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

 

[rosieb]

I put on headphones and listen to music, it cuts down the noise and drops the hint about needing peace & quiet, without being too pointed.

Otherwise, have a quiet word with him, I'd keep it away from the manager unless it becomes totally intolerable.

Bear in mind also, that he may find it hard to work in silence.

 

[LucieLastic]

hi

I've thought of the headphones before but we're not allowed them, unfortunately.

Ah! Ear plugs! now there's a thought

lou

 

[rosieb]

weez
hi
Is there a good reason why they're not allowed? This could be an opportunity to get the rules changed.

Ear plugs are a bit too subtle, what about bright yellow industrial ear defenders?

Rosie

 

[benlinkknilneb]

If you weren't in England, I'd think you worked in my office!

We've got a couple of chatterboxes who sort of feed off each other... some days are absolutely intolerable! Ear plugs DO work well for those days (we're a manufacturing environment and it's standard safety equipment, so they're always right here... :-D

Ben

"If thine enemy offend thee, give his child a drum." - Anonymous

 

[Sashanan]

I worked on my first VB project as a trainee together with a fellow IT student, and we sometimes had...noisy disagreements. Thing was that we were in a corner of a bigger engineering department.

Apparently the level of noise we produced got on the nerves of some as one day suddenly our boss came up to us and said there had been complaints. I was pissed not so much for being told to quieten down, but for not hearing it directly from whoever it bothered. All it had taken was a "look guys, do you think you can keep it down a little".

Just to show it from the perspective of the chatterbox: he'll most likely prefer to hear it from you directly.


"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)

 

[skotman]

Hearing it directly, even if it is from your direct super is alot better. When I worked in tech support, the guys (me included) would get rather noisy during slag times and would sit around shooting the bull, I think we even had a bottle of Jack back there...those were the days. From time to time we'd get buzzed on the phone to quiet down as we had customers up front. I think we finaly one out because about a week before I gave my 2 weeks they put a door up to our area and called it server security...

Scott Heath

http://www.scottspad.com

AIM: orange7288

 

[Kjonnnn]

It takes two to chat. Who is he chatting with so loudly.

 

[LucieLastic]

hi Kjonnnn

There is another guy he chats too (who is also a bit of a chatterbox) but mostly it's just like phrases he says out loud, to no body in particular. Today he's been playing the drums aswell with his pen and making shushing noises, oh and whistling - then he's talking to himself too. I've never know anyone like him before. It's as if he's hyper active and has to channel his energy somewhere.

lou

 

[sleipnir214]

weez:
He sounds like my five-year-old daughter.

Have you simply directly approached this person and without any rancor pointed out that he makes a lot of noise and that it is distracting? (Make sure you use words like "distracting" instead of "annoying".)

I've worked with people like you describe -- sometimes they're simply not aware of the noise they're making.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[palbano]

weez,

You perform software development in this company? And they don’t allow you to wear headphones?

That has got to be in the top of any list of the most inane office policies for software developers in the world. Any company that is going to take the time to micro-manage at that level is not going to have anyone intelligent enough to have a productive conversation with about your particular problem, or any other problem, most likely. How do your managers keep from choking to death when they brush their teeth? You need to get a new job.

"But, that's just my opinion... I could be wrong."

-pete

 

[LesleyW]

Weez - try moving desks!

BenLink - lovely signature considering the topic

 

[LucieLastic]

hi Lesley

I'm going to suggest that at my review. I'm also going to have quiet word with him too.

lou

 

[CajunCenturion]

Go buy a dog muzzle, and place it on his desk before he gets to work. Maybe he'll get the hint.

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Sashanan]

Well, if we're throwing subtlety out of the window anyway, you might want to use a trick my father claims to have used once: make a "Shut up" sign and hold it up whenever he gets on your nerves.


"Much that I bound, I could not free. Much that I freed returned to me."
(Lee Wilson Dodd)

 

[ecobb]

I feel your pain, weez! Our building is extremely overcrowded so I have to share an office with a lady (fellow programmer). All in all, she's actually a very quiet person when it's just us, but her sister and a couple of her best friends also work at our company. So, every time one of them feels like goofing off (which is frequently), they decided to come in "our" office and start chatting it up with my coworker. Her sister stops in AT LEAST once every couple of hours, and her friends make frequent visits as well. She also usually gets about 4 phone calls a day from her children to talk about their "crisis of the day". Those usually don't last too long because they use cell phones and wind up getting cut off because of bad service. Then she sits there for about 2 minutes saying "Hello?...Hello?...are you there?...Hello?....Can you hear me?...Hello?" Basically, I can't go more than 30-45 min without getting interrupted.

AARRRGGGHHH!!!!!

Hope This Helps!

Ecobb
- I hate computers!

 

[Kjonnnn]

Well I have an office mate from another country. When he's on his phone, several times a day, he's VERY loud. He can be heard down the hall. But when he talks english, he whispers (like im not suppose to hear).

And to make it worse, he's one of those types that won't let you finish your sentence or point, even if he has to talk louder than you.

He's one of those types that will ask you a question just so he can debate you on how right his perspective is.

I got suckered into a debate over having the camera feature of having the "date" inprinted on pictures. I've done a little photography on the side professionally and I don't care for the date feature. If you do, thats fine, use it. I don't care. It's a personal choice. He spent 20 minutes tryn to convince me how the date should be on each printed picture so you'll know. I had to leave my office to end the conversation. We don't talk much. Every conversation turns into a debate of him proving his point is better.

And lets not even talk about the digital vs film debacle.

Its aggravating.

 

[palbano]

Kjonnnn,
>> I had to leave my office to end the conversation.

I am trying to picture that... what was the date?

-pete

 

[MDXer]

Depending on the office enviroment a nerf dart to the head can be effective. I once worken in an office where there was about 8 of us in the a rather large office space. 6 of us were armed to the teeth with various nerf guns. When ever the 2 slackers would start talking or do something annoying they were instantly quieted with a hail of nerf darts. Probably not the most acceptable way but it was a rather freesprited company that tolerated eccentric behavior from it's engineers.


"Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!"
- Daffy Duck

 

[SQLSister]

MDXer, I like your solution, but it might be difficult to implement in an office that doesn't even allow employees to wear headphones. It would go well in my office however! We did have to stop paying baseball inside with a real ball when the CEO threw it through the wall one day. But nerf anything is acceptable. However, mercifully I do not need that solution as all the developers in my company have private offices with doors.

Since this thread has degenerated to stories of other people's chatterboxes, I'll tell you mine. I sat next to this guy (at a different job where I had a cube) who was partially deaf, so he talked loud enough that the entire warehouse-sized room could hear him.

Mostly he talked to his wife on the phone (6-7 hours a day!) and complaints were daily from the 20 or so people who could hear him. The worst was when he started to discuss the intimate details of his sex life with the wife. After every single person complained they talked to him and he came back from the conversation with his boss and immediately called his wife and complained that we were eavesdropping on his conversations!

You could have hit this guy with a real baseball bat and he wouldn't have shut up or even realized he was being annoying.

After multiple complaints to management (who duly talked to him each time but did NOTHING else), I finally got another job and, incidentally, a 60% pay raise. So in the end, the guy did me a favor.