Here is the situation. I work in an open-plan office. Tables are put together in small groups. The group where I sit is composed of 5 people. One of them, unfortunately, has some rather noisy habits. Now I don't mean loud talking or coughing or something like that; it's the way he uses his material. This man does, for lack of a better description, literally everything in a manner that seems to exude anger. It starts with his typing: loud, fast, furious. According to him he learned to type a long time ago on typewriters that required a hefty touch. I quite understand that typing habits aren't something that's gonna change just because someone asks, but there's a line between sturdy typing and trying to drive your enter key through the desk on every line break. This man is of the latter persuasion. Next is his pen. He's always got a pen at hand, which he constantly clicks. After a couple of clicks or scribbling something down, he will loudly slam or throw it back on his desk, often to only pick it up seconds later and repeat the process. The mouse? It is used for tiny movements, in between which it is picked up and replaced on the desk. We all run out of screen estate every now and then, but most of us don't pick up the mouse in excess of 3 times for moving over one screen and then slam it down hard from an inch high. To put a visual cherry on the cacophony cake, he will wiggle a leg up and down non-stop, which you'll see from the corner of your eye if you're so unlucky as to sit next to him. As you might know, the human visual system is tuned to pay extra attention to any movement in your peripheral vision. Survival systems that are millions of years old don't operate well with open-plan offices.
Before you think I've taken some liberties in my descriptions for the purpose of exaggerating the problem: no, this man is a human noise machine. It is a chain combo he keeps going. The pen, mouse, keyboard, repeatedly straightening bundles of papers (by slamming them into the desk)... all of it follows each other incessantly, without pause.
Although I'm abnormally sensitive to repetitive or grating sounds (others seem better at blocking it out), I've been placed at a new desk since yesterday and he's out of my line of sight, and thanks to in-ear headphones with loud music, out of my hearing most of the time. But there are others on our little isle who are frustrated by the non-stop noise as well. They've voiced these frustrations to each other and to me. I notice relief when the source of the noise is away in a meeting or works from home for a day. Isolating yourself from him requires listening to music at a substantial volume, making it more difficult for others to communicate with you, or finding a quiet moment when a challenge requires some deep thought (we're software developers).
What is the best approach to trying to tackle the problem? Common answers I see around the web for this are:
- Approach the person making the noise in a friendly and respectful manner and bring it to their attention that they are disturbing you and possible others. After all, they normally don't do this out of malice and might be unaware that anything they do could be detrimental to others' concentration.
- Ask your manager to have a talk with this person regarding their behavior and request that they pay attention to it.
I see some problems with either approach. The main problem is, in my experience it is close to impossible to get people to alter their behavior. Asking myself would probably not go down well because I've only been here for several months and this person is quite senior. Me demanding he adjust his way of typing, moving the mouse and not grabbing a pen every 10 seconds is probably going to end up with no change and looking quite bad myself. If I ask a manager, my request probably won't carry much weight either for the same reasons, unless the others decide to join in and voice their frustrations. I'm not guaranteed they will; although they seemed annoyed, they've been here a lot longer and I don't think they're as close to breaking point as I am. Perhaps they've tried some of the above with, obviously, no result. Trying to do the first thing and THEN the second would be even worse, because it would immediately be obvious due to whom the manager approaches him with the concerns.
I realise this has been asked before (here: What can I do about a very loud coworker?). Although it is useful, I don't really see much evidence of the situation actually having been resolved. Some of it is also not an option for us (external consultants are not allowed to do home office). What I'm interested in is NOT answers regurgitating the many, many "how to deal with noisy coworkers" feel-good hug box articles and lists that can be found online and which all suggest the same actions, UNLESS you are personally certain they work. I'd like to hear from someone who has dealt with something similar, and found a solution that they can verify actually worked.
If your answer is "find a new job cause this is impossible to solve" and it's what you did, without any better answers, that gets accepted.
