Posted by: canuckInOR
My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 19/10/2006 19:46
My cube mate picks his teeth with dental floss picks at his desk. *tchk*tchk*...*tchk*tchk*...*tchk*tchk* He appears to do it aimlessly, most of the time he's at his desk. It's his fidget stick. *tchk*tchk*...*tchk*tchk*...*tchk*tchk* He tells me to put on my headphones, so I don't hear it. *tchk*tchk*...*tchk*tchk*...*tchk*tchk* My headphones are a pair of ultra-comfy Sennheiser HD-600s. I don't say that to impress, but because of a particular feature they have -- they're open backed. I know I'm keeping the music volume at a safe level when I can hear the environment around me. Without that cue, I tend to gradually nudge the volume louder and louder. Of course, if I can hear the environment, I can hear him, too. *tchk*tchk*...*tchk*tchk*...*tchk*tchk* Never mind that I shouldn't have to put on headphones and crank music just to drown out his rude noises. He chews with his mouth open, too, so it's either the teeth picking, or the sound of his breakfast cereal being ground between his teeth.
sigh
I want an office.
Posted by: andym
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 19/10/2006 21:42
I'd tell my line manager, just say it's affecting your productivity!
Or even better, start doing something even more annoying in response, that'll piss him off.
Posted by: Dignan
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 20/10/2006 10:20
I feel your pain. At my last job I worked for over a year in a 10'x7' room with two other people. One of them would eat carrot sticks all day long.
**CRRUNCH!**. And it was a help desk, so I wasn't permitted to wear headphones.
I had a different solution: I got a new job
Posted by: Ezekiel
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 20/10/2006 10:25
I was going to say start eating a lot of beans, but I guess that falls under the rubric of 'piss him off'.
-Zeke
Coat the sticks with anthrax/arsenic/cyanide
Posted by: Tim
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 20/10/2006 11:42
I would see about getting a different pair of headphones. Full enclosure with noise cancelling works wonders in drowning out normal (and abnormal) office noises. We have an unusually loud person in our room (three cubes away) that really likes to talk on the phone. It is impossible to get anything done with him on the phone, so I put on my headphones and without having to turn the music up to uncomfortable volumes (I like my music to be on low volumes, never liked loud music
) it completely drowns out the noises around me. It is a good thing that my phone has a light that flashes when it rings, or I'd probably never answer it.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 20/10/2006 12:11
Record him surreptitiously. Would involve planting a mic in his cubicle.
Then, play it back at him.
Posted by: furtive
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 20/10/2006 12:49
Or just tell him to SHUT THE FUCK UP
Posted by: siberia37
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 20/10/2006 13:18
Yes yelling at the top of your lungs to "quit it!" can do wonders. Sure it will draw attention to your cube but that's the point.
Perhaps his fidgeting is due to pent-up sexual fustration. As a test, get him a call girl and note any change.
Posted by: schofiel
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 23/10/2006 19:47
Perhaps pointing out to him, in a conversational and friendly way, but with sufficient volume to carry just *one* cubicle's width, that:
"Doing coke as much as you do might rot your septum, you know..."
Posted by: Dignan
Re: My cube mate -- a mini-rant - 24/10/2006 15:46
As you say, it's hard to know what kind of headphones you got (are you sure they were noise cancelling?), but of course in-ear headphones are going to be better at blocking out noise. All I know is that I've tried a pair of the original Quiet Comfort phones and I couldn't hear the baby screaming on the other side of the plane.
