Let’s call the noisy coworker NoiseGuy for short.
Situation, I work in a open office, in the same space there are some rooms with actual doors. NoiseGuy works in one of these rooms but he always keeps the door open.
NoiseGuy is very noisy about everything. He is constantly stapling papers at full power, whistling, yawning out loud, singing, and sometimes he just shout up some words out loud like “WEEELL!!!”.
I’m quite sensible to noise so I thought it may be just me. But I’ve asked other coworkers and everyone is sick of it. When he shouts specially loud everyone look at each other.
I did some research and he doesn’t even work in my department. He apparently got demoted here for having issues with his old department and being sent to my office was, apparently, his punishment.
He knows he is noisy, and I think he is doing it on purpose to bother everyone around him, that’s why I also think he keeps his door open. Everyone in office have decided just not to acknowledge him very much in a “do not look at the monsters” way. But he is just not stopping, it’s been years like this.
I don’t want to create a bad ambient in my workspace, but I’m starting to have a bad time each day when I hear him. I don’t want to switch jobs as I have otherwise a great job.
Options I have thought:
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Talking with my boss. My boss is not his boss so they have no power over him.
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Talking with his boss or human resources. They were the ones who sent him here, I don’t think they would be doing more as he is impossible to fire or have any other work-related punishment.
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Talking with NoiseGuy. He has apparent personality issues. I don’t want to mess with that. Most likely he would be even more noisy knowing he is bothering someone.
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Having a meltdown and going to his office and slam the door close. I fantasize about this, but he will just open the door again and I would be the crazy one in the office.
I have some earplugs I carry on my keyring that I originally bought for concerts. I don’t know if you can wear something like that or noise cancelling headphones, but that might help on occasion.
Whistling is where I’d draw the line though. That would make me the crazy person that would confront him directly. If he isnt receptive to knocking it off I would escalate to my boss or get hr back in the mix.
Walk over to his office and close the door, maybe with a finger to lips shushing gesture. Keep doing it until he gets the hint.
This, could work.
But depending on personality issues… It could just escalate the issue.
Sounds like it needs escalating.
I think talking with his boss, your boss and HR (possibly all in one meeting) sounds like a reasonable first step. If it doesn’t work out or help, I’d try talking to him. You could get one or two coworkers as backup to come with you, just to make his personality issues less threatening. If this doesn’t work or maybe even make it worse, you could get some earplugs or ANC headphones to make it less of an issue for you. Good luck!
I think talking with his boss, your boss and HR (possibly all in one meeting) sounds like a reasonable first step.
Talk about the nuclear option!! That’s a meeting HR calls in when someone is about to get fired!!
Yeah, that’s at least step three, after talking to him directly and talking to your boss one on one
If you want to avoid confrontation, find a reason to talk to him in his office and then calmly and “accidentally” close the door on the way out. As long as everyone else works with their doors closed, you can laugh it off as a mistake if he even notices.
Some people really are just accidentally obnoxious though, he might genuinely not know he’s being a pain in the arse. We have a similar coworker. Always with these shitty unfunny quips, often plays air horn sound effects interrupting other people’s conversations if they think something positive has happened… Just so much fucking noise from one person.
They’re on holiday this week and I’m over the fucking moon lol
That’s actually very clever. I don’t really have reasons to go to his office (I haven’t go once in five years). But some other people do, maybe I can convince them to do it.
It might work but it’s really not a long-term solution. Confrontation is uncomfortable and I know you mentioned he has personality issues but is there somebody who could talk to him? When the guy I work with joined, he would constantly tap his feet and it would shake my desk, and the desks of like four other people around us. Eventually we just asked him to stop – he didn’t even realise it was bothering us because nobody said anything.
Granted, he’s actually friendly, but still… Someone might just have to ask Noiseguy (nicely) if he could maybe be a bit quieter? Or poke your head in and say “you okay? Oh, sorry, I could hear you from across the office.” - just something to maybe remind him like, hey, keep an eye on your volume. This might not get solved by just closing the door!
that’s a fantastic suggestion
Keep in mind this suggestion is very risky and may get you fired, but you could try to put something in his office that can’t be easily detected, and creates lots of noise straight to his ear. Again, it is extremely risky.
NoiseGuy works in one of these rooms but he always keeps the door open.
Close the door.
My advice aswell. If he opens it, close it again and tell him it’s because he is noisy.
Get everyone involved too so that anytime someone sees it open they go to close it
Hell, the moment he yells just stands up an close the door. If he questions it, just say “It sounded like you were in the middle of something, were just giving you the privacy you need.”
If you have the funds, consider buying noise cancelling headphones. Then go to your boss. Make sure to show them that you want to be respectful and considerate.
Avoid giving off the impression that you are sewing discontent among your colleagues. Chances are that managers will not help you if they get the impression that you are being excessively fussy, or worse, that you are orchestrating discontent among your colleagues.Hell, ask your boss if you can expense the headphones because of the other guy. Make it a cost problem.
Blame return to office
establish a nickname for “noisy dave” then do the talk to your boss stuff.
IMO you go to him and ask politely for him to knock it off or shut the door.
If he doesn’t then you go again and gently remind him, restating the boundary and saying something like “this is a shared workspace. If you can’t respect other people’s needs then I will need to discuss this with a mediator” or whatever.
Then escalate as appropriate.
Keep in mind some of this is on him and some of this is on you. Whistling, singing, shouting out? Bad form on his part.
“Stapling papers at full power”? Yawning? Honestly, even just saying “well!”? People exist and make noise friend, welcome to the hell of an open office, maybe get some headphones or loops if you’re that sensitive to noise?
On one hand excessive noise is unacceptable and should be reprimanded. On the other hand some noise here and there is inherent to a shared office space. Figuring out which is which is within the scope of hr so maybe tag them in but always keep in mind their ultimate purpose is to protect the company
Situation, I work in a open office
Found the issue.
But hey, all that amazing collaboration is wonderful isnt it? I mean, when im at home, I have no idea how to collaborate. How do people do it? Do they have some tool for it? I dont know, HR just says office is the best, so it must be.
I think talking with your boss would be the best thing if talking with Noisy Guy directly is not something you think is feasible. That would be the first step to escalation, talking to someone elses boss or human resources directly is typically frowned upon I believe since corporations have a very hierarchical structure and stepping outside of that is very uncommon. If enough people talk to your boss about it they might be able to escalate it further, if it’s a demonstrably sufficiently large problem (i.e. it affects ROI somehow) then it might get escalated up to someone who is directly above Noisy Guy and can do something about it.
HR isn’t really for interpersonal problems, it is the branch of the corporation that deals with the legalese of having people in employ. I. e. Hiring/firing, wage payment and issues, vacation days etc. anything that (potentially) touches upon legal issues. If you have anything protected under law then that’s HR’s job. But even then, “troublemakers”, for example people filing complaints about illegal sexual harassment, should be aware that the company’s interest is to it’s profit line first and will only do as much as it can be prosecuted for. If they have to fire the harasser they will, but that’s a loss on their part and if they believe that this could be recurring problem with the victim they’d rather terminate the victims employment to mitigate their loss. HR’s primary concern is shielding the corporation from legal harm and they care about your work environment only in as much as it affects your output. So if employing you is more trouble than it’s worth, you’re gone.
Exceptions, variations apply of course and are typically tied to the corporations size.
My approach, depending on your boss, talk to them about how it’s affecting you personally if they’re amiable to you. If they like you they might relate and want to solve it because people like helping each other, but give them something about how it hurts collective performance so they can argue why this problem needs a solution to their higher ups. Know your and your colleagues works worth. If what you produce is absolutely vital to the companies success then wham bam they should be out of there. If you are easily replaced, you need to be a bit more diplomatic. As always there is more power in collective bargaining than individual.
Your boss should be talking to their boss
If this were ULPT, I would recommend the annoyatron. Hide it well and see how long it takes to break him. https://annoyatron.us/
But it is not, so I think others would have better solutions.
Calmly and consistently close his door saying ”you left it open, let me get for you."
Repeat as often as is necessary.
