Recently, my co-worker and I moved cubicles within our department, to a quieter, more secluded area. Still wasn’t quiet enough for him, though.
Over the cube wall is a pair of guys who work closely together, and occasionally they will turn on their speakerphone (one is trainign the other) so they can both participate in a call. This annoyed my co-worker, and he complained about it to management. He was told, basically, that we’re in an open workspace, there’s going to be some noise, get used to it. It is not like it happens all day every day, and it’s certainly better than where we used to sit.
This answer, however, did not seem to sit well with him. So, he set his phone ringer to this klaxon that sounded like a damn fire truck was driving past our cubes. When our over-the-wall friends would get on a speakerphone conference, even quietly, he would see the need to do a “ringer test” on his phone. Apparently this was a new thing just today, but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. After 4 weeks here, he’s out.
Anybody knwo a SQL DBA in the Detroit area who needs/wants a new job? I like it here…
Had a lady like this in an office I worked in for a while. Generally pleasant to be around, unless she was on the phone. Then, every little thing drove her up the wall. She couldn’t understand why the world didn’t stop spinning when she was having a conversation, and made sure that everyone in a twenty mile radius could tell that she was upset. She tried to call an office-wide meeting about how disrespectful people were, but I think the most she ever got from the bosses was an eye roll and maybe a “we’ll see what we can do.”
Of course, for some reason, we found ourselves having loud conversations outside her cube whenever she got a call. Weird how that worked out.
The woman who sits on the other side of the partition from me sounds as if she’s speaking Parseltongue. Actually, she has her headphones on and she’s singing. Only she’s whispering. It’s creepy.
A friend of mine who shared the office next to mine for several years did the same. He also did it while in the bathroom, which can be creepy when you think you’re alone and having a nice bit of quiet time.
He also would stick his head into his (empty) garbage can and recite lines from Star Wars, stuff like “You don’t know the power of the Dark Side!”. And talk back to his Mr. Hanky doll. Until we replaced the internal electronics with a unit bought from a make-a-bear store, one with a recording of me shouting, “Hey Bob, what’s that on your PC? Is that Porn? Hey everybody, porn on Bob’s PC! Porn, porn porn!.”
I’m in cubicle land for the first time in many years. 4 people on my team are in the same pod. I have 1 person planning a wedding with non-responsive vendors, a daddy who speaks swedish on the many personal calls, and the other one who only makes phone calls about food. That’s not a problem.
What gets me is the folks using their cell phones in the toilet stalls, coming out to give you the glare when you dare to flush.
Hey c’mon, you mean that the guys who go to smoke in the stairs (the stairs aren’t a “work space”, so it’s legal to smoke there) and who give the Evil Eye to those of us who go to make personal cell calls in the stairs, are normal?
Apparently the stairs aren’t just not-smoke-free, they’re smoke-in-silence-land.
Ugh. Despite the constant hassles of working in retail, I’m so glad I don’t work in a cube farm anymore.
My last job started out fine. I had my own cube and only shared 1 wall with 1 quiet coworker. My other three walls (one with opening) all faced walkways. It was bliss.
Then, I got a new position and since the new side of the building didn’t have enough cubes, I got a spare office. Even greater bliss.
Then, we moved across the street. The PTB got the idea that we would be more productive if we all worked closely together. We had 3 large cubes, all side by side. Each cube had 4 people working in it. I was in the middle. It was ok for the two side cubes as each of the occupants in the cubes worked on the same product lines. In my cube, we had two different product lines. Also, each of the 4 of us had our own specific accounts - unlike the occupants of the other cubes. We rarely, if ever, interacted with each other. There was no need for us to be together. Surprisingly enough, my only complaint about my cubemates is that I sat at the front of the cube so I had two people behind me. Nothing is more uncomfortable than having two close to stangers staring at your back all day.
My biggest gripe was the cube to my left. They were all loud, fought constantly, and all would eat nasty smelling lunches - at their desks. I think they were trying to fume eachother to death. I don’t think they stopped to think about the 8 people they didn’t hate who were within hearing/breathing distance.
Sure, I get yelled at on a daily basis and I have to deal with total morons who think they know everything about every aspect of home repair. But, it’s still better than the cube farm.