Chatterboxes..how to politely ask them to shut up? 2

[LucieLastic]

hi All

I happen to sit quite close to a male colleague who could talk for England. He's a real chatterbox and natters constantly about frivolous things, drives me potty. I jokingly said to the person who sits next to him, 'has he gone...thought it was quiet'. This person immediately told him the next day and he agreed he chats all the time. Apparently, he still manages to get his work done. He's a nice bloke, not malicious in any way, just loves talking... or 'singing'.

How can I politely (without stirring it) say something to him or my manager about it? I don't want to cause tension in the office, I just want him to be quiet every so/more often.

lou

 

[aixmurderer]

Eye contact is the key to the chatterbox problem I found, don't make eye contact when they start ratchet-jawing, just keep carrying on with whatever you are busy with. That seems to put most of them off from carrying on forever.

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[sleipnir214]

I was discussing this thread with a friend. He said the following method worked for him:

Buy a copy of Run D.M.C. CD, "King of Rock". The third track of that CD is a song titled, "You Talk Too Much". Burn an audio CD which consists only of 10 tracks of that song.

Leave a CD player on your desk and always have your custom CD in it. Whenever the chatterboxes start up, hit "Play" and crank it up.




I've never worked in an office where chatterboxes were the problem. I have, however, worked in several offices where the Thermostat Wars were a constant problem.

In one place I worked, there were 6 people who were never satisfied with the temperature. The three people on the Blue team were constantly cold and were cranking up the thermostat. The Red Team were perpetually hot and constantly cranking down the thermostat. Interestingly, no member of either team was capable of adjusting the thermostat by less than 5 degrees, and most of the time adjusted it in increments of 7 degrees. On one notable morning, two Blue Team members each adjusted the thermostat upward by 8 degrees within seconds of each other, leaving the office temperature, after we all returned from lunch, at a balmy 90 degrees.

I tried bringing up the problem with company management, to no avail. Their offices were on a different thermostat, so they weren't very interested. They did put a sign on the wall reading, "Leave the thermostat alone." That sign disappeared 30 minutes after it was installed.

I befriended the building engineer and got him to put a locking cage over the thermostat. That lasted 2 hours, when a member of the Blue Team discovered that the locks on those things could be picked with a paperclip in 3 seconds.

One day, the war was ended. Over one weekend, some enterprising person, yet to be identified, set the thermostat to 74 degrees and wedged the adjustment wheel in place with a generous quantity of what was determined by the Red and Blue team captains to be superglue. Further, a sign was taped to the wall which read, "If you're cold put on a sweater. If you're hot, take your sweater off. If that isn't good enough, get building maintenance to open or close your A/C vent as appropriate."

The Blue and Red teams disbanded. One member of the Blue team decided that 75 was too cold and attempted to get building maintenance to install a new thermostat. I had anticipated that eventuality and had earlier discussed the matter with the engineer. The official story became that since the installed thermostat actually still worked, funding for a new one would have to wait until next fiscal year (9 months in the future).

There matter rested.

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[rosieb]

sleipnir214
A salutory tale. Obviously, no-one on this forum would endorse the use of superglue in such circumstances, its use would be seen as damaging company property. The "enterprising person" is, no doubt, racked with guilt at his/her crime.

Now, where's the nearest hardware store?

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

Actually, I encourage heartily significant and promiscuous use of cyanoacrylate adhesives in the workplace.

But then, I'm evil.

Cheers,


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door

 

[sleipnir214]

1001 uses....and counting.

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TANSTAAFL!!