole the line managers personal diary, photocopied it, and would read it out loud when she was away from her desk. She was utterly disgraceful. In her 50s too.

But Gerald needs a second class stamp? - Funniest. Thing. Ever.

'Gerald needs a second class stamp' would make a great name for a R4 sitcom. <makes note>

This is not surprising as there is nothing ditsy or purely attention seeking about her behaviour, it’s more strategic than that and probably how the last allegation started out.

I’ve seen this type of thing before and it’s so controlling. The ones I’ve come across like this can be quite manipulative and not nice when called out - it’s almost like there’s already an unsaid understanding to tread carefully among your colleagues and to humour her, but I am sure you’re not alone and you certain ANBU.

In an ideal world you’d all decide to politely grey rock her starting now, but collective decisions can be interpreted as bullying. Though it may be the decision everyone eventually arrives at. The manager should tackle it but not easy. Someone upthread mentioned lazy sideways move instead of dealing with her and I’m sure that’s true. She’s probably been passed around departments like a hot potato.

Lol - it's been a while 😁

Raise it with HR or your immediate line manager.

She sounds utterly unhinged.

I have a serious aversion to people doing things to get a response. I get great pleasure out of not giving them the response they're after.

I'm thinking of one wally who would snort-laugh from behind his newspaper every bloody day until someone said "what's funny?" If no one did he'd do the sigh-and-head-shake, before ruffling the paper and snort-laughing again. When someone would finally cave and ask he would talk at them forever, airing all his shitty views and politics on some dull story. I could never say "what's funny?" It would physically pain me because I know that's what he wants people to say.

I'd suggest completely blanking her but that seems to be what you're doing. Difficult to ignore the sneak attacks with the high pitched scream though. If she's sitting near you and does it maybe you could flail in fright and really smack her one in the jaw.

"Sorry Linda, you scared the bejesus out of me there."

I meant the children not the mums

I didn’t mean any disrespect the point I was making was it’s not a joke - adult or child

I am sorry I worded it so clumsily I was just thinking maybe she has a condition feel like I’m digging a hole now sorry

Haven’t RTFT but leave a leaflet for the local amateur dramatic society on her desk with a post it note saying that it’s a much more appropriate environment for her dramatic outbursts. Or get your manager to suggest it.