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Co-worker never shuts her mouth-now reading out loud everyone's addresses!


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I kid you not!! She got in yesterday and as usual she spends about 30 minutes looking up personal stuff, facebooking, etc. Everyone else spends work time doing some personal stuff too, but we sure as hell don't announce to everyone that that is what we are doing! We have a document that shows everyone's addresses and she really started reading off people's addresses and Googling them to see where they lived and then announced to us their exact location! We have nearly 100 people at work and she seems to know where everyone lives. Even when she is describing a place she'll say "It's on Pine Street, just down from Tim's house". Does Tim even know who you are?? If he knew you knew where he lived he'd be freaked out!

 

I am so fed up with her! First off, she never shuts up and reads us out loud practically every dept. email we get even though we are all perfectly capable of reading it ourselves. It especially bothers me when we get one while she's at lunch and then she comes back an hour later and exclaims that we got this email and reads it to us. Yes we know we got it an hour ago! She Googles anything we may have a question on, like a certain restaurant we went to but can't remember the name and she will try and find it and then read us out loud it's address, what they serve, etc. Yesterday while the two others who sit by me were at a meeting she went on and on about everything the entire hour they were gone. Somehow she got on a kick about the Jetsons and looked it up and read me all of the characters names, their ages, their occupations, who voiced them, then she read me some of her Facebook posts. Finally she went back to work but then she talks out loud while she's working. She is working on some Italian stuff and she'd read certain things like churches out loud and say it with an Italian accent. OH MY GOD! And that was just an hour out of my day yesterday!

 

What really really annoys the crap out of me is that when we sit in little learning sessions and someone else who is knowledgeable is trying to teach us how to do something and she will not shut up! The person will tell us one thing and before they can get the entire sentence out she will go "Oh and then we do such and such right? That's what I thought." I remember when I first started here and we sat in a group learning how to do stuff and it was only for about 30 minutes but I just about slapped her! She went on the entire time!

 

Then yesterday 3 of us were learning how to use the "scan to email" function on our new printer. She was of course right up front next to the person showing us and she parroted everything this other person said or else would try to figure out what the other person was going to say before she said it. For example when the other person said "You go to this green bar and punch in the person's name" and then Chatty Cathy would immediately say "Do you see that? You have to go to the green bar and punch in the person's name". Then the person would say "And then you hit send and the paper gets put through the scanner and you should have an email" and Chatty would go "See that, how the paper is going through and scanning? You should have an email".

 

She is also the type to complain endlessly about how much work she has and she's never going to finish it (well probably because she's busy looking up stuff like the Jetsons!). She doesn't understand how to do one part of the process and has no desire to learn it and she ends up whining about how she'll NEVER finish it and it and ends up pawning it off on someone else. She is also the type to take the most comfortable chair at a function and not offer it to anyone else while everyone else stands, be the one to say shotgun to be in the front of the car rather than the backseat. She's just THAT kind of person. So self absorbed and making sure everyone knows just how much she knows.

 

Nobody here ever says anything about her and maybe they all like the fact that she's so talkative. I've only been here 10 months and am not about to complain about her to someone because everyone is pretty close here. I have to find a way to deal with her, like headphones but we have to collaborate so much that wearing those isn't worth it. I can never tell if she is talking to me or just talking out loud!

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serial muse

I'm afraid I don't have a suggestion, but if it helps your post sent me into a fit of giggles because she sounds SO. ANNOYING. that it's kind of hilarious. Since I don't have to work with her, of course. :lmao:

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ask her if she is talking to you, then

 

do some parroting of your own next time she opens her mouth? and smile at her

 

i think she is lonely/attention seeking, but do not challenge her openly, she sounds like a wild one to me

 

you could all nickname her Polly Parrot/make squawking noises to tease her a bit

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ask her if she is talking to you, then

 

do some parroting of your own next time she opens her mouth? and smile at her

 

i think she is lonely/attention seeking, but do not challenge her openly, she sounds like a wild one to me

 

you could all nickname her Polly Parrot/make squawking noises to tease her a bit

 

You can't get a word in with her. If I do happen to mention to her (because no one is in yet so trying to be friendly) what I did over the weekend, I can't even finish my sentence before she tries to guess and finish it for me! For example I'll say "Friday night we went to that festival on..." If I fumble for just a second she will jump in and go "Oh that waterfront festival?" If I say yes then she will immediately tell me all she knows about that festival.

 

If she doesn't know the answer to something (which is RARE!) and I do and tell her it's like she hears it but doesn't believe me until she can look it up herself and announce it out loud like she found out herself. Like the other day she was talking about a pedestrian that got hit and killed in front of our building and she said she didn't know if the person who hit her was male or female. Well I jumped in and said "They said it was a 36 year old female". She goes "Oh" and brushes it off but immediately looks up the info for herself and proclaims "Oh yeah here is says it was a 36 year old female driver on her way home". Yup...just like I said!

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bubbaganoosh

Look. You can't shoot, hang or torture her even though she's torturing everybody else so why don't you tell your boss about it and let him/her know that it's getting out of hand and something needs to be done before it gets to a point where there's a huge fight in the office.

 

I think her problem is low self esteem and she's trying to impress everyone but she's doing it all wrong.

 

No doubt she's lonely too. I kind of feel sorry for people like that. She doesn't understand that trying to make an impression is the impression that you make.

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Look. You can't shoot, hang or torture her even though she's torturing everybody else so why don't you tell your boss about it and let him/her know that it's getting out of hand and something needs to be done before it gets to a point where there's a huge fight in the office.

 

I think her problem is low self esteem and she's trying to impress everyone but she's doing it all wrong.

 

No doubt she's lonely too. I kind of feel sorry for people like that. She doesn't understand that trying to make an impression is the impression that you make.

 

She certainly doesn't seem lonely as she talks to everyone who comes near her and god knows she gets enough personal calls at work. Sometimes they are on her cell and other times we have to listen to her on her desk phone. Her husband calls her everyday (EVERYDAY!!) between 1 and 3 and she will go have a 10 minute conversation with him on what she's working on and what they should have for dinner. Who's spouse calls them everyday at work to just shoot the breeze for 10 minutes?! At least it's on her cell and she does go outside to talk to him.

 

The woman can't even come back from the bathroom most times without going "Do di do di do" just to announce her presence!

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serial muse

The woman can't even come back from the bathroom most times without going "Do di do di do" just to announce her presence!

 

you're killing me here!

 

:lmao: :lmao: I'm envisioning something like this:

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you're killing me here!

 

:lmao: :lmao: I'm envisioning something like this:

 

Hah! You really aren't that far off! Take out the music and slow it down and you've got it!

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Let the office pranks begin

 

Airhorn under the chair

 

Put masking tape on the optical sensor under her mouse

 

Take a screenshot of her desktop, set it as the background then delete all her icons.

 

there are a ton of pranks but this will probably make her talk more. It will be mean, and you may feel bad about it. Leave an anonymous note telling her all the things you said are annoying. Try not to be so mean she kills herself and make sure there is nothing that identifies yourself because then its an HR issue.

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Let the office pranks begin

 

Airhorn under the chair

 

Put masking tape on the optical sensor under her mouse

 

Take a screenshot of her desktop, set it as the background then delete all her icons.

 

there are a ton of pranks but this will probably make her talk more. It will be mean, and you may feel bad about it. Leave an anonymous note telling her all the things you said are annoying. Try not to be so mean she kills herself and make sure there is nothing that identifies yourself because then its an HR issue.

 

Kind of hard to be anonymous as there are only 4 of us in the area. One has been here for 30 years and has dealt with her just fine, the other one just started a week ago and then there's me...the most obvious choice!

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OMG I work with someone like that :lmao:

 

Do tell Sunshine! What does your co-worker do to annoy you! I just feel like I got stuck sitting next to the worst person in the 100 person company!

 

Oh and this is just an extra bonus! I moved out here 5 years ago and wouldn't you know at one point about 20 years ago she lived in the same city I am from and goes on and on about that with me. I came from 1000 miles away and just happened to end up sitting next to someone who lived about 5 miles away from my house!

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Omg this is ****ng killing me.

I can sooooo relate hahahaha

 

Sorry, OP - I know........

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I know! If I were reading this I'd be like "No way is someone going to do ALL that at work..they must be making that up", but trust me she does!

 

I am R-E-A-L-L-Y (can I enforce that anymore?) looking forward to about 2 weeks from now as then she is taking a 1 month vacation! Do you know how peaceful it will be with her gone for 20 glorious work days??

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I mean come on...who comes into work and within 10 minutes starts reading other co-worker's addresses out loud and announcing that she has Googled them and telling everyone around her?? Not only telling them, but telling us down to the block where this person lives! We were all in work mode and nobody else was responding to it except for "Uh huh" just to acknowledge that they heard her! I wonder if she goes home and memorizes everyone's addresses and then drives around looking at their houses?

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If she's looking up employees' addresses and telling everyone where they live and all that, I think I'd mention it to the supervisor or HR. Beyond that, I'd tell her to shut up so you can think!

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If she's looking up employees' addresses and telling everyone where they live and all that, I think I'd mention it to the supervisor or HR. Beyond that, I'd tell her to shut up so you can think!

 

Everyone is so laid back here though that I don't think it would matter. She's been here 17 years and has been doing the same thing for that long. As they see it, she is a very valuable person to have as she is good at her particular thing.

 

She was telling the other guy near us that "Oh look so and so (who is a fairly new hire) only lives about 6 blocks from you. You guys should car pool!"

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I used to share an office with a guy who talked nonstop about sh*t I didn't care about--mostly about himself and how awesome he was. Sometimes it was just inappropriate, annoying stuff like how his wife was ovulating so he had to leave work to go have sex with her. Granted, he wasn't as annoying as the woman you work with!

 

Here's what I did:

--Not talk to him. I'd try to tune him out while he talked and when I didn't engage, he would shut up sooner.

--Turn my back to him and work on my computer.

--Say sarcastic things to him (didn't really work).

--Say things like, "I really need to get this done, OK?" or "I need a few minutes of quiet time, OK?"

 

The thing about people like this is I don't think their feelings get hurt easily and they don't seem to get social cues, so being blunt is often the only way to remedy this.

 

Not sure how your office is set up, but can you ask to be moved away from her?

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No I can't ask to be moved. Our dept. literally works in an old house across from the main building (since there's no room in the main building). There are 12 of us in the dept and the 4 of us are currently situated in what I guess you'd call the den, 1 in the dining room, 2 in the living room and then 5 in the 3 upstairs bedrooms! We have no dividers or cubicles either so everyone is out is the open!

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Oh and another thing that gets me is that Monday mornings we have our dept meeting at the main building at 10:30. Well she usually doesn't come rolling in until 10:30 on a daily basis and rather than take a few minutes to park the car in the lot or get there a few minutes early, she rolls her big SUV right up to the front door of the main building and gets out. Big show for everyone! She's just THAT important!

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I think some horribly heinous pranks are in order. I mean totally gruesome. One per month, so she will be focused on it instead of the other annoying stuff that is a bore. The mystery will drive her mad, and she will be obsessed with it, talking about it and researching the "quandary" for a few weeks, until the shoe drops. It has to be really good - and engaging, so you'll be inclined to participate - and also look ford to enjoying the travesty situation everyday, rather than hate coming to work.

 

Now, we just need an idea. I'm thinking something along the lines of these catagories to begin with:

 

1. A dead animal in her vicinity. It would be useful if the animal is hidden and allowed to rot, and smell before discovery. For the first prank, I suggest it look authentic, like a rat that got caught up in the trappings of her desk. All you need is a dead rat. Scope out the cavities ahead of time, so you know what size to get, and can determine insertion method.

 

2. A food product, possible fallen from a shopping bag), that is totally difficult if not impossible to find - but gives off a horendious smell eventually. Such as a couple eggs under a car seat, or a generous pouring of milk on carpet in her car or near her desk area or injected into her upolstered chair (you can use a meat tenderizer injector to take of this without detection).

 

3. A real dead animal by the door of her car. Large - like a opossum. Lots of blood on it. This might happen on a regular basis. Next time, it might be a dead fish on the pavement - anything to stimulate convo.

 

4. There could be a special bagged lunch in the company fridge that suddenly appeas that has a ghastly smell. Such as a sandwich with tons of spoiled sardines, etc. Just put her initials on the bag. Put a pack of donuts in there and a juice pack so it looks real. If she complains, ask her if there is an address on the bag that she can google.

 

5. This one she may keep to herself, but you watch her. Love notes from a secret admirer. Have a friend write them. They can be sent in the mail. She could revieve a dozen roses. It would be so worth the money to see her swooning around. Plus she would thank her husband for the flowers!!! Haha! Keep it suave, "I'm watching you from afar, I am in love with you! XOXO."

 

This kind of discussion will make her sound nuts. If she is complaint of a love interest, or especially if she brings a dead fish into the office to prove her allegations of what she is fing in the parking lot. Just don't overdo it. Go with one item - and leave it alone to brew.

 

You got to make damn sure there are no cameras around. Don't say a thing - cause there are narcs in your office. Just enjoy your job. When you get home, you can laugh your azz off like a hyina! Then make a hit when all the noise dies down. Do not establish any pattern. Use rubber gloves, don't take any chances. If you need more ideas, you know who to ask, Yas

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If this person is brash and such I could understand. Doesn't sound like she is anything but a talker. (and not a listener). Ask her if she has had her hearing checked. I mean that sincerely.

 

I can relate to googling things as I am not so gulliable to read some of the emails that get passed around the office. Mostly from people that forward without checking the validity. Thats how poor false information gets poured into people heads. And they beleive it!

 

People like this simply need a distraction as their internal dialogue is filled with more questions then answers. Send her on physical errands if possible. tell her that you need copies made or to go check the locks on doors. Anything to get her moving and away from your area. If that doesn't work, get her to learn sign language and use it!

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Everyone is so laid back here though that I don't think it would matter. She's been here 17 years and has been doing the same thing for that long. As they see it, she is a very valuable person to have as she is good at her particular thing.

 

She was telling the other guy near us that "Oh look so and so (who is a fairly new hire) only lives about 6 blocks from you. You guys should car pool!"

 

Oh, well, you're screwed if she's been there 17 years. But I'm telling you if she was right by me and I was trying to concentrate, I would tell her politely, Hey ___, I'm having a hard time concentrating on this. Could you ......(apologetic smile).

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And you know what the funny thing is? You'd think she'd be one to join in a crowd to just start talking away but I've noticed that whenever there's a bunch of people eating lunch at our kitchen table, she will wait until they are done and then go eat alone. Or if there's a bunch eating out on the picnic table she prefers to eat alone inside. It's almost like she wants people to approach her rather than the other way around, yet when they do she can't shut her mouth. I don't really understand that. If she wants to go around spouting her verbal diarrhea why doesn't she go and join in a crowd? Like when our dept went out to lunch you couldn't get a word in edgewise with her at the table (at least I couldn't) and of course she was first to take a seat by the owner of the company because she's special!

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Art_Critic
because she's special!

 

There seems to be something else at work here, you have said this more than once..

I get the too loud, too much talking and saying things publicly that she shouldn't.. go to YOUR boss and mention it.

 

As far as her being special.. that you need to get over, that is all on you and how you feel about it.

 

Change the way you are thinking about her, be indifferent...

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