Would This Bother You? (Office Related)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Bolding mine.

Hold it, hold it, hold it. This has nothing to do with the person’s job. This is not ONE “hello.” This is *every time the person passes by. Even if the person passes by 17 times in a half-hour. * That is the objection in my case – the guy interrupts every five minutes until I leave.

This is annoying: whether it’s the cleaning person, your co-worker, or your boss, or the president of the company It has nothing to do with the person’s job title or what they do for the company, it has to do with the fact that your work is being repeatedly interrupted for nothing several times an hour.

“Elitist…?” Thanks, picnurse. Half of my family are housecleaners – it’s hard for my Spanish speaking-only relatives to get a job doing much else. We’ve cleaned plenty of toilets in our lives and continue to do so. So don’t make a mess of your hotel room because my family is the one mopping up after you. “Elitist…”? You have no idea what you’re talking about.

It has nothing to do with who the person it, it has to do with disruptive behaviour.

And yes indeed, if the president or CEO of my company wandered past every 10 minutes and interrupted me to say “Hey, how are you?” two the point where my workflow was suffering, I would certainly have a discussion with him about it. It affects concentration.

Upon re-reading the OP, I do see that the complaint says: “At least once a day” which I agree, is no big deal and I don’t understand the problem, in that case. I thought the OP had a staff member who yelled out “hello” everytime she walked past, which could be a lot if her job involves moving around the office. Once a day is no bog deal. However, if she chimes loudly like a rooster cocka-doodle-ooing in the office and it annoys everyone on the whole floor, maybe the OP has a valid complaint.

In our office the one guy from the cleaning staff will interrupt you about every five minutes. He has interrupted our president every five minutes too (oh, bad idea). He has been asked not to interrupt us, but still interrupts late night staff repeatedly. As a result, our office is moving and our company has not retained his services. Too many employees have complained that they can’t get work done when he’s around.

22

I have to go with the poster who thinks the OP has a stalker.

Wait, no one else said that? Oh, good, let me be the first.

I’d leave that job toot sweet if I were you. It’s only a matter of time before the shrine goes up in the boiler room at work, where she spends her off hours, carving miniature Crunchy Crunches out of radishes.

Then again, she could be a freak in the sack.

Hmm…a dilemma indeed.

23

From the OP:

My advice is to try to channel her into a more mutually satisfying mode of communication. When she says “Hi!” to your back, just grunt distractedly and wave over your shoulder. To compensate, when you see her and you’re not busy, strike up an actual conversation. You might even have the opportunity to subtly and casually mention that, golly, the project you’re working on is a big challenge, and it really demands 100% of your concentration.

24

Heh, I knew I would get raked over the coals for this.

I’m not angry that this lady is being nice to me. Yes, I know her name (I didn’t say it because I didn’t want to tip my hand in case any of my co-workers is reading this thread). Yes, I talk to her. No, I am not an elitist (I drive a Dodge).

I’m not angry. This isn’t that big of a deal. It’s simply an interesting office etiquette situation. I’ve never known anyone in any office that does this on a daily basis. In the hall, yes. Almost shouting into your office, no.

Can’t shut the door; Not an accepted practice. Can’t put on the headphones 9-5.

Should I say something? Should I let it slide?

Well, after consulting with Mrs. Crunchy Crunch (who believes I shouldn’t say anything; Pick your battles, word will get around, etc.), I have decided to not say anything to her. I will continue to be nice to her. Sometimes I will say “hi”, sometimes I will wave.

Thanks for all of your input. This place is great.

25

That is complete shit. I was a full-time developer for a few years and still have development responsibilities in my current job. Programmers aren’t some glowing orb that hover over the keyboard contemplating tasks too complicated for mere mortals to understand and are as easily disturbed as seismographs. Much of the time when they look deep in thought, they are just daydreaming about whatever you daydream about. I acknowledge that there is the rare problem that calls for that level of attention, but there is a problem with the programmer’s brain functioning and technical understanding if every day is like that. What about every other white-collar office job that requires the same thing? You don’t think that writers, editors, lawyers, and most other related job don’t have to do similar things?

As to the OP: Captain Crunchy Crunch , I think you are a self-important fuckface and assmunch. You need to get over yourself and thank your deity that someone feels that you are worthy of acknowledgement at all. Where do you get off thinking that you are so important that cannot hear one nice phrase each day from a person that has a lower pay scale than you? You are a truly disgusting human being to even think it is appropriate to put this as a rant on these boards.

26

To the OP and mods I apologize for the nasty response in this forum. I could have sworn this was in the Pit and responded in a Pit response and not in a MPSIMS manner. I have never done that before and won’t do it again.

27

If I’m staring intently at my computer screen, it’s not because I’m daydreaming about my Playstation, it’s because I have a problem to solve and I’m actually thinking about that. For someone to be getting my attention by walking past my office and then shouting ‘Hello catsix!’ until I look up distracts me. Whatever lines of code were inside my head at the time, being visualized on screen, will disappear.

While completing one big programming project with two colleagues, we all had to go to the boss and have a third colleague kept out of the area because he wouldn’t stop distracting us. As I tried to work out a particularly nasty recursion, he would stand over my shoulder and say ‘catsix, catsix catsix’ until he got my attention, then he’d ask a brilliant question like ‘What does ‘if’ mean?’

He is one of those who has to say hello even when no eye contact has been established. I tend to ignore him, but if I did actually hear him, my concentration’s shot for a while.

28

At one time I worked with a woman that everyone told me was a nutcase. As a registered Psych Nurse I figure I can pick nutcases and she seemed alright to me. One day I was working with her and out of the blue she asked me, “Did you used to be a boxer?” I explained that I had never been a boxer but she insisted that I “move like a boxer” and maybe I had forgotten that I used to be a boxer.

Once we got talking she welcomed me in to her delusional world. It turned out that everyone we worked with was a famous person hiding their identity - John Travolta, Michael Jackson, Robert Redford, Muhammed Ali…they all worked with us at the mail centre. She was certainly batshit crazy but she was still holding down a job there when I left.

29

I assume you meant to type “no big deal” (indeed, I just started to type bog before I caught myself), but I find your error serendipitous. Indeed, once a day shouldn’t bog you down, no matter how swamped you may be, but incessantly repeated greetings can drive you straight into the Slough of Despond.

30

Smarter than me. I just adopt a 1000 yard stare while nutting out problems, but apparently have no idea what or who I am staring at. Some people get very freaked out about it until they are used to sitting near me. I have been told that if I learn to do it at will I can get rich playing serial killers.

31

I agree with you but that is not exactly what the OP is about. I routinely kicked people out of my office/cube for just that type of thing and it didn’t matter who it was or if they were a vice-president or not. However, a cleaning person coming by doesn’t rate on the same planet as a high level co-worker dropping in about whatever (basically nothing most times) for a half hour. I agree that it is possible for someone to walk in right at the moment when you are about to make a breakthrough on a logic problem. However, those moments tend to be rare for most programmers because we become competent at our work and can solve stuff in seconds that would take more junior people days or weeks.

It may just be me, but I have always had less than full respect for people that require full-concentration at all times to “do their jobs”. To me, this is an indication that you never an innate grasp for what is being done. This was only developed out of experience. I cannot count the number of times that my bosses have sent me to another person to help with a business or programming problem and I have solved it in less than an hour. That would be fine except the reason that I was sent there was because the person was working on the problem for weeks or months already by him/herself. They people that I instantly fixed the problem for were often well regarded as some of the hardest workers in the company because their brain was visibly straining all the time to do the job. Some people consider that an asset but I consider it as an example of too much “trying” and not enough talent.

32

I’ll throw my vote in with the just wave and smile crowd. I don’t think you should say anything to her because she will probably take it harshly.

For the record, I don’t think your behavior has anything to do with elitism - it’s just really annoying to have someone consistently interrupt your train of thought. Still, if you tell her not to say hi to you, she might take it as elitism, so you’re better off with some sort of friendly response.

33

Waved, smile, nod your head. Add a photo or two of family members prominently on your wall that can be seen from the door…

Let’s put this into another context: I live and work in Africa and everytime you meet someone walking down the corridor, or in the bathroom, or in the parking lot, you say hello/how’s it going/what’s up. Doesn’t matter if its the boss or the cleaning crew. It’s simple courtesy. You don’t live alone in this world.

What happens if you don’t? Well, you begin to miss out on lots of things: people stop talking to you, people don’t invite you over, people will shift your paperwork, requests for this and that aside and people won’t help you out. you are considered a drag and a pain in the ass.

I’ve lived in other countries where it could take 20 minutes to get to your office as you go thru Hi, how are you, how’s your family, how’re the kids, your sister’s kids, the uncle I met some weeks ago - he’s doing fine? with every one you cross paths with. Kinda nice sense of community although all this is said rapidly and crossfire action.

It is also nice when you go into a store or restaurant to start off with the hellos and how’re ya doings. I usually experience culture shock when I’m back in the US and start greetings and find myself staring at blank faces.

34

This was done only once, in the 1960’s and for 20 minutes.

35

From The Jargon File:

Some aspects of hacker etiquette will appear quite odd to an observer unaware of the high value placed on hack mode. For example, if someone appears at your door, it is perfectly okay to hold up a hand (without turning one’s eyes away from the screen) to avoid being interrupted. One may read, type, and interact with the computer for quite some time before further acknowledging the other’s presence (of course, he or she is reciprocally free to leave without a word). The understanding is that you might be in hack mode with a lot of delicate state (sense 2) in your head, and you dare not swap that context out until you have reached a good point to pause. See also juggling eggs.

Frankly, I do this all the time. I try to be polite to all comers, but there are times when you are seriously in the “zone” and cannot be interrupted without losing your place. Once that happens, it takes time to recover. A half hour? Maybe.

So, I’m calling bullshit on Shagnasty.

36

Ok, well, I just noticed this thread, and I came in here to suggest you throw a handful of Captain Crunch cereal at her every time she walks by, until I realized she wasn’t actually hollering out the words “Hi Captain Crunchy Crunch!”

37

“Door” and “cubicle” are almost contradictory, in fact. And even worse, most cubicles are configured so you have to work with your back to the entrance. I hate, hate, hate having people come up behind me with out warning. I can well imagine Eats_Crayons sitting there concentrating on her work, hoping against hope that the garrulous janitor will pass her by, but afraid to look up for fear that she’ll catch his eye and be perceived as inviting him into a conversation.

38

I just wanted to point out the irony of Cap’n Crunchy Crunch saying how great this place is, and Shagnasty tearing him a new one minutes later (yes, I saw that Shagnasty thought this was the Pit and apologized, but the original sentiment still stands).

39

There’s merit on both sides of this question, I think.

Greetings are important because we are social animals and in an office we all work together. Withdrawing from someone’s greeting could hurt them, and not hurting others is the very essence of morality. Moreover, since the “cleaning lady” is introduced as such when we don’t really need to know what she does there, I have to wonder if CCC feels superior and would let this feeling show, or let it help him decide to reject her.

But distractions also hurt, and I’m often bothered by people drifting in and chatting about nothing much when I was right, right, right in the middle of something I can just about do if I focus. I’m polite, and catch myself wondering if it’s happening again because I was too polite and appeared too interested the last time. The idea that programmers aren’t glowing orbs hovering over the keyboard is irrelevant - someone counting a pile of change isn’t a glowing orb, either, but if you drop by for a chat in the middle of it you’re probably making him start it over when you leave.

There’s a balance here that requires some sensitivity on the part of both people involved, and if it’s happening so many times a day I’d say things are out of whack. But it’s painful sometimes to point it out and I’d probably just silently resent it instead, though I doubt that’s best. I’m a little sorry for both of you!

40

This is not “complete shit”. It is very very real. I was a full time developer for twelve years. When you have your head stuck in a nasty, complex problem with many different variables, sometimes a simple interruption can set you back hours.

If you need to act all superior by calling me an inferior programmer, feel free, but you are deluding yourself. When I was in that place, I was very productive, and if the headphones were on, people knew not to disturb me.