I need to vent.

The people I work with are driving me nuts.

I am in an office, in a row of cubicles. I am smack in the middle of the two noisiest people.

the person on my right, young girl in her 20's. Makes annoying noises. She'd pop her cheeks to make drop noises. She'd sing. She'd make "whoo- whoOOO-" noises. And she's the most friendly with everyone, so everyone comes by to talk to her.

The person on my left.. I like to call her "The 55 year old teenager"- and that's exactly what she is. She is also a talker, loves to talk to herself and describe everything she's doing on the computer "This image looks too red, i am going to go and fix that" or "Why did my mouse die? I need to get batteries".. stupid things like that and she'd go on for hours. She would also make personal phone calls (she doesn't have a cell anymore), and sometimes she'd get into arguments on the phone. Most of the time its with her daughter who seems to have issues. She'd often play talk radio shows. I don't mind music, but the talk shows drive me nuts. When I ask politely for her to be quiet, she'd get angry with me and start a fight with me. She is very sensitive and will fight back with little things.

I am the quietest person here. I don't want to talk about anything, work-related, and especially personal stuff. Word gets around fast here and these people don't need to know my business. I don't even talk about my moving process with anyone but my bosses. I don't play music. I don't join other people conversations. I tend to ignore stupid questions from the "55 year old teenager". 85% of the time, I have my headphones on. and I hate wearing them at work because I am hearing impaired. Any personal calls, I go outside immediately. No one needs to hear my business.

I tolerate work-related noises very well, because, well, they're work-related. Whether its using the paper cutter or other tools that makes noises. When it comes to non-work related (personal calls, and stuff posted above), I get stressed. My happiest days in the office is when these two are not in.

Today, I had to punch out hang-holes on some comp header cards. This is done with a hammer and a stencil. It took me 2 minutes. It's something we don't do very often, maybe once a year? By the second strike of the hammer, the 55-yearold teenager bitched me out for it. I ignored her and continued while she continued to bitch me out. Then she says "Don't ever tell me I am being too noisy, now we're even"

Really? Really??

#1. My "noise" is work related. Yours is not.
#2. How often do I make any type of noise? rarely!

Yes, I could've gone somewhere else to do this, but it was a 2 minute job, and in an area where we do our comping work. If I had a lot to do, I'd go into the warehouse.

There's a position open for project manager. I applied for it.. I hope they'd give me that position so I could have my own office, away from these immature people.

sigh. End rant. Sorry, needed to type this out somewhere!

You sound a lot like me.  I know I am thought of as being anti-social in a work setting because I am a big believer in separating work from personal.  I have noticed guys can do that without people thinking negatively of them but it isn't as easy for women.  Every place I have worked has had at least one of the real social types that talks about her personal life and wants to know everything about everyone else.  They do tend to be overly sensitive, at least in my experience.  I am for the first time working from home and I love it.  Of course I miss out on the relevant work related grape vine stuff but I have learned to live with that.

Denice- exactly! I am sure they think I am anti social bi**** but I don't care. I am there to work, not make friends.

Ugh. This sounds absolutely dreadful. I am great at holding my tongue, but if it went on continuously I would end up biting someones head off sooner or later. I seriously hope you get the job you applied for so you can get away from these people!!

I have always worked in customer service, so I never had the luxury of bitching someone out mid-shift if they are annoying the living piss out of me. It would usually be during closing or after hours. If I REALLY had a problem with someone I worked with I would ask my boss not to schedule me with said person anymore.

Oh I so understand.  

I can be very talkative, when needed but at work I tend to keep to myself because I'm considered management, and getting too close personally with employees is really not a good thing. I take care of all the money here, HR, etc. so getting too up close and personal doesn't feel appropriate to me.  I remember when I first took this job 5 years ago, I allowed myself to "friend" people on Facebook for instance and really hated knowing how much they partied over the weekend when they called in sick on a Monday!  I mean, I'm all for having a good time but frankly, do not need or want to hear about it.  If you call in sick let me pretend you're really ill.

Our administrative assistant is the problem in our office.  Everyone is very friendly with each other, but as soon as she took the position (6 months ago or so) she tried to be uber friendly to everyone right away, which is kind of a turnoff.  Plus, again, I do NOT want to hear deep personal things from her but, she sits right next to me and just blathers about everything.  Yesterday, for instance, I was having a brief conversation with an employee who I do tend to be slightly more personal with (she is also management).  Well, she was listening in and after hearing us discussing wedding dresses (not for us, unrelated) she came over to push photos of her sister's wedding dress at me and, proceeded to describe how awful it was in detail.   She wasn't involved in the discussion and we were talking in low tones so there was NO reason for her to have barged in with this.  I could care less about her sister, or anyone else in her family that she feels she needs to tell me every iota of their lives.  I don't care about her niece, I have no kids and really dislike people pushing baby pictures at me that are not their own kids.  I do care about her cat, but she drones on to excess; pushing her cellphone at me to see the cutest things about the kitty but, again really NOT interested while I'm trying to do billing for instance!

I know people in my office probably also view me as "the older lady" more or less.  I work in a pretty young environment; and while I'm not exactly old yet, I'm still, out of 30+ people, the 4th oldest here.  Even one of my bosses is slightly younger than I am.  I don't have much in common with any of them, although do enjoy some of them that are a bit older and more worldly.  

Last, I work better and am more focused when it's quieter.  We don't have a very raucus office anyway, but the less chit chat around me personally, the better.

Ok, you gave me a reason to vent also.  Sorry for that, she's been bothering me for 6 months now.  We've all tried different tactics with her, but none make an impact.  At least, she's nice!

I feel ya, Draco.  I'm the almost 40-year old kid at work, but I don't do these things you're talking about.  I try to remember that most people are just trying to be friendly and have a different view of what's personal and what isn't, such as asking about family.  It's good that we have here to vent.

I just spoke again to my boss about that position I wanted.
apparently, I am too "Valuable" Where I am at and they don't want to move me. I am valuable? Why didn't I get a raise this year then? I really had to keep my mouth shut here.

I am glad I am not the only one who's constantly biting tongue for silence here.

I think learning how to bite your tongue when needed, which in some work places is needed a lot, is one of the most valuable skills for the workplace.  It's no telling what the real reason for not moving you is.  The old your too valuable is corporate speak that gets used a lot.  I have found that office politics and nepotism are both very common in the workplace.  Unfortunately neither are things that you can prove especially when the nepotism doesn't involve family.  Family ties are usually regulated by corporate policy but the whole friends helping friends isn't and is very difficult to prove.

Draco said:

I just spoke again to my boss about that position I wanted.
apparently, I am too "Valuable" Where I am at and they don't want to move me. I am valuable? Why didn't I get a raise this year then? I really had to keep my mouth shut here.

I am glad I am not the only one who's constantly biting tongue for silence here.

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Sounds to me that there is no room for you to move up in that company.  Have you tried looking for another job?

So far as noisy co-workers, I can totally relate to that! Drives me crazy!

Natalie_ca said:

Sounds to me that there is no room for you to move up in that company.  Have you tried looking for another job?


So far as noisy co-workers, I can totally relate to that! Drives me crazy!

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I am in process of rebuilding my portfolio website- once that's completed, I will start looking for another job. they can't expect me to stay without raises or advancements!

My co-workers are pretty good guys overall. It's the department across the hall that makes us spastic.

We work in a building where the head honchos have offices and everybody else has cubes. They keep it at 67 degrees year around and we're all freezing to death all the time. They finally put electric registers in our cubes (my co-workers' and my cubes, that is....they actually put two registers in my office because I couldn't stand the cold anymore). But you know what heat does? It rises. Straight into the air and out the cube. So we three all brought in heaters and I have mine on my desk where it blows directly on me all the time. I also wear a sweatshirt at work every day. As does everybody else. It's quite ridiculous really. One of my co-workers has a pair of insulated jeans and he wears them quite often. Anything to stay warm. And how ridiculous is it to have to wear a sweatshirt when it's almost 90 degrees outside?

The department across from us sounds like they're partying constantly. From the time they come in in the morning until they leave at quitting time, it's insane. It's better than it used to be since somebody from another department retired, but it's so loud. That man? I wanted to smack him silly. He would laugh and pound the desk with each guffaw. OMG. One morning, somebody called me on the phone and I couldn't not hear him over the noise from across the hallway. I kept asking the man to repeat himself (I have trouble hearing over background noise anyway and this was awful). Finally the guy asked, "What the heck is going on in there? My tax dollars funding a party for you or what?" And this was 9:00 in the morning! I apologized and finally, I told him, it wasn't us, the noise was coming from another department. The guy finally retired and honestly on his last day, when he finally walked out the door, my co-workers and I applauded. He comes back in every once in a while (we think it's when his poor wife needs a rest) and then pounding the desk and laughing. It's terrible. One day, I was on my way back to the cafe and the man came walking out the hall with somebody. The guy said something and the man actually stopped in the hallway, started to laugh and POUNDED THE HALLWAY WALL!

Oh, and then we have the secretaries in their high heels, clacking back and forth the hallways 30 times a day. There's a woman in there, who's pretty sure that she's the greatest thing on earth and who prides herself on wearing the highest heels she can find. One of my co-workers did say something to the powers-that-be about putting in a hall runner or something, but there's no money for that (never mind that there was money for re-painting and re-carpeting the entire building and putting in a brand new kitchen and two new flat-screens in the cafe and in the foyer....now, there's your tax dollars at work). Of course, she heard about the request for the hall runner and she came over one day, just to tell my co-worker that she bought her new pair of heels just with him in mind.....and then she clunked away down the hall. Every time she walks by, one of my co-workers starts to whinny.

And there's absolutely nothing we can do. We've complained (hence the idiot specifically telling my co-worker that she bought her shoes with him in mind). Don't get me wrong. I understand that I don't work in a library (more's the pity, really). But when I'm sitting there, trying to work out a math calculation to figure out how many trees are needed for a plan and what kind of trees are there, I don't need to listen to all the other crap. And when I'm on the phone and somebody asks me about his tax dollars funding a party because of all the noise? That's a problem. It drives me crazy. I thought it was just me until my co-workers started screaming about it, too. Maybe it's because we actually do work in that building.  

I like my job....it's the darn people I can't stand.

Sometimes I completely understand the term "going postal".

Winchester said:

 
. They keep it at 67 degrees year around and we're all freezing to death all the time.

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I can't believe that if everyone is freezing, they don't do something about it.  Those bosses must be real idiots.  As far as the loud department across the way, well they should all be fired.  Those people wouldn't get away with that crap if they worked in the office I worked in for 22 years.  Somebody in that place is way too lenient.

Not everyone is freezing and that's the problem. There are a couple women who love it cold and so they think everyone should love it cold. They used to bitterly complain about it being so warm in the building and they were constantly fluttering their hands in front of their faces, being so melodramatic about it. They brought all kinds of fans into their work area because it was so hot. Everybody else was fine, but they threw such a fit. "Oh, it's so hot in here!" "(name of maintenance guy), please turn the AC on!" "OMG, I'm dying!" And, let me add, these are the ones from the other department making so much noise. I used to think, "You know, if you'd just SHUT UP for five minutes, maybe you wouldn't be so hot!"

Nobody listens to anybody else. It's just them. We put painters plastic over our cubes as a ceiling. That was wonderful; it kept the heat inside our cubes and people used to crowd in our cubes just to get warm. Then somebody threw a fit about it because it didn't look decent (never mind that nobody could even see it unless they actually walked inside our cubes. You couldn't see anything from the hallway. Nothing. Didn't matter. They made us take it down.) And now? We freeze. 90 degrees outside and we're wearing sweatshirts, long underwear and insulated pants at work. It just doesn't make any sense. I sit in front of my heater, with my hands plastered against the front of my heater long enough to get them warm. Our admin assistant sits at her computer wrapped in a blanket. In a blanket! In August!

For a long time, we couldn't have heaters. Every time we tried to turn a heater on, it would blow a circuit. All of us along that wall were on a shared electrical circuit. Overload the circuit and everything blew, computers, printers, everything. They finally spent a few bucks and rewired our offices and put us each on our own circuit so that we could bring heaters into work and be able to use them. 

So basically, I come into work in the morning and immediately turn my heating registers on to 85 degrees. Sure, the heat comes out....and rises right into the air. What a waste. Do I care? No. Then I walk over to my desk and turn my heater on. Full-tilt. And it all stays like that all day long. When my co-workers come in, they do the same thing. Crank the registers up and hit their heaters. It's an incredible waste of money, but we don't care anymore. I do turn my registers down when I leave at night, but they don't. Not anymore.

And really, I guess 67 degrees wouldn't be so bad, if we could get up and move around a bit. But where are we going to go? To the restroom every 15 minutes? Outside to our vehicles? In a sweatshirt? Nope, we sit at our desks and try to work. I do go outside to my car sometimes during lunch, simply to warm up a bit and to have some quiet time. I'll go out, sit in my car, and have a quick cat nap. It's blessedly quiet in my car.

As for the noise, well, nobody does anything about it. The secretaries come into work in the morning and it's like a bunch of hens constantly cackling and carrying on. That other department isn't too bad right now, since that guy retired, but boy, do we ever know it when he comes back for a visit. Nobody does a thing about it. Nobody cares. It's sad, but that's the way it is. Nobody wants to do anything about anything. 

And when we complain, we're the bad guys. It gets stressful after a while. 

I am one of the people that prefers an office to be too cool rather than too warm.  I am okay as long as it's just reasonably warm.  I have been in offices that were kept too hot, that makes me sleepy and often gives me a sick headache.    The best temperature for productivity is supposed to be around 68 but that is too cool for a lot of people.

Denice said:

I am one of the people that prefers an office to be too cool rather than too warm.  I am okay as long as it's just reasonably warm.  I have been in offices that were kept too hot, that makes me sleepy and often gives me a sick headache.    The best temperature for productivity is supposed to be around 68 but that is too cool for a lot of people.

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I'd be interested in seeing whatever study came up with that. What are the parameters: sample size, ages, gender, type of work, etc. I'm one of those people who sits around wrapped in a blanket when it's below 75, and I'm definitely not more productive when I'm cold. All I want to do is hibernate until I can go home and warm up.

@Winchester -- i would not be able to work in an office with that constant temperature. i have raynaud's, which causes me to be ultra sensitive to cool/cold. when i'm tired and/or stressed, i can become very cold too -- no matter the season. occasionally i'll wake up in the middle of the night shivering uncontrollably, sometimes because i've dreamed about being cold or being in the winter time -- and that can be with me being in bed under the blankets and with the heated mattress pad cranking.

LaRussa said:

I can't believe that if everyone is freezing, they don't do something about it.  Those bosses must be real idiots.  As far as the loud department across the way, well they should all be fired.  Those people wouldn't get away with that crap if they worked in the office I worked in for 22 years.  Somebody in that place is way too lenient.

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My worst boss was such that when there was snowstorm outdoors and because of poor condition of door it snowed in and there was subzero temperatures on floor level, we complained that it is bit chilly to sit and repair computers, his reply was to run around the building, but do that on your own time.

I got really bad pneumonia there and was close to death, it has taken me 10 years to build up strength to my body after that, what his first call is about right after I was released from hospital? "We can't pay for such long sick leave", no anything else.

It is wrong to wish harm for other person, but this boss certainly was one that had me think such things.

Winchester said:

 
Not everyone is freezing and that's the problem. There are a couple women who love it cold and so they think everyone should love it cold.

And when we complain, we're the bad guys. It gets stressful after a while. 

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Gee Pam, after hearing all of this I'm surprised you're still working there.  I had the same problem at my very last job, the air would blow right above my head and I too would freeze and my fingers wouldn't work well.  I did get pneumonia but don't know if that was the reason.  Wound up in the hospital and lost my job, of course they told there just wasn't enough work so I collected unemployment and then retired.  I don't miss those days one little bit.

JTbo said:

My worst boss was such that when there was snowstorm outdoors and because of poor condition of door it snowed in and there was subzero temperatures on floor level, we complained that it is bit chilly to sit and repair computers, his reply was to run around the building, but do that on your own time.

I got really bad pneumonia there and was close to death, it has taken me 10 years to build up strength to my body after that, what his first call is about right after I was released from hospital? "We can't pay for such long sick leave", no anything else.

It is wrong to wish harm for other person, but this boss certainly was one that had me think such things.

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Read my post above and see that I also got pneumonia but don't know if was the blowing of cold air on my head.  I am so glad I am retired so I can turn my thermostat to any temp I want.

LaRussa said:

Read my post above and see that I also got pneumonia but don't know if was the blowing of cold air on my head.  I am so glad I am retired so I can turn my thermostat to any temp I want.

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My pneumonia was caused by unidentified bacteria, that is what doctors said. No antibiotics were working, I had to sign form to allow use of experimental new combination of two antibiotics, which finally helped. Two weeks at intensive care unit, more on regular hospital room, when I got out I could not walk stairs, but boy was I happy to be alive.

It was not long after that when they told for me same as to you, that there was not enough work and fired me based on that, I was happy to get rid of that job.

Since that pneumonia my head has felt same as in high fever, but constantly, without fever, kind of dizzy foggy feeling all the time, lot of migraines, almost daily, random loss of vision etc.

Currently I'm waiting decision about retirement, but it does not look like they will approve.