There’s someone in charge who can take care of the issue, whether he or she is in the office or not. The child is disruptive and should not be left to roam unsupervised in the office for both productivity and liability reasons.
Some months ago, a 10-year-old boy was roaming around our downtown office on a Monday morning. I assumed he was part of a take-your-child-to-work day with one of my coworkers, yet no one seemed to claim him. He wandered around and coughed loudly, went desk to desk trying to sell a coupon he found on the floor, and generally was a pain in the ass.
I sent an IM to my boss asking why the child was here, and where his parent was. He replied back that the kid was with the Make-A-Wish foundation, had tuberculosis, and wanted to see an “Internet company” before he died. I fell for it and was mortified for a moment until my boss cracked up.
Overall, it’s pretty simple. If you are taking your child to work with you, you are taking the responsibility of supervising the child and ensuring that he or she does not distract or bother any of your coworkers. In a vengeful moment, I even entertained the idea of the company billing the irresponsible parent for the lost hours of productivity . . .
Oh sweet Jeezus. He’s at the typewriter again. He had disappeared for a while, then got back with McDonalds and the took over the whole kitchen and wrecked it…we were planning on having cake and coffee since it’s my coworker’s last day, but now we can’t do it in the kitchen and had to move it to my boss’ office.
The thing is, I think we just have to be tolerant and bite our tongues here. We don’t know these people well and I don’t think anyone wants to create any embarassment (for both parties) by saying anything.
Shit, the kid is just holding down the buttons so it’s an endless “click, click, click, click…” forever, with some little beeps in between.
It just gets me that it doesn’t seem to occur to these people that it’s annoying to the other workers in the office.
If the typewriter belongs to the father’s firm, then you may have to bite your tongue. As much as it annoys you, it is his property and the sounds of typing are (or were) standard office noises. However, if the machine in question belongs to your company there should be absolutely no embarassment in telling the kid to stop. “Please, don’t play with the typewriter (cabinet door, chair, whatever), it is not a toy.” The office as playground will continue only as long as you allow.
“Junior, please clean up your mess in the kitchen.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Excuse me, Dad, Junior is liable to get hurt if he continues to slam the doors.”
You share an office (and kitchen) with this guy. Why would you be embarrassed by any of the above?
Nah, kitchens are easy to clean. I think you just don’t want to share with the little guy. <---- See, I jest!
My former editor had a thing about bringing her kids to work. They were very disruptive in ways very similar to those cited in the OP–especially when you’re writing on a deadline! But the kicker was the time she brought her daughter in to work because she had the flu and couldn’t go to school.
She brought her daughter with her–to an office full of people–when her daughter was sick with the fucking flu! I didn’t catch it, but everybody else in my department did.
Cause the Make-a-Wish Foundation is notorious for sending kids with highly communicable and very serious diseases out into contact with the public. It’s part of their evil plot as a subsidiary of the Illuminati to rule the world.
Ya know, at this point, it’s your unwillingness to DO SOMETHING that’s getting annoying. Don’t let this petulent little brat and his crap father walk all over you. Stand up and make a scene, tell the kid to stop making noise (slamming the keys on a typewriter is in no way similar to the sounds of average typing, and chances are that typewriter doesn’t get used a whole lot during the normal work day). Get your coworkers together and go bully the dad into doing the right thing.
Arrgh! The OP describes one of my pet peeves, not being responsible for your child. I can totally imagine how he would react if called on it too…all indignant and insulted when the reality is he is the one being an ass. Please, give me his phone number or email and I will take care of the problem!
“Excuse me - I hate to bother you, but would you please be willing to find a quieter way to occupy your son? I know he’s having a great time, but I’m being paid to get things done, and it’s very difficult to concentrate on my work. Thank you so much.”
It’s not that fucking hard. Then again, complaining on the internet is even easier.
I agree with Spectrum. Stop being such a whiny fucking cunt and say something, else shut the fuck up about it. You’ve been chronicling his piss-fucking-poor behavior and your lack of fucking gonads since 9AM. It’s really worn out now.
If you lack the social skills required to mention something to him, it’s your fault.
Wow, for the first time today, I actually heard a “shhhh!” after the kid was yelling! Those people aren’t deaf after all!
Even better news, I believe the kid is either gone or asleep, thank goodness. I hope this was a one-time situation. If it becomes a routine, I will say something. I will also be letting our office manager know for future reference.
You are correct. The typewriter is not ever used. Who the heck uses a typewriter in 2004? And you are right that the pounding on the keyboard was much more disruptive than if it were normal typing.
As an aside: another thing that pisses me off about the situation is how the father is treating his coworker (a subordinate) like a babysitter. When you take your kid to work, YOU are responsible for him, no one else! While the dad sits in his office working, the woman who sits in the cube outside the office has been taking care of/chasing around/entertaining the kid the whole day. And no, she isn’t his secretary or anything. It’s a lobbying firm fer chrissakes!
Just politely explain that you’re a registered sex offender and that children in the office disturb you. That should prevent him from bringing his kid in again.
No no no no no. What you say is “Look, I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but a guy in HR told me that one of the people in the office is a registered sex offender. He wouldn’t tell me who, but he was definite that it was someone in this department.” After all, why make yourself the target of unintended consequences when you can get him to act paranoid with every person in the office instead.
Hi, Timmy. Would you like to learn to fly, like Peter Pan?
Sure!
Keep your shit up and I’m gonna toss you straight through that window!
When I was little, my Mom was in the hospital and I had to go to work with Dad on a school holiday. I wore church clothes and was under order to keep my pie hole closed and do what I was told.
Unfortunately, the last order was observed when I was in Dad’s office with a book when his phone rang. Dad was on the other side of the office and an engineer who was closer told me to answer the phone. I did what the man told me to do. A dozen engineers laughed their asses off as my Dad tried to outdo a 25 yard dash sprinter.
Good god man, what crawled up your underoos and died? Yeah, the OP is being a bit of a coward about the whole thing but don’t you think you’re reacting a bit harshly? Calling her a whiny fucking cunt?
Jesus, get a grip.
If her chronicling is irritating you so damned much, don’t open the fucking thread, and lay off the coffee while you’re at it. Yeesh.
A bit? A bit? You’re fucking kidding me, right? Waiting 8 hours for an overactive, ignored, snotnose little shit to run amok, whining about it constantly and frequently, all the while telling people on the internet how “uncomfortable” it feels to be there and how noisy, raukus, and shitty the child is being, ruining coffee and cake due to the griminess of the kitchen when the kid was done with it is NOT a BIT cowardly, it’s socially inept.
I always thought it was a he, and the spirit in which I used the term “cunt” was not in the American “cunt is an anti-female term used only by hateful mysoginists”, but more like the British “cunt is a good all around cuss when one is peeved”.
Never lost it.
It didn’t bother me until the whining and whinging went on for an entire business day. And I haven’t had coffee since 9am.
Well, I’m up to my ears right now in the thrilling world of property law and you don’t see me pitching random hissies.
Never argued with the fact the OP was being a wuss, but socially inept? Comon’ now. Are you saying that anyone who doesn’t march on up to a total stranger and lambast them for their kids’ misbehavior is socially inept? Just because you might get a hard on for confrontation don’t mean everyone does.
Pretty sure the OP is a she. Although I’ve always thought you were a girl due to the girly way you spell your screenname. What’s your point? Calling a male a cunt is okay? It’s actually pretty lame and a bit nonsensical. Calling a male a whiny little bitch can be sort of funny, in the proper context, but calling a male a whiny little cunt? That’s kind of lame. And you live in San Jose, right? Kind of far from the UK. Or are you one of those losers who attempts to appear cool by using language in such a way as to be almost guaranteed not to be understood the way it’s meant to, just so you can show how “cultured” you are? I knew a guy like you in high school. He insisted on calling “gas” “petrol” even though he’d never set foot outside of California. It wasn’t a huge shocker that the guy was in his twenties and yet had to troll the high school’s looking for dates.
Really. So you’re normally a nasty, screetchy, confrontational ass? You must be really fun at parties.
You know, I’ve gotta ask. Have you been keeping up with this thread all day? When all it’s doing is pissing you off? Do you like being pissed off? No wonder you’re so bitchy.
I’m female, actually. Not that the gender of whomever you’re lambasting at the moment is of any consequence to you.
The OP is female. She has never struck me as being confrontational, which is her choice. It appears she just wanted to bitch out her feelings on the board, which doesn’t scrape my fenders.
<---- See, I jest!
