March 27, 2009 at 8:38 am
I am in an open environment and my biggest complaint is the network guys who insist on making animal noises as part of their daily conversation. I mean, howler monkey, toucan, jungle animal noises. They are having fun, and I appreciate that, I don't mind some of the joking and laughter but those noises drive me batty. Otherwise I am pretty tolerant of speakerphone and conversational noise.
Regarding phones ringing, we have a unique problem in that we are in a locked room (the servers are in a separate room within our room but there are two layers of physical security there) and when someone presses the buzzer, the phones all ring. You would be amazed how long 12 people can pretend to ignore 15 simultaneously ringing telephones. Someone has to pickup and drop a phone, and go to the door and let the caller in. I must say, at least 30% of the time it is me who gives in. The thing is, I am older than the rest of these yahoos, I am the only woman, and I walk with a cane. The other thing is, as a consultant, the visitors are never here to see me. It's just that I am the first to get fed up with the ringing phones. The poor person waiting often looks a little guilty when they see me coming to the window, especially when they see the cane.
On the confessional side, I am one of the self-talkers. It doesn't matter the environment, when I am coding, I tend to murmur, especially when things aren't going well. To top it off, there are definitely inappropriate phrases that tend to jump out. Quietly, at least, but I know I've set off strings of giggles from my coworkers with my attempts to keep my language clean. ("Dag nab it you son of a biscuit!") Then I have the jumpy legs. You know, the bouncy knee thing, especially after a Monster at breakfast and a couple of Diet Dr. Peppers. This is normally a quiet thing, but on the raised tile floor, I can really set off some reverb.
Because I am an offender, I never complain about others' annoying little habits, and I do my best to keep mine to a minimum volume.
😎 Kate The Great :w00t:
If you don't have time to do it right the first time, where will you find time to do it again?
March 27, 2009 at 8:41 am
- The guy 3 cubes down humming badly with his headset on.
- The lady who burns popcorn in the microwave on purpose because she likes it that way.
- The manager who doesn't have the background to evaluate who's good and who's not at their job.
Solutions: earbuds, noseplugs and a therapist
Welcome to the Jungle Baby ...
March 27, 2009 at 8:45 am
I'll have to agree with the people who mentioned the 'story tellers' - a guy I work with tells you the same stories over and over again and just goes on and on.... Not only wastes his time but yours as well. I'd rather you just go surf the internet all day. How many times can I hear about the payroll problems you had at K-Mart in 1987?
This one is really gross, we have someone (haven't caught them yet) who blows their nose in the sink in the rest room!! I'll buy you a box of Kleenex if things are that bad. Yuck!
March 27, 2009 at 8:56 am
Working in a multilingual environment with everyone speaking their native tongue. In our office we have Americans, German, Latinos and a smattering of Indians.
I know that they are not talking to me - but it is distracting for some reason to hear an unfamiliar tongue.
Thank God for headphones to provide background noise.
March 27, 2009 at 9:06 am
Ed Salva (3/27/2009)
"convince them your a nut and that they had better stay away from you." -- Grasshoppernever been able to successfully accomplish this, can't seem to get past the Teddy bear phase, any suggestions?
Lots of good ways to do that:
1. Give everyone who comes to see you the hard sell to get them to buy Amway products, Girl Scout cookies, raffle tickets, etc.
2. Put some pictures on the wall showing you posing with your favorite firearms. Mention that your favorite fantasy is being up on a tower with a sniper rifle.
3. Include your favorite imaginary friend in every conversation. Get angry if they refuse to acknowledge the presence of your imaginary friend.
4. Tell everyone who drops by the same long, pointless, boring story every time you see them.
5. Insist on showing them all 500 pictures you took on your vacation, and tell them the complete story behind each one.
March 27, 2009 at 9:15 am
I have a co-worker who sits right behind me and has a practice of cursing under his breath while coding. Often it's a pretty constant stream. I'm no prude, but it does get a bit distracting at times. Of course, I whistle a lot, which probably bugs the heck out of him.
I agree with the first poster - a walk in the fresh air does wonders to clear the mind.
March 27, 2009 at 9:17 am
I am so lucky work in Big company.
1) No Coffee pot. They have coffee machine, pay by yourself if you need coffee.
2) No water fountain. Some kind of water from refrigerator but need to open it wide and it will obstruct the walk way. They have foam cup at 8oz (just change to 12 oz, you can see normal 16 oz at other office)
3) No talk, just stare at computer.
4) Nobody can make any noise due to it has open space to the executive floor. It will disturb them.
5) Sometime I really do not know where the people in my floor go. It look like I find myself wrong turn in the wood.
6) The loudest noise is the people move their position while they are on their chair.
7) We use email for communication. Some talk but not much.
8) They have small tree all around, look not so bad.
9) for 300 people at this location, you can not see anyone take a break at outside the building for smoking (except Lunch time and may be you can see 2-3 people only)
10) Once my big boss stared at me when I walked into other department(Collection) and I need to move back quietly to my cube.
11) Some in Collection department but the speak softly and nicely.
And we make good amount of profit for more than 20 years.
I do not against them and really appreciate the environment here (I really love here, and I am still work here longer than any other place)
So I do not really know what the other people talking about.
😀
March 27, 2009 at 9:18 am
At work, its the kunky old ink jet printer in the next cube that's print head crashes from end to end so hard and loud that it actually vibrates the work surface and walls around it in a rhythmic staccato that can get me rocking back and fourth in time to the beat.
In my home office, its the cat that sheds copiously all over my chair and continually is vomiting hairballs (the reason why she's confined to our smallest bedroom converted to my office).
"Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand." -- Martin Fowler
March 27, 2009 at 9:25 am
Ron Kunce (3/27/2009)
At work, its the kunky old ink jet printer in the next cube that's print head crashes from end to end so hard and loud that it actually vibrates the work surface and walls around it in a rhythmic staccato that can get me rocking back and fourth in time to the beat.
Look at the bright side - way back when we had an old diablo Daisywheel printer. Shook the whole table while you were trying to type.
March 27, 2009 at 9:33 am
My biggest annoyance is the colour printer sitting outside my office. I can live with the fact that it sounds like a 747 taking off when it warms up, but the beep it makes when it wants attention is enough to make me want a cricket bat. Is it really necessary to have a beep loud enough to hear at the other end of the building? Or to make it beep for EVERY page when print jobs are sent to the manual feed tray (I've managed to stop people from doing this one finally).
Aargh.
-D
March 27, 2009 at 9:48 am
Jack Corbett (3/27/2009)
I think I need to apologize, because you guys have hit all of my bad habits. I don't talk in the 3rd person or the coffee stuff, but drumming, singing, talking to myself, tapping, wow, I've been annoying people for years. Well, if you ask my family they'd say from birth:-D
uh, +1. Sorry everyone.
March 27, 2009 at 10:03 am
the phrase "dub dub dub" is horrible...simply horrible.
Using "loose" instead of lose is lame too, but not as bad as dub dub dub.
March 27, 2009 at 10:11 am
jjarupan (3/27/2009)
I am so lucky work in Big company.1) No Coffee pot. They have coffee machine, pay by yourself if you need coffee.
2) No water fountain. Some kind of water from refrigerator but need to open it wide and it will obstruct the walk way. They have foam cup at 8oz (just change to 12 oz, you can see normal 16 oz at other office)
3) No talk, just stare at computer.
4) Nobody can make any noise due to it has open space to the executive floor. It will disturb them.
5) Sometime I really do not know where the people in my floor go. It look like I find myself wrong turn in the wood.
6) The loudest noise is the people move their position while they are on their chair.
7) We use email for communication. Some talk but not much.
8) They have small tree all around, look not so bad.
9) for 300 people at this location, you can not see anyone take a break at outside the building for smoking (except Lunch time and may be you can see 2-3 people only)
10) Once my big boss stared at me when I walked into other department(Collection) and I need to move back quietly to my cube.
11) Some in Collection department but the speak softly and nicely.
And we make good amount of profit for more than 20 years.
I do not against them and really appreciate the environment here (I really love here, and I am still work here longer than any other place)
So I do not really know what the other people talking about.
😀
Thank you for the good laugh! I needed that. " It look like I find myself wrong turn in the wood." Oh boy... almost fell out of my chair! I have worked a few places like you describe (mostly). Atmosphere a little too thick there.
March 27, 2009 at 10:17 am
Michael Valentine Jones (3/27/2009)
Ed Salva (3/27/2009)
"convince them your a nut and that they had better stay away from you." -- Grasshoppernever been able to successfully accomplish this, can't seem to get past the Teddy bear phase, any suggestions?
Lots of good ways to do that:
1. Give everyone who comes to see you the hard sell to get them to buy Amway products, Girl Scout cookies, raffle tickets, etc.
(snip to end)
Too funny! And to think you just might make a sell or two and live the Good Life.
March 27, 2009 at 10:21 am
The only real issue I have with people are the ways people let small issues get to them in such a way that they let it rule their day. It's almost like they live their life based on the moment. Joe taps his foot!!! My life sucks!!!
That said, I really despise people singing when they have headphones on in the next cube. I mean, I do it... but when others do it drives me crazy. It really makes my life hell. Heh.
Something to share...
Me to my 8 yr old son this morning>> You're pushing me to my limits son. Get ready for school!!!
8 year old son>> Come on fahogogats!!! Everybody to the limit, everybody to the limit com'on fahogogats!!! :hehe:
me to myself>> He must hear me when I have my headphones on... Life really is good. :w00t:
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