A reader writes:
I need some advice on how to deal with working with a coworker that drives me absolutely insane. This lady is by far the most annoying, rude, and unprofessional person I have ever had the displeasure of working with.
You know how they say if a shark stops moving they will die? Well that’s my coworker, but with talking. Our cubicles are right across from each other and every morning before I’ve even had a chance to put my bag down, she is in my cubicle bitching about her morning or telling me some story about her kid. I try to sneak in and avoid saying “good morning” because I don’t want to set her off, but it’s like she’s got Spidey senses. Whenever she starts with one of her stories, I just go on about my business and completely ignore her, or I give her a blank stare. I honestly think she doesn’t care that I have no interest in anything she has to say because I have tried everything to get her to leave me alone:
• There was a moment when we first started working when I completely lost my cool and told her to stop talking and get out of my cubicle. To which she responded, “Oh, okay. But I’ll be back later!”
• I specifically bought those giant Beats headphones in an effort to prevent her from talking to me. But that did not stop her. She still knocked on my cubicle wall or desk or waved her hand next to my face to get my attention. Once I took off my headphones she would start telling me a story about her cats or something equally as random!
• I will tell her if I’m not interested in a topic, but then she just starts her ramblings like, “I know you’re not interested in baseball, but let me tell you about the game last night.”
• If I tell her I’m really busy and keep my back towards her, she will not walk away until after she has finished telling her story.
To make matters worse, we sit near two supervisors’ offices. Not only does she talk a lot, but she is so loud and is constantly swearing. Our supervisory team has sent out emails about appropriate office conversations and language, but it just doesn’t get through to her. I have asked to move cubicles, citing the fact that I feel unproductive, but my requests have been denied, twice. (It’s a corporate thing, I guess. Others have asked to move and their requests have been denied as well.)
Aside from the non-stop talking and swearing, there are other things that bother me about her. For instance, she will straight up yell at anyone (coworkers, programmers, supervisors) if they point out a mistake she’s made. If I am asked to work on a special project she will stop by my cubicle several times a day to stare at my computer screen and go, “What’s this? What are you working on? Well, I’m sure glad I don’t have to do anything like this!” She also has a tendency to come into work sans bra (which she points out to everyone!) and wearing pajama pants and holey hoodies. We work in a government building, for crying out loud! This lady is in her thirties. Why can’t she act like an adult?
I really like my job and have no interest in leaving, but I just don’t know what to do anymore! The days she is not here are like a breath of fresh air. Please help me!
I wrote back and asked: Does she do this to everyone else too? Is there anyone who seems to have found a way to successfully fend her off?
She talks to me the most. I think it’s because we started on the same day, so we have that ~connection~. But she will find another target on days I’m not there. I can always tell who her victim for the day is because I will get a text from them that says, “Thanks for leaving me with crazypants.” Occasionally she will get to work early and bother whoever is there at that time.
The only person she completely ignores is the office grump. (This man will not acknowledge anyone, shuts the door on you even if you are two feet away, never attends an office party, etc.) But I could go an entire day without saying a word to her and she would still be in my cubicle.
I’m generally a nice person and my boss jokingly calls me “troublemaker” because it’s the complete opppsite of who I am. But I feel like this lady’s attitude is slowly changing my mentality and it’s killing me!
This sounds horrible.
You’re probably hoping for a way to get her to leave you alone that doesn’t (a) require you having to be rude or (b) end in her hating you. I don’t think there’s a realistic solution that will give you (a), and there might not be one that gives you (b) either.
If you want to get her to stop, you’re going to have to say and do things that are going to feel rude to you. That’s not your fault — it’s hers, for putting you in a position where that’s the only thing that will work.
There’s a glimmer of hope in this detail from your letter: “There was a moment when we first started working when I completely lost my cool and told her to stop talking and get out of my cubicle. To which she responded, ‘Oh, okay. But I’ll be back later!’” Her response there was obviously ridiculous, but if I’m reading this correctly, she did in fact leave.
You need to do much more of that and much less of this: “Whenever she starts with one of her stories, I just go on about my business and completely ignore her, or I give her a blank stare.” I totally get why you’ve resorted to those options, but they’re not effective in getting her to stop. (They should be! But they’re not.)
So, here are your strategies going forward:
* Be very, very blunt with like when you snapped at her. That doesn’t mean yelling at her — you still need to be reasonably professional — but you can absolutely say “I need you to stop talking and leave my cubicle.” Followed by, if necessary, “STOP TALKING. I’m working.” That is going to feel incredibly rude — because it would be with anyone else. But it’s not with her; it’s the only thing that gets through to her. (Frankly, I’d argue you’d even be doing her a favor by being so blunt, because she’s clearly not picking up softer signals that are in her best interest to pick up on.)
* Keep wearing your giant headphones. If she knocks on your desk or waves her in front of your face, say to her, “I’m working and cannot talk” and turn back to your work. If she keeps trying, say, “Please email me. I am busy right now.” Keep the headphones on. If there’s a fire, someone else will tell you.
* If she says something like “I know you’re not interested in baseball, but let me tell you about the game last night,” say this: “You’re right, I’m not, and I need to focus on work so I cannot have you talking to me right now” and then turn back to your work. If she continues anyway, use the “I need you to leave” advice above.
* If you do all this and she keeps talking, stand up, look her directly in the eye, and say, “I told you I am working and I need you to leave. Please go now.”
(This is the rudest advice I’ve ever given, and it’s making me uncomfortable! But you’ve tried everything else, and so your choices really are to take this approach or to live with what’s happening.)
You could also try a more big-picture conversation with her, although I don’t have any idea if it will work because she’s clearly not playing by rules any of us are familiar with. That would sound like this: “Jane, I’m really busy with work and I cannot get my job done when you keep coming over to talk to me. I need you to stop chatting with me during the day — not just sometimes, but completely. It’s interfering with my ability to do my work. So from now on, if you come over to chat, I’m going to cut you off and ask you to leave. I’m sorry if that feels rude, but it’s the only way I can get my job done.”
If you do that, though, you have to really commit to cutting her off every time after that, because otherwise you’ll be training her to believe that you don’t really mean it.
Also, this is bad enough that you should be talking to your boss about it. As in: “I’m having a real problem with Jane continually trying to socialize with me while I’m working. It’s multiple times a day, and I’ve told her directly many times that I can’t talk and she needs to leave, but she just keeps talking. It’s affecting my ability to focus on my work, and I’m at my wit’s end. Since I’ve been quite direct and she’s ignoring me, is it possible for you to intervene?”
You should encourage your coworkers to have this same conversation with their boss and/or Jane’s boss. Every time they vent to you about Jane, suggest they talk to the person who can actually help — their manager.
The venting, by the way, is probably making this worse, since it means that even more of your time and mental energy at work is taken up by thinking about Jane. If nothing else, you might be happier if everyone cut that out or at least pulled way back on it.
And speaking of your own mental health, stop caring about all the pieces of this that don’t directly impact you — like her yelling at other people and what she’s wearing. There’s enough of this that does affect you that you need to deal with that there’s no point in taking on the rest of it too.
Good luck, and I wish you much silence.
my coworker never stops talking — and I mean NEVER was originally published by Alison Green on Ask a Manager.