Don’t Let the Office Chatterbox Distract You by Assigning Tasks to Him
In every office there is one person who constantly has a story to tell or to ask an irrelevant question, so that no one else in the office can do anything.
While a little friendly banter with coworkers can be a good thing, a guy (or girl) who constantly distracts you from doing your job is not. If you’ve become the target of an office chatterbox, one surefire way to get rid of him is to give him something to do.
The idea behind this idea is simple: if someone has time to constantly interrupt you with irrelevant discussions, then they probably have time to do something else. So ask them.
For example, if Bob comes to you all day to chat about nonsense, next time he will stop and ask him to make some copies for you or help you finish the report you are working on.
It doesn’t matter what you ask him to do, so important is that you ask him to help you do something work-related, preferably something that requires you to complete a task that you don’t want to do from your plate.
When you do this, most likely one of two things will happen:
1. Bob will tell you that he is too busy to do your business and will leave you alone.
2. Bob will actually do what you asked him to do, and you will have one less thing to worry about.
In both situations, you achieve the main goal of getting Bob to leave you alone so you can focus on your work.
Of course, this is not foolproof. There is also a scammer, Bob, who will not take a hint, leave you alone, or do the same.
However, even the most ignorant people will begin to remember that visiting your workplace tends to give them tasks, and if those are tasks they don’t want they will hopefully start avoiding.