Shut up, or get away from my desk!

The BBQ Pit
1

I work at the admissions desk of a college. A hundred students a day walking through my office, talking loudly on their cell phones don’t bother me much. (Because we all know, each one of them is so incredibly important that the world might stop spinning if they were out of touch for the thirty seconds it takes them to get out of my office… but that’s an entirely different rant.)

The (few) dorky professors who stop by three times a day to tell me the latest jokes (from 20 years ago) don’t bother me much. (Although expecting me to ignore the phone to listen to them is a bit more than I can tolerate, but once again, different rant.) Thank goodness, there are only a couple of those…

I want the groups of people (students and faculty, both) to STOP having loud, hour-long, profanity-laden conversations right behind my freaking desk! I answer the main incoming lines (12 of them), people! How do you think it sounds when a prospective student calls in for information and overhears, “…and she said ‘No fuckin’ way, dude!”? How do you think it sounds when the parent of a prospective student, sitting in my office, has to repeat her name to me three times to be heard over your discussion of how much “this school sucks, because they want me to pay for books and buy my own computer disks”?

Today, a prospective student came in with her husband and five-year-old-ish daughter. While they were waiting two minutes for the admissions person, two different groups of students held loud and extremely lewd conversations less than 10 feet away. I saw the looks on the parents’ faces… “Do I really want to go to school here? Is this really a college, or a junior-high locker room?” :mad:

If these students behave and talk like this in a college office, how in the world do they expect to survive in any professional workplace? And the faculty who do the same thing have no excuse, at all… They should know better. :rolleyes:

I’ve withheld the profanity in my rant thus far, because part of my complaint is about the profanity. But now I let loose…

Have some damn respect for office professionalism, or get your ass out of college and go back to flipping burgers. (No offense intended to any burger-flippers – just to loud, rude people.) Learn some manners, you fucking primitive assholes. If you want to talk like a truck-driver, then keep it the hell away from my desk, my prospective students, and my phone lines. And YOU DON’T HAVE TO FUCKING YELL!

2

I saw a sign on a store recently that said something like:

“As a courtesy to our other customers and our employees, please do not engage in cell phone conversations inside this store.”

You could put something similar on the door to your office, on the wall over your desk or even tattooed on your forehead. If bad comes to worse, have a stamp imprinted with those words and an ink pad with permanent ink. Then er…“help stamp out rude students.”

You get 'em!

3

Oh man I hate how people can get like that. Especially with little kids around. I know I swear semi-often, but I censor myself when little kids are there and have even told people to stop swearing because of the kids being there (like on the bus).

They should have courtesy for you as well. Sounds like you are the first line for people trying to get into the college, I know I would have some reservations if I heard all that in the background or when I went to check out the college. I expect to hear some swearing at times but if a place seems like it won’t be a pleasant place to be taking classes I will go elsewhere as I can.

4

Ah, fuck’em

5

Kick them in the crotch, give them a reason to swear.

6

MissGypsy - i know exactly how you feel. The only difference was that i suffered a one man band of disgusting loud cell phone conversation.

Disgusting- as in going into deep explicit biological detail about what he did with “some girl” he “picked up” the previous weekend. I will spare you the details - except to say that positions, acts, noises, fluids, tastes and, i kid you not, smells were all elucidated in glorious surround sound detail . Very loudly. Very boastfully. First thing on a Monday morning. While i am on the phone. Trying to talk and listen to one of our clients. Our service now being even more important than before as our clients and ourselves used to be part of the same company, but they outsourced us to another company.

One of my female colleagues told me how nauseous his Monday morning calls to his mates made her feel. I tried to tell him to at least turn it down. He just saw nothing wrong in what he was doing.

I have noticed with time, that there are an increasing number of people who lack that “consideration for others” sensibility that was instilled into me by my parents.

Some people have always been loud and lewd (hell, i have been known to turn the air blue every now and then) - but in times past, people knew that there was a time and a place for everything and saved such exchanges for the tap room (the “rough” end of the pub over here in the UK). Such people are still around of course, and are horrified when they come across others who bring their tap room persona to the most inappropriate of situations (around kids, families etc)

I go with what Zoe recommends - get a big sign stating that people should show consideration and not engage in loud protracted conversations around your desk. If they ignore it, you can just point to it.

7

See, I proved in my OP that I can manage to contain my cussing to the appropriate paragraph/situation. So WHY do other people refuse to do so?

It happened again today… Two youngish students, conversing about their weekend carousing in graphic detail, in front of a three-year-old. That little girl’s eyes were as big and round as saucers, after she heard them. What is wrong with people? And why is it that it’s only the “younger” (18-19) students who do this? Do they think that children don’t understand profanity? Gah. I’ve taken to shooting them dirty looks, with a disapproving glare. I don’t think they even notice.

8

That’s bound to work!

9

I say hire dirty old men to follow them around expounding on their sexual escapeds in overload tones, a taste of their own medicine thing.

10

That would be cool… in fact, I used to know someone who was the EPITOME of “dirty old man.” Thank goodness I don’t know him anymore, and wasn’t pleased to know him when I did.

F_X

11

I agree with the big sign approach, something that says something like: