How to Survive in an Open Office

Dear employees,

I am writing for advice on how to deal with overbearing colleagues.

I am a graduate student in the general office. There is one person in the office who always tries to get my attention by saying things out loud that require some kind of reaction. I tried wearing headphones, but then this person just patted me on the shoulder. This is always an unnecessary interruption like “Look at this cute picture,” etc.

There are also people from other departments who just walk into my shared office and start talking loudly about themselves while people are clearly at work. This makes the atmosphere in the office unpleasant for work; it’s hard to be productive.

How can I set some boundaries?

I don’t know if there is any evidence that open space office layouts actually promote creativity and collaboration as they are supposedly designed to do so.

But they have absolutely sparked an incredible boom in people complaining of undermining their privacy. I’m willing to bet that the productivity lost due to the time spent grinding your teeth over this issue negates all the random benefits that come from each other’s ongoing involvement in business.

Unfortunately, there is no simple single-use medicine. But here’s a three-point plan. It’s not painless, but it should help restore some common sense to your situation.

Step one: headphones

Headphones – the “new walls” of the open-plan era, you think are a great start. Even if (as in your case) they don’t always work right away, they still help lay the foundation for “do not disturb”.

When someone is talking to you, when you wear headphones, always take a moment (maybe lift your finger “for a second, please”) to theatrically remove them. This emphasizes the fact that your visitor is interrupting and they better have something to say.

And as silly as it sounds, consider how eye-catching your headphones or earbuds are. Interestingly, Apple’s shiny white and distracting AirPods have recently started sending a “don’t talk to me” message outside of the workplace … all over the place.

The “AirPods Barrier,” as Buzzfeed recently called it , “makes people’s lives weird by interacting with the wearers. Are they listening to me? Do they listen to music? Podcast? Just hanging? It’s hard to know. ” Hostile Planet presenter Bear Grylls bluntly admitted to The Wall Street Journal that this repellent property of AirPods is at the heart of his enthusiasm for them: “They changed my life. And I hate to talk about it, but if I wear them at the airport, people are less likely to come and chat with me. “

All this is disgusting and rude and one more step back for civil discourse and humanity in general.

In this case, it is also your goal.

Step two: speak

As is often the case, the best way to define your boundaries is to actually communicate your boundaries.

If people from another department are hanging around your workplace and chatting, you can just say, “Hi, everyone, no offense, but I’m trying to focus on something here and this conversation is getting in the way of my focus. Can you talk in the conference room [or anywhere else]? »Say it in a friendly way with a smile. This is not a fight. This is common courtesy!

The shoulder is more difficult. You can try non-verbal cues: an obvious lack of interest in what is being discussed, combined with a sharply annoyed urgency to go back to what you were doing. (And perhaps add toMerkel’sstartled reaction to convenient attention grabbing.)

If that person’s needs are truly interfering with your work, you may need to act more directly. It’s perfectly okay to say, “No offense, but sometimes I find it difficult to concentrate when the office is noisy. If I have headphones, can you put aside anything that isn’t work-related for later? “

Again, don’t turn this into a confrontation. But do not deny yourself the right to formulate basic rules.

Step three: be generous

Now that I have tried to persuade you to establish a law, sometimes try to compromise.

Let a colleague show you funny pictures from time to time. Tolerate a co-worker’s unfortunate account of his weekend adventures. Take off your headphones and take a minute or two to listen to another person who, like you, is just trying to live this life in a way that is personal pleasure and as little harm as possible.

We all need to have fun sometimes. And you don’t want to end up sending the signal that you’re just anti-social and you don’t have time for anyone else. Give me a little.

But quite a bit. Then, shake off that mess and get back to work.

Send your work questions to [email protected] . Questions can be edited for added volume and clarity.