losing patience 6

[Guest_imported]

I'm a consultant working at a client site, and there's an employee who annoys the hell out of me when he laughs. It isn't that he laughs, it's that he laughs so loud you can hear him several cubicle rows away, even if you have headphones on. On top of that, there isn't any Web application development for me to do, either. Oy vey.

There's talk of me having my contract extended, but I just want to get out of here ASAP.

 

[carp]

I think there are three courses open to you:
1. Get over it.
2. Get rid of the annoyance (this may require something unethical, underhanded, and/or illegal, but hey...).
3. Go to work somewhere else.

I would recommend #1. There will almost always be somebody who annoys you in some way no matter where you go to work. Loud laughter seems like a pretty superficial problem (IMHO) - especially compared to other problems often encountered in the workplace (e.g., foul odors, frequent changes of requirements, overbearing supervisors, theft, lying, etc, etc).

 

[MasterRacker]

If they're going to extend your contract to essentially do nothing, go for it. Free money is nothing to be sneezed at. If ou've got a lot of time on your hands, use it for study and improve your skills. For the other part, as carp said, there are always annoyances, you just have to learn to shut them out. Jeff

I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[Guest_imported]

The comments regarding the laughter have merit, but with respect to being paid to essentially do nothing, I disagree. Yes, I can use the time to study and improve my skills, but I do that anyway on my own free time and I'd rather work in an environment where I can add to my experience. Because ultimately that is what employers/clients value and pay for.

 

[carp]

I understand where you're coming from on that point. My job currently offers little/nothing to do, and our team members are suffering to varying degrees because of it. For a while I was climbing the walls out of boredom, and it left me very uneasy to be producing virtually nothing for my employer (especially with the prevalence of layoffs in the IT industry!). Then I decided to try to use the time for augmenting my skill set (as suggested by MasterRacker) so that I could (a) share my new findings/ideas with my supervisor and (b) expand my resume in case things actually do go bad. Now I'm looking at the slack time as a gift - but I can't say how long that will last; I'd still rather have some "real" work to do!
If they want to extend your contract, it sounds like you at least don't have to worry about continued employment. As for the laugher - you might try to think of a nice way of asking him to hold it down!

 

[SheRa]

Here's the simplest answer: Talk to this guy.

Seems to me that we often tell everyone about the problem EXCEPT the one person who can actually do something about it. Completely ridiculous. As long as you are polite, and non-confrontational about it, I see no reason not to speak up about your concern. This guy may not be aware that he is distracting others, because no one has yet told him.

And if he's a jerk about it, like carp said, pick one of your three options.

As to no work, that's a common problem I think. There's only so much 'learning' you can do from manuals and text. Eventually you have to get in there and get a little dirty. I've found that making up my own little projects works well. Little things mostly, like working on that component that isn't really planned until 2003. Or working on little fixes for annoying problems that drive me up the wall on a daily basis. Then I can say to the boss 'well gee, look what I did! Aren't I clever?'. Hehe.

SheRa

 

[pivan]

Sounds to me like the laughter is symptomatic of a deeper seated issue. Could it be that you are bored? I would wager that if you were up to your teeth in projects and slinging code like a zulu warrior I bet you wouldn't notice the laughter. I was in a similar position and the "laughter" was most noticable in between projects etc.

If you don't want to cruise and use your time to work on self studying as MasterRacker offered I would suggest that you get out of there...like real quick.

gLuck
pivan In not now, when?
If not here, where?
If not us, who?

Just do it!!

 

[Guest_imported]

pivan, you hit the nail right on the head. An 'application freeze' is in effect at my job, so there hasn't been much for me to do lately, other than the occasional bug fix/minor enhancement. While I'd prefer to do actual work, there's really nothing I can do about it, so I might as well as use the time to learn some new skills, as MasterRacker suggested, instead of moaning and groaning.

Thanks to all who took the time to respond. Nice to know there are others out there who can relate.

 

[NinaToo]

As for the guy's annoying laughter. Talk to him politely about it. I know that sometimes I've gotten a bit loud when I'm on hot on the track of debugging a difficult problem; I've sometimes shouted out "IT WORKS!!!" when I have finally found the solution. Some people politely pointed out to me that I needed to keep it down. I wasn't offended. Now I open my mouth widely as I smile in glee. But I only mouth the words, "It works!!!" so no one can actually hear me.

If he fails to tone it down after a couple of gentle reminders -- he might forget and "relapse" into his loud laughter a few times -- then you can quietly bring it up with his supervisor.

As for having nothing to do. Probably the guy's loud laughter is a lot more noticible when you are sitting there bored out of your mind.

I'm currently going through such a lull in work; our whole department is. We just sent a new release to our Quality Control Validation group and (because we did such a super job on it), there have been hardly any problem records to fix. And the specs for the new project, which were supposed to be ready for us, aren't yet ready. So we're waiting.

I'm a permanent employee of a very stable government agency, so there's no question about layoffs; it's not going to happen. In fact, our agency has been trying to recruit more programmers. So there will be work coming down the pike, we won't have to worry about that.

My co-workers advised using this slow time to hone up on my skills. One of the things I did was to surf the net. Which we are allowed to do during work hours if what we're surfing for is work-related i.e. no Ebay or fantasy football or whatever. But stuff related to programming is OK, my supervisor told me. One of the things I found while surfing is this forum. I'm subscribed here and also in the forum connected to my main programming language (COBOL).

There are also a lot of other cool sites which involve COBOL and mainframe programming, offering tips. Plus I work on CICS and I discovered a very busy CICS email list to subscribe to.

I'm fairly new to this agency, so I've also used some of the slow time to study the agency's system and architecture.

If you like the company you are currently working for, when you are actually doing some work, then I wouldn't worry, especially if they want to extend your contract. Sooner or later, you'll have so much work, it will make your head spin.

Nina Too

 

[Kjonnnn]

You might just have to grin and bear it... remember you're the step child in that family.

 

[Guest_imported]

Heh. A true statement if there ever was one, Kjonnnn.

 

[pl12987]

This thread has an important related issue: helping people understand *we need to concentrate*. I'm very fortunate in that I have a door and can even work from home when I need to focus on intense coding. I find it impossible to do good code work in a normal office atmos. What has anyone tried to gently communicate "leave me the $%^*& alone right now!"?

 

[BeckahC]

Before I moved to sit where I am now, I shared a cubicle wall with someone who liked to sing to the music that she nearly blasted from her computer. Because of the accustics in that part of the building, no one else was as truely bothered by it than I was... I guess I'm just nice at heart, I tried playing music of my own (headphones weren't allowed, in case one of the boses needed you or the phone rang or something. I spoke about it quietly with co-workers, but didn't have the heart to tell the person she was annoying the *&#$ out of me. Since I moved a few months later to a totally different section of the building, it's a mute point now... but to this day, Tony Bennet and Frank Sinatra still grate on my nerves a bit...

LosingPatience, have you tried requesting a move to another desk, maybe in a quieter section of the office? BeckahC

 

[Guest_imported]

The guy's quieted down some, but a couple of the other people who sit near me can get a little loud now and again. Oy vey.

I think I'm going to ask to sit somewhere else. They're not paying me enough to put up with this crap. It never ceases to amaze me just how friggin' thoughtless other people can be. Maybe I should insist in the future that I get an office with a door to work in (I'd certainly be willing to share an office with 1 or 2 other people, as long as there's a door to it so I can close it when it gets noisy).

 

[BeckahC]

It'd be great if could ask for an office, not everyone has the ability to do that. Have you considered headphones? (If they're allowed, I mean) Where I sit now it's usually very quiet, with the occasional loud passersby, but they allow headphones. I find that when I'm just in one of those moods where everything, every sound, annoys me, listening to some calming music sometimes helps me focus better, and relaxes me too. BeckahC

 

[Kjonnnn]

Are you expecting hospital quiet?

 

[2thumbs]

My momma once said, "It takes all kinds to make a world...and they're ALL here!" Working in an office can have drawbacks, seemingly at every other desk somedays, but there were a few comments made previously I think are worth a second look.

Pivan was on the right track pointing out that annoying people can be moreso when there is little or nothing to do, and SheRa made a great suggestion about filling downtime with small projects. Now for my own 2 cents: Have you thought about using some of your slack time DOCUMENTING your work or someone elses? Programmers and developers are wonder workers when they are slinging code, but seldom follow-up with good documentation.

Its a thought,

--2thumbs

 

[Hal10K]

I'm a permanent employee in our shop, a local governmental agency. Due to politics, we often use a lot of contractors. Once, while in the cubical farm, I was working on a really hairy project to convert from a home-grown legacy system to a purchased (and better, really) package.
After every sports event, and especially on Monday mornings, a guy across the wall from me always wasted a half hour or better talking to another contractor about "the game". I spoke to the project lead in their area, but he was new in the slot, and a little too cocky "Don't tell me how to do my job, I'll take care of it." He never did.
Finally, one Monday morning I had enough. I stood up and announced loudly to the offender "Tom, could you and Larry please take your Monday Morning Quarterbacking to the lunchroom? As a taxpayer, I really resent your wasting my tax dollars with loud, non-work discussions. I have real work to do, and your quarterbacking interferes with my concentration. Thank you!
Strangely, there were no more sports news talks across the cube wall from me.......

Hal

 

[BeckahC]

Hal,
I admire your straightforwardness! I would never have had the guts to say something like that... I'd go nuts first... to avoid that, I'd take a break and get as far away from my desk as I can to no longer hear the noise.... I've been told I should be a little more assertive ;-) My hat (if I were wearing one) is off to you! BeckahC

 

[woolstar]

As far as filling the time, I've never been at a Job where I was lacking for things I wanted to change. Everything could be improved. Or at least, refactored. Even when I went through my last layoffs and had six months to myself, I barely finished the 9th rewrite of my cross platform networking library before I got another job. (Darn those employers!!!)

Play with the STL, explore regular expresion libraries, see if some part of the project could have used Boost, test how some of the company web pages work in the lesser known browsers, bring up a suneido server ...