This is totally something a non-human would say.
One of my underlings talks to herself constantly in a loud voice, with the office door open. Said minion’s office is across from mine. I’ve not yet made it a performance issue, but it is annoying. Especially since said minion often asks me questions in the same tone of voice, and when I tune that voice out I leave the impression that I’m ignoring her.
Oh well, it beats being threatened by patients for not giving them oxycodone for their headaches. Since they usually threaten me with their lawyers, I just note that their lawyers can’t be all that good or they wouldn’t be my patients.
Perhaps
My co-worker has an internal dialog with himself going on throughout the day, and it’s not unusual to hear him utter random, half-formed statements that leave me scratching my head. The problem is I often can’t tell whether he’s talking to himself or trying to communicate something business-related to me.
Oh, I am 200% behind the OP. Two of my coworkers talk to themselves all the time. Every fucking thought in their heads comes out of their mouth like diarrhea. Waawaawaa all day long. And if you don’t respond or don’t answer it’s all "Why are you so quiet?
Fuck you! I’m quiet because I am paid to come here and work, and I am WORKING. I don’t have a door I can shut and I can’t do headphones because I have to answer the phone. I am going back to school to get out of this job, so don’t tell me that, either. I just have to listen. And yes, they ask me questions in exactly the same tone, and I ignore them all day and then get rudely interrupted when they actually need something.
Is it really that hard to keep your thoughts to yourself?
You have NO idea how noisy it is in my head. Sometimes stuff gets past the filter.
(this post was pared down from like 5 paragraphs)
I have a girl at work that does this ALL FUCKING DAY. In fact, most everything she does is, IMO, is for attention. As I started typing this, she walked into my office because she needed to print something. It’s very small office, it’s just me and her in here, she was sitting literally 5 feet from me, this is what she said…at a normal speaking volume
I do not like this chair in here [someone had swapped one of the chairs for some reason]
Sysco…got to print out the Sysco list
Why are these [the icons on the computer] in alphabetical order?
meeeeerrrrrr [imitating the sound of the printer]
The only reason I know she’s not talking to me is because she’s typically talking to herself. When she’s on her break and reading a book she [del]laughs[/del] cackles loud enough for everyone to hear. When she’s making something, she goes through the steps out loud. Based on other actions, I’m thoroughly convinced that she does not do this at home alone and that she only does it when she has an audience.
And these are only the things she does that has to do with the thread. They don’t count screeching like my 7 year old daughter if she sees a bee (I sent her home once for that), turning on her iPod and walking away from it for 30 minutes (when she knows that we all find her music annoying, because we’ve all told her)
So, to the defenders in this thread, why should I have to block her out? Why can’t she just NOT narrate her life? Why should I and my other 8 employees have to put on headphones and not be able to hear anything so this 1 employee can go about her day saying every thought that comes into her mind*.
Of course, if no one can hear her, she would either do it louder or not at all.
I have to wonder how many other people are like that? With no audience, with the person quiet down?
*One day we had a very important customer call us and after a meeting with the owner (him and the owner are friends and the customer is a business owner as well so he was doing this as a courtesy) to let him know that this girl (who he had never had any interaction with) was an absolute embarrassment. Every few minutes she was getting text messages and she would look at it, mumble something at it, loudly and in frustration “GEEZ, I ALREADY TOLD HER” or “WHY DOES SHE KEEP TEXTING ME” or “I ALREADY ANSWERED THIS QUESTION”. The owner pulled her off to the side after that and told her how embarrassed he was that his friend said that and told her that from now on she either has to keep her phone off at work or she can’t yell at it anymore.
Sometimes it’s not about keeping thoughts to yourself, but about staying on the right track with language. When you speak multiple languages and have to switch between during the day to communicate with different people, talking to yourself in the appropriate language for speaking to your co-workers is useful to avoid speaking to your co-workers in a language they don’t speak.
Speaking for myself, yes it is! I may be mumbling to deal with a compulsive behavior. I may be mumbling as a thought-stopping technique. I may be mumbling for a bunch of other reasons.
I am NOT mumbling to get your attention. If I wanted your attention, you’d know it without question.
Well, let’s just say I know for a fact that my coworkers are doing it for attention. Anyway it’s noise pollution. I like a quiet office. I understand I can’t have that all the time, no problem, but that does not mean I should have it NONE of the time - that every silent moment needs to have words dropped into it.
So, as an example, my coworker has talked at me eight times in the past thirty minutes. She’s looking for something, known as X:
Where can she get X?
What about t-shirt places?
How about printing places?
who else should she ask
she’ll put the word out on facebook
she’s out of tissues, she’s going to get another box
Would I proof something for her?
they didn’t put something in alphabetical order
Out of all those, only ONE (number 7) is anything I needed to answer, and the answer was YES. And it was asked in the same tone, so I had to ask her to repeat herself. This is crazy-making shit. I don’t understand why YOUR need to yack all day trumps MY not needing to listen to you. You want to talk to yourself all day long? SHUT YOUR DOOR.
More likely, they are innocently just trying to have a nice conversation with themselves while remaining rudely oblivious to the fact that their noise is distracting and disturbing to you.
The problem is not their hypothesized deep-seated motivations, if any; the problem is their annoying noise. It is rude to continually talk to yourself loud enough that others can hear you, just as it’s rude to habitually play your music or whistle or chat on the phone or play video games loud enough that others can hear you, unless they have explicitly assured you that your noise isn’t bothering them.
However, the correct strategy for coping with the noise of rude talkers-to-themselves is not to rudely admonish them, but do what Missy2U’s husband does. Namely, if they’re saying something that you think might be addressed to you, say “Excuse me, I didn’t catch that: were you asking me something?”
And if that interrupts their train of thought, too bad. If someone can’t think or work effectively without accompanying noise that disturbs or distracts other people, then they’re the ones who should isolate themselves and leave the non-noisy types to coexist together in productive undistracted peace.
It’s like traffic helicopters circling over head.
Then, like Missy2U the talker often berates the other person for interrupting them.
Note how Missy2U and others conclude that the “dumbass” who answers them is the real problem!
Did she say Joeeyyyy, the Joe-meister, Joe-schimono, typin’ on the Dope…
I can get on board with the OP.
The world would be a better place if more people could learn to control their yappers.
Close your mouth, Michael, we are not a codfish. - Mary Poppins
No, I’d punch her in the balls if she did for getting THAT stuck in my head though. Besides, the copy machine is kept outside the office (that’s how small the office is, we have to keep the copy machine and fax just outside the office and if someone is on break they usually have to move if we need to use it).
One hopes that the responder always remembers to respond courteously if they think the talker might be addressing them.
And that the talker will one day figure out that if somebody else continually thinks that your conversations with yourself are addressed to them, then your conversations are probably loud enough to be continually distracting and disturbing them, and that’s rather inconsiderate.
Didn’t read more than two to three posts in this thread – and I have no idea what the OP speaks of. Yet, she is doing exactly what she is complaining about, writing a stream of consciousness that we are supposed to read or care about. And I don’t. Imbeciles who speak to themselves don’t bother me me a bit for as long they keep it low enough that I can watch my movie/TV programs, or hear myself think.
Now, to be honest, what I found really bizarre, was my ex-MIL silently mimicking my speech pattern while I was speaking to her. Thought there was some “Exorcist” shit going on there…never mind that it was really distracting and hard to keep my train of thought. So I suppose that’s why she is partly my ex. My Mom’s kid doesn’t get much of a pass either although for quite different reasons.
Hentor, is there is a diagnosis for people that do that – both in public and in private? Other than nuts I mean.
Let’s forget Anaamika and the other Dopers who are being sensible, have focused specifically on certain individuals, and who I don’t think are assholes.
Let’s just look at the original post and the original poster (who strikes me as an asshole)
So the fact that I mumble so much is due to my wanting your attention? When anybody does it, they want your attention AnaMen? You must be a truly important person.
No, it doesn’t. If somebody was actually speaking rather than ‘making noises like they are speaking’, then you would be obliged to respond.
So you admit these people may have just been mumbling, or grunting rather than actually talking.
My “hostile actions”???!? Say what now? Why do you assume that this behavior is directed at you? Why do you assume it’s hostile?
Why do I need to inform you, a stranger, of what mental problems I do or don’t have? How about this- you ignore me unless I address you directly. If my vocal and other cues don’t inform you that I’m speaking to you, I’ll try leading with “Excuse me”