AIBU to be driven mad by a colleague typing loudly all day?

[MyShyCat]

AIBU to want to scream at my colleague who sits beside me for typing so loudly?

Every keystroke is SMACK SMACK SMACK. It's like she is trying to countersink the keys into the desk.

Zero ability to change her behaviour. Various people have mentioned it but she just giggles and says "oh yeah, my husband says I'm loud too!"

SMACK SMACK WHACK SMACK WHACKETY SMACKETY SMACK WHACK WHACK

But if you went too fast the golf ball would sometimes detach.

i do miss the carriage return too

I’m mid fifties learnt to touch type (bar numbers) on a school secretarial typewriter. I am not heavy handed, one colleague was - one finger on each hand only jabbing them. So so so loud and slow! Yet he wrote the most prolixic emails ever 🤬

Just to make it clear, I'm a guy.

Agreed, there probably aren't. I'm 62 and learned on a manual typewriter, during a postgraduate business/secretarial course of all things. I remember we had to hire these enormous, heavy old typewriters to practice on at home. The other two older women in my office were the same age or older. All bashing away at our keyboards, no doubt irritating the hell out of the youngsters

Yeah, sorry about that. I saw the clue after I wrote my post.

It's not a problem. It's more for people coming along and saying I'm "pretending" to be a women for nefarious means.

It's all good.

Judging from your communication style throughout this thread, I suspect you aren't that easy to share an open plan office with either.

You OK Hun?

We have an ‘in person’ training day/meeting every couple of months and many of my colleagues take prolific notes on their laptops. This alone seems rude (and unnecessary) to me, but one in particular has long nails which make an horrendous noise on her keyboard. I do admit that I am very noise sensitive though.

Edited for typo

Just got some second hand QuietCalm 35s from eBay and I've never been happier. Noise cancelling headphones are the way to go. I'm sure you do lots of things you don't even realise to annoy your colleagues. Such is the joy of office working. Just try to live and let live.

My previous post should say QuietComfort not calm (that's just how they make me feel!)

You have my sympathy 😂

My boss does this - I am not in an office with him often but when I do I make a joke about it; "has that keyboard done something to upset you?" or similar. He usually get's the hint

It's a difficult thing to endure all day. As well as suggestion of the rubber mat sound deadening effect, could you ask for screens to be placed between desks? Or could the layout of the office be reviewed so that the loud typing desk is relocated to minimise disturbance to colleagues?

Employers have a duty of care and to address problems that are causing discomfort to employees. Do you have management / staff meetings where you can raise it as a general issue about distractions in open plan working and make a couple of suggestions for them to consider? If not, go to HR and explain how it is affecting you. They have to take it seriously if it is affecting you adversely having to listen to that racket day after day. The effect of noise isn't just physical or a minor annoyance but can become a mental torment.

God, I used to sit next to one of those. It actually began to give me anxiety, because you almost sensed the tone of the emails being sent. You could hear it over the buzz of a c.150 person open plan area, and even if you were wearing earphones. She wasn't particularly competent in her job, either. She was/is professionally anxious, and stressed about everything. (Well, except leaving her young daughter alone in the house overnight, so she could go meet women for casual sex - but that's a whole other story.)

Ask your manager to get her a quiet keyboard.

Yabu.
I have a colleague who types so delicately and quietly she gives me the rage. I can't concentrate in a quiet office.

That's completely unreasonable. How do you get anything done???

Probably how we did not that long ago in the old days when people were able to work in a shared space by being aware, respectful and responsive to people we might have been disturbing.
It’s not good for us to completely block out our surroundings.

Oh come on gro up ! If something this small annoys you then you have an issue . Office noise is always annoying, it’s part of work

A bit like your post... LOL!!

There comes a point where the noisy colleague should be moved to a desk away from others, or even where it is time to involve her manager and/or HR.

Noise nuisance is real.

Oh god I have a colleague that I have (in my head) nicknamed Hammer Hands. She clunks and smashes her keyboard all day long and talks/laught to herself VERY loudly. She’s a very nice woman but I thank my lucky stars I only ever share a max of one office day a week with her!
As for headphones, we need to be able to hear the doorbell at our place so not ideal to be sitting with them on all day but I will stick them on for an hour or so when I’m all noised out if there are others without headphones on!