The woman that sits in the cube diagonal from me, on the other side of a partition (rather than across an aisle) sings, and hums, and bangs her feet all day long. She’s 60-ish, with a “bubbly” personality, and I’m certain she regards herself as quirky and charming. In reality, she’s hugely fucking annoying.
I haven’t done anything but shake my head and put on my headphones (The Wall tends to calm me) when she really gets going. The people I work with agree she is a complete and utter fruitcake, and arguably the worst neighbor any of us have ever had in cubeland. But, we soldier on. No petty sniping, no anonymous emails telling her to shut up, no complaints to her boss, and so on. There have been moments, though, when I was tempted to do… something…
The elderly lady who sits in the cube by me used to “sing”. She’d put on some headphones and start howling away in a loud quavery voice. People would track the sound to its source and stand at my desk, where we would silently :eek: at each other.
I didn’t know what to do about it, because I dread hurting people’s feelings, but fortunately, after a couple of days I was saved by another lady who had no such scruples. She marched up to Singer, waved her hands until the squealing stopped and the headphones were removed, and said, “What the hell’s going on here? Sounds like you’re killing a cat!”
1> “Look Boss(wo)man, this constant singing and banging her feet business has got to stop. Can you please talk to her about it?”
2> “Um, excuse me, but do you realize how annoying it is to have to listen to you singing and stomping your feet all day long? It’s not very professional.”
3> Both of the above.
4> Squirt bottle, every time she sings or stomps. Works for cats. “Bad, bad co-worker!”
5> The unethical passive-aggressive approach. “I have to be moved away from Singing Stomping Lady. I got a note from my doctor about the terrible headaches I’ve been getting from all the pounding and kicking I have to put up with all day. It just shoots up my spine and causes horrific pain! Oh, and I’ll need a new, ergonomic chair and some cube mods.”
I cannot imagine the hell you’re in. I have a co-worker who sometimes hums under her breath, and that irritates me. Full out singing would make me homicidal.
I found sending e-mail or text messages whenever the singing began to be marginally effective. I worked between two people who tended to forget that the headphones only blocked out noise for them, not for everyone else within fifty feet.
One guy kept forgetting. In the end I had to say to him, “You’re a good guy, a good worker, and we all like you, but if you don’t stop singing I will have to stab you to death with a pencil”. Then when he forgot (he worked across a cube wall from me) I would hold up a pencil and he stopped.
Of course, there are those that complained when I rebuked the computer for its uncooperative attitude, but that’s completely different.
The guy 3 offices down from me wistles tunelessly. Not constantly, but for several minutes at a time a few times a day. I asked him to shut the fuck up a couple of times. No effect. So I close my door and try to ignore it. Glad I have a door to close.
We have someone at work who’s so loud, it was put on her development/performance scorecard, which is the basis for our bonus, to shut the hell up (why she’s here at all is an entirely separate story, which I won’t go into). Anyway, we’ve talked to her about it and, when that didn’t work, we talked to her multiple bosses, which is why it ended up on her scorecard. Now that she knows it’s a real issue, whenever she starts jacking up the volume again, we stand up and put a finger to our lips to remind her to cut it out. She’s gotten much better about the volume, though I think she’s compensated by becoming more annoying in other areas.
My recommendation would be to talk to the woman first and, if that doesn’t work, politely address it with her boss.
I have a co-worker who, among other annoying habits, ‘sings’. I put it in quotes because it sounds more like murdering a cat. I don’t know if he stopped because he got yelled at enough or because he’s no longer cheerful because business is in the toilet. I don’t care either way. I’m just glad he stopped.
My boss wouldn’t allow me to squirt him with a spray bottle.
Talk to her directly, preferably using the sandwich approach. “You know, you are a wonderful person/the singing is preventing me from being able to do my job and must stop/you are so good at what you here for the company” or whatever it is you are going to say, simply sandwich the complaint between two compliments. I used to have a roommate that could only handle discussions about things if I used the sandwich method and I found it to be really effective. Personally I prefer people to be blunt with me but most people don’t like that kind of thing and would rather be let down easily. Don’t complain to the boss until you have talked to her about it though out of respect for her. If you complain and it goes on her record and effects her ability to get a promotion or raise when it could have been stopped with minimal fuss that isn’t fair to her.
Tomorrow morning when you wake, put on a nice shirt and slacks, shave extra close, use mouthwash and wear a nice cologne. Then at work, when you first hear her start to sing, quietly walk up behind her with a Zippo and light her hair on fire.
You could try the approach one of my coworkers took towards a singer a couple months ago :
Dan loves Sinatra. He breaks into song occassionally. Steve, a musician, apparently had enough one day. He walked up to Dan mid-song and asked him “Who sings that?”
“Sinatra,” Dan replied.
Steve smiled and patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s keep it that way, huh?”
Me, I’d do what you’re doing–drown her out with something else. Of course, maybe you should think about ditching the headphones for speakers, preferably a set with a subwoofer
Ah, office politics. Everyone keeps bad thoughts about you to themselves and then you wonder why everyone hates you when you don’t seem to be doing anything wrong.
If this happened at my job the exchange with go like this:
Woman: Starts humming and singing.
First person to hear her: What hell are you doing? Is Mary Poppins your role model or something?
Woman: Doesn’t take the hint and hums again
Next person to hear her: If you don’t stop I’m going to shove an umbrella up your ass and make you fly away.
I know the OP can’t do this though. If I were him I’d just tell her that the office doesn’t really like it when people sing (if she’s new.) Or I’d tell her that I’ve heard other people complain about the singing and that she should stop.
