Annoying People

[Midnight]

Have you ever met someone at work that you just don't seem to like, for whatever reason? Have you ever had that same person just keep on bothering you?

There is this one guy at my work that for some reason I just don't like him. I think it is because that he is always trying to force a conversation, usually on a topic I care nothing about.

I figured if I just ignored the conversation enough... I.e. Reading posts on this UBB while said person is talking, not looking at him, being dismissive, etc. he would just get the hint. But to no avail. Every time he sees me, he comes right into the "cube" sits down and starts off talking like we are good friends.

Any suggestions, short of telling the guy to get lost, to maybe help him get the hint that I don't want to talk to him?

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Midnight
13th TAS[/i]
       midnight@13thtas.com      

"You tell them I'm coming.. And Hell's coming with me!" -Kurt Russel Tombstone

[Betown]

Umm...
    Being honest is always a good thing in this situation.

Pin a big badge to your shirt saying
"Leave me alone mate, I really am not intrested"

Or you could just start shouting at him and tell him to leave you alone or you are going to go kill his wife and children,
That always works
<G>

[TheWobble]

 

There is this one guy at my work that for some reason I just don't like him

Every single job i have had there has always been 1 or 2 people that i just cannot stand..i think its that way for almost everybody..there is always 1 person at work that just really rubs you the wrong way..

Odd

[funked]

Midnight the last place I worked had a guy just like that.  You don't work in Rockford, IL do you?

What we did was try to get him engaged with somebody else.  So if "The Blabber" started talking to me I would come up with some reason that he needed to talk to this guy Ken.  Like, "Hey did you see the test reports on that problem with the gear deformation on the G-V pitch trim actuator?  Ken said he had some data to show you."  I'd say that stuff even if Ken had nothing.  Of course Ken would do the same to me, and it was a bit of a joke.  So we would send him bouncing around the office until he got tired.

The other thing to do is blab back, and dominate the conversation with something incredibly boring.  This worked sometimes, but this one blabber was so incredibly dense that he would tolerate it and still stand there.  But if I was quick and rude enough I could keep him from getting a word in and he would get bored (because I wouldn't let him talk) and he would leave.

You could also get up and leave.  I almost always had a legit reason to go get something or see somebody somewhere in our plant, so I would just take the opportunity to run that errand when the blabber came.

If you can't solve it with one of those, I would talk to the boss about it.  A good boss will know how to tell him to stop without exposing the fact that you went to the boss about it.

It's really a problem with the whole cubicle system which just plain sucks.  The place to get some work done is a proper office with a door you can CLOSE when you need to.  But that's not "cost-effective" to the bean counters who don't realize that a lot of us get a hell of a lot more work done when we can shut out distractions, so we have cubicle hell.

Good Luck

[straffo]

At my former job there was a guys with this behaviour ...

The game was when you have this man glued on you was to drag him slowly to the nearest toilet until he left  

Personnal record : 21:37 minutes  

After 3 week he finaly understood  

[rosco-]

  We had a guy at volleyball that would do the exact same thing. He never shut his trap, was a ball hog and a sore looser. We tolerated it but after a couple months it was an undiscussed rule that we would make his life miserable. One day he came in with black shorts, shirt and yellow sox. If one of us screwed up it was becuase of the glare off his sox. We would set the ball up and spike it right at him. If we set it to him it was always too low, too high where he couldnt get and one woman in the group would tell him "thats ok your getting better, really"  We would aim right for him on every serve. If  you got stuck with him on your team you would purposely loose, this bugged him the most. I even would run clean across the court yelling MY BALL, jump in front of him and take the bump. It came a kind of game in itself, annoying him was almost as much as playing. A month or so later he didnt show up and I havent seen him since   Basically a RL version of a dweeb hunt  

[AKDejaVu]

If you guys only have one person you know that is like this you should count your blessings.

AKDejaVu

[MrSiD]

That's the advantage of living in finland.
Here people communicate by grunting and waving sharp sticks. The body odor is an effective repellent for foreign people..

Really, I've never had this kind of problem in any of the jobs I've had. Only once it kinda happened as I was working at a facility for mentally disabled. They were a bit too keen to make friends sometimes  

[Mk10=Ravens]

I had a guy like that a while back at work.  He's still there, but I followed the "talk about stuff that he has no interest in whatsoever" philosophy, and it worked.

I was playing a lot of SDOE online at the time, and everytime he came up to me to talk to me, I'd say "Oh Dave, shoot, let me tell you about this mission I flew last night!"

Then I would go into incredible detail, starting with take-off, forming up, who was flying with me, who was flying against us, what we said on RW, how the mission went, what the other guys said, the quality of our landings, etc.

Then if he was still hanging around, I'd start telling him about what screen shots I took, and what I thought of the flight modeling.  

And I'd look him right in the eye.  It got to the point where he started staring down at the floor, and couldn't even look into my eyes.

Now when we pass in the hallway, we go "Hey" to each other, and it's left at that.

Find out something that bores the toejam out of him, and bring it up every time he starts talking to you.

Mk

[Boroda]

Many people simply have communication problems and lack the attention of the other people. So, when they find someone who is friendly and polite enough not to explain them that the best thing they can do is f@#$ off right now - they usually use them as "maneqins for verbal exercises".

The problem is to find a way to stop them without hurting them too much. In case you'll find a right approach - you'll minimise the brain cells loss and make yourself another friend.

Damn, not long ago the only time I felt like I am alone was on the evening subway ride home. It was the only time I could relax reading a book, listening to my diskman and drinking beer... Too much communication is a real problem for me.

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With respect,
    Pavel Pavlov,
    Commissar 25th IAP WB VVS

[Tac]

There's several ways to scare those people away.

Most effective: Keep a bible clearly visible in your desk and when he comes to talk, start quoting the book. Doesn't matter if its not accurate, he wont know. Annoying person leaves you alone after that.

(im serious about this).

Other methods include reverse psychology... you go up to that person and talk about something that would make that person uncomfortable... like his phallic shortcomings or an offer of tickets to the next gay club concert...OR...

Tell them you are very busy and cant afford to get distracted right now. After a week of continous rejection they may leave you alone. If it doesn't work, resort to my first suggestion. Tell him you have become a devotee once you realized the world was ending soon.

[Swager]

Fine Midnight!  I won't bother you anymore.  You didn't know I played AH too, did ya?? I thought you enjoyed 'our' conversations!

I figured we were friends!  

[Ripsnort]

I worked as a bartendar, manager for 6 years, worked with annoying people and had annoying customers that would return night after night.  I learned to be patient, and now view folks that are less than desirable as 'Nuture-restrained Handicaps' and it helps me deal with them alot easier.  I have a saying...'Whatever floats your boat'...live and let live.

[Zippatuh]

Yes, I know exactly what your talking about.  I also understand the dilemma.  If your honest with this person you are taking a risk on damaging there feelings in some way.  If you are like me and believe in the “circle”, Karma, or anything like these beliefs do you really want to dish out what you don’t want to receive in some way.

Unfortunately it appears you are doing about the best you can with turning your attention in another direction.  I have an advantage of working in a “lab” environment (telecommunications) and have the ability to suddenly move from my cube to the lab.  A moving target is hard to hit  

I get the opportunity to dodge three:

One with a personality that makes you wanna peal your face off!
One that ,no matter how many procedures you give, is completely incompetent
One that continually talks about sex.  No other topics are of interest, not even work.

Good luck.  Take a deep breath and count slowly to 10.

Zippatuh

[LePaul]

Oh there are lots of ways to tell people to go away.  

Don't try these at home, kids!

One of my favorites was when one of the coworkers started babbling about her kids.  I quietly fashioned my telephone cord into a hangman's noose and asked "Wanna try?".  She quietly walked away.

Of course you could be a moron like me, said coworker wanted to chatter once again, and since I work out here in the woods, I have a BB gun for blasting the squirrels.  I started pumping the rifle and she asked how she could help.  I handed her a paper target and said hold it here [indicating her chest]...she knew I was teasing and it was fun to make her roll her eyes and go away.

Oh, if you like drama, go to the local military surplus sture, find one of those dummy hand grenades.  When said coworker comes to bable with you, pull it out, yank the pin and run as fast as you can out of the building  

Or be blunt, if you dont like the guy, tell em if you wanted to hear from an ass, you woulda farted  

Perhaps we're too mellow for our own good up here....



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Paul J. Busiere

Aces High Arena handle:  BD5Pilot
 http://bd5.checksix.net
BD-5 "T" (TurboProp) 90% complete, first flight in 2001 (We hope!)