To report the cleaner

[EmotionalLimbo]

I'm a PhD student and work in a doctoral school office with several other researchers, all doing our own thing. It's a wonderful quiet space and we're very lucky.

Well quiet that is until the bins are emptied every afternoon. I'm not sure if the person who comes in is a cleaner because I've never seen her do any cleaning in this office but she might do in other parts of the building.

She's just so loud. She's talking on the phone using Bluetooth earpieces so it looks like she's talking to herself. It's so distracting and it's not a work conversation because it's a foreign language.

I've contacted the estates people to ask them to tell her to stop as it's annoying everyone but nobody dare say anything. It's not my job to tackle her.

AIBU?

Except the cleaner who empties the bins

But no one did 'talk to her'...they reported her.

Thank you and I can guarantee that this lady is on minimum wage with lousy terms and conditions.
She is likely to be singing to be happy and jovial

I'm going to one tonight.

I never said I was neurodiverse. I'm not.

Oh give over! They’ve not “reported” her. The OP decided that it was less embarrassing to get the manager to do it than to ask her to be quiet in front of everyone in an already quite office.

Catch her eye, put your fingers to your lips and make a discreet shushing sound…….alternatively, just tell her to shut the f**k up!

I’m also an academic OP and I totally get where you’re coming from. The other folk here who say take a break” “put headphones in” clearly don’t get it.

I won’t be rude but you either understand or you don’t.

no advice, just solidarity.

Oh give over they did a cowardly thing

why would it be embarrassing?

we don’t tell people off anymore at work we have collaborative conversations about what works for all

What time if day is this? If it's in the middle of the day that's one thing; if it's early or late it's another.

I had colleagues who'd only start actually working when everyone else was leaving (and made a song dance about working late) It was like they didn't have homes to go to.

The cleaner would probably much prefer it if you weren't there. If she even notices you that is.

I don't think its at all unreasonable that you ask the cleaner if she can work in your room quietly - being on her phone to someone whilst she works is not part of her job!

I do think you should speak to her directly before going over her head though.

I don't know why you're getting a pile on here, probably because you've mentioned she's foreign and a cleaner and you're a PhD student doing research. If you'd said she was white british and yacking away loudly to her mate, you'd have had a different response.

I'd tell her to shush. She doesn't need to be on the phone and if she does she can come in when the call is ended. I'm a carer and some staff have had to be told that they can't be on video calls when they are in a call........

Op didn’t say she was foreign - just speaking in a foreign language (to them)

Yes - like one where nobody's trying to get you sacked by complaining to management about you speaking foreign.

Universal language of striding up to her and putting your finger to your mouth and hissing ‘“SHHHHH!’ and pointing at the earpiece and saying’TURN OFF!’

If she was British I'd feel exactly the same. I mentioned the language to highlight it's unlikely to be a work conversation and I'd hazard a guess at talking to family.

And acting in ways that distract them..

They did report her, passing the buck because for some reason they were too frightened to do what normal people do in these situations...communicate.
The whole tone of this thread is one of superiority....thank God I have never worked in a 'them and us' type of workplace.

Nobody is trying to get anyone sacked and I've no idea why anyone has inferred that. I've not mentioned any language to the estates manager. Just the office in question.

Do you work in a nunnery, some Carmelite closed convent under a rule of silence?

How many bins are in your office?

Why don't you step down from your lofty cloud and empty all the 379 bins into one, so she just has to empty one bin.

Could you or one of the other nuns smile and say shush, when she makes a noise?

Explain that in the time it takes her to empty the bin, her noise might put you off your very important research and huge advances for mankind might be lost.

Complaining about a cleaner, who can hardly be in your office for any time, makes me think you would like to be something if you could.

My mum had to put up with this shit when she cleaned-a bunch of nobodies trying to pretend they were better than her because they were in an office.

If this brief interlude of someone speaking is enough to put you off, maybe you just aren't up to your research.

Hilarious.

Seriously? Get a cleaner in trouble and potentially lose her job over something petty. Try being a bit more tolerant to someone doing a job you wouldn't want to do.

Get over yourself. Seriously. And take your entitled first world problems with you.

I don't know why you're getting a pile on here, probably because you've mentioned she's foreign and a cleaner and you're a PhD student doing research. If you'd said she was white british and yacking away loudly to her mate, you'd have had a different response.

oh 100%.

Pretty sure it would apply no matter what language they spoke in.

OP you obviously thought this might not be ok to come on and post about it asking if you’d been unreasonable

it must have niggled you In some way

posters flagging up reasons why that may be