2 posts tagged “work”

Before I worked at my current place of employment, I have never really had a coworker that I didn't like. Chalk it up to luck, or maybe that I just try to be kind and like everyone. But office relations have never really been bad for me since I began working at age 15 or so. Until now.

One of my office mates is driving me batty. She is a nice person. She's not catty and she doesn't gossip, and she always does nice things like bake cookies and bring them in to share. But my desk has been just steps away from hers for the two and a half years that I've been here, and I am just about at the end of my rope. Here is a short list of some of her most-offending behaviors:

1. Talks SO LOUD.

2. Opens her window when it's sub-zero temperatures because she's having hot flashes, or in the summer when it's 90 degrees out, because she "needs fresh air" ( and then we have to turn off the ac in the rest of the office).

3. Plays soft jazz radio constantly, even when she leaves her office for hours at a time. Literally, she put a sign on her radio that says, "Please do not turn off my radio or adjust the volume...shut my door instead" (it is a thin door, and shutting the door does not block the sound, however)

4. She wears a noxious amount of horrible perfume a few days a week.

5. She likes to talk, a LOT. She's always chatting it up with everyone who walks by, loudly and about random things that I don't need/want to hear about, e.g., "I JUST READ THAT YOU SHOULD ONLY EAT ONE OUNCE OF NUTS A DAY. ONLY ONE OUNCE! I'VE BEEN EATING AT LEAST 5 WALNUTS AND 20 ALMONDS AT A TIME. NO WONDER I AM GAINING WEIGHT! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?! ONLY ONE OUNCE OF NUTS A DAY!"

6. She does this thing that I call "teeth sucking." Usually after she eats or snacks throughout the day--pretty often. It's like she's trying to suck food out from between her teeth using her tongue and suction. It will literally go on for half an hour at a time.

Okay, so that really is a short list. It would probably a little less obnoxious if she would just shut her door most of the time, but when we've talked before, she has said that she is claustrophobic and doesn't like to be shut in her office. So I don't know what to do. She really is a good person and I don't want to hurt her feelings or demand anything unfairly. I don't really want to confront her either, because (1) I'm a wuss, and (2) It would probably only improve for a week or two, and then things would go back to same old, same old, because I think these things are just her nature.

So my question is, how do I deal with an obnoxious officemate? If I don't come up with something, the jazz radio is probably gonna have a mysterious accident soon. And that's not good for office relations at all.

I am a big fan of lists. I make them constantly, and they keep me moving forward on most days. I have lists for everything. But you can tell it is Friday afternoon when my work to-do list looks something like this:

• Send $1800 back to VSAC grant fund
• Do Mass. Gear-Up thing
• Figure out fall disbursement on VT students--force disb?
• read distance ed thingy (the printout from N)
• deal with massgrant
• inbox stuff
• return messages
• blah blah blah

And there was more, but I won't bore you with the details. The most important thing to know was that I started using words like "thingy," "deal with," and "stuff." And that I actually wrote "blah blah blah" on the list. Do your lists ever look like this, friends?