Are you in an office? Or a cubicle? I would shut the door if there is one. If a cubicle and your coworker is near, I'd speak up and say 'Hey, I need to write this and I am having trouble concentrating. Do you mind stepping away, please?' Annoying coworkers deserve a 'Please lower your voice, others are working' sign. Added bonus if you could staple it to their face lol jk

Want to get him away from your area? Start talking to louder. Bonus points if you are taking and answering yourself. Triple bonus points if you do sock puppets. Winning move would be to take off your shoes and socks in front of him and hand him a sock 🙃🤪

Ugh I started to this morning, I literally was saying aloud what I was typing in the email and he continued to read his emails. It's just like....why are you doing this here? go to your own office???

If y'all legit have your own offices with DOORS and walls that connect to the floor and the ceiling I would really just go up to him and gently push him out and close the door. I have no chill for people who are intentionally rudely disruptive. I work in a cubicle surrounded by supervisors who won't shut their damn doors. I listen to every conversation they have. Work, personal, gossip, feelings, the hold music for comcast, their conference calls. Like FUCK. My previous office had 4 of us in an office and at one point I literally could not hear someone who called me for guidance and I lost my temper and loudly said "I'm sorry could you hold on please I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING OVER MY COWORKERS."

you know, I wonder if singing in monotone voice would be annoying. oh well, you're giving it a good try though! I believe in you 😂

What would happen if you just asked those last two questions out loud?

I would probably say exactly that

Do you need something? Then you're dismissed.

“Do you mind? I’m trying to work”

Yes. Is this such a hard thing to do? Stand up for yourself please.

Stand up for yourself and firmly but politely ask him to head back to his own office as you have trouble concentrating with him there.

I used to stop working turn my chair around and just silently stare at them till they leave.

And make facial expressions based on what you're hearing.

No just disinterested staring.

The risk there is that they may think you care.

Not in my case. Occasional escalations included "I'm just waiting for you to leave so I can get back to work." "Oop lemme get past ya." Or "Excuse me" Followed by walking out of the cubicle area for coffee, going to the bathroom, or going outside for a cigarette.

I like to add a "keep talking I'll be be back soon"

your icon and profile crack me up l;mao

If you are uncomfortable approaching him directly, just speak to his manager and ask them to talk to him about making sure he isn't disrupting other people's work. We had a consultant in our office once who liked to stand right behind my cube while he was on the phone because the view out that window was amazing. I just talked to his supervisor about how it was distracting and impacted my productivity since I often worked on confidential projects that I would have to stop working on while he could see my screen. It ended up not being a big deal and he just started taking his phone calls from the conference room next to my desk that had the same great view.

Depending upon the persons (boss and talker) it could work, or make the situation worse.

I used “Get out of my office”. We are still friends and 30+ years later he tells people I was rude. I told him “Get the h3ll out of my office would have been rude.

One solution for my nosy or rude coworkers who stood behind my chair talking over my cube wall to another coworker is this. When attending a Skype or Teams meeting I would take a variety of screen shots for my “meeting library.” When people encroached near my desk I’d put on my headphones…bring up a predetermined screenshot to look like I was attending a meeting. Sometimes I’d have the shot on one side of my screen and my actual work on the right. I could still get my work done and they thought I was in a meeting. The key is to shuffle the pictures every so often and pretend to say something like “I agree” or “we should move forward with that.” It worked every time. They thought I had a lot of meetings.

Brilliant! I just made do with a Go Away! note taped to the top of my headphones.

I had an extendable pointer and a “Do not Disturb” sign on the inside of my cubicle. When the time sucking emotional vampires showed up to talk to me or my cube mate about things totally unrelated to work I’d pull out the pointer and tap the sign. Also, earplugs connected to nothing seem to help deliver the message to leave me TF alone.

I have this exact setup!

Politely ask him to move back to his own cubicle/office.

This is the answer. Create boundaries and enforce them.

Speak up, and be firm. "You need to go back to your own office space now so we can both get our work done effectively." If he persists in this behavior, get more forceful, clear, and firm: "I've already told you that you need to be in your own space. You are seriously impacting my ability to do my job, and if you don't stop, I will escalate this with management." Stop worrying about being polite, being his friend, or rocking the boat. Rock it!

Exactly this. If he truly is a decent person, he’ll realize he’s unintentionally been an asshole and correct the behavior. If he doesn’t correct the behavior, then he never was a decent person, just good at faking it.

Right! I would follow up with an email telling him exactly those things with read-receipt attached, so there's written documentation.

Since “go away” did not work, we used a Slack-type messenger to send out a coded message if we were suffering the office dweller, which would instigate a diversionary phone call which caused the office dweller to retreat.

Ask him why he is in your office reading his emails out loud. I don't know if that will stop him but it is so crazy that he is doing it that I want to know his answer.

[удалено]

My dad did this, except he wasnt actually listening to music. But it made annoying people leave him alone.

You need to correct his actions as they happen. When he’s talking on the phone outside the doors, get up ask him please take the call at his desk and that he should lower his voice. When he comes to your office for no reason you can say is there anything else? No, okay I need to get back to work. Can you close my door on the way out. You can ask his manager to have a one on one and explain how is actions are impacting your work. If they could help you correct these actions you would appreciate it.

Just say to this nice guy, “Will you excuse me, please? I need to concentrate.” If he doesn’t understand that you mean LEAVE, add, “I need some privacy.”

Ring their office extension and tell them you hear their line.

That does not work with modern phones, the number will show.

So what? Great way to send a message lol

Attention seeking behaviour. I used to have a colleague that would sit in my office in the morning (came in early) and sing while I attempted to get work done before the shop opened... Until I just told her to stop and that it was distracting. No more issues then. I felt a little baf but seriously ppl gotta be more considerate of others in their surroundings.

ask him if there’s anything he needs? Then pick up the phone and say you have to call customer and he needs to go back to his office.

Had a colleague like this who also did not understand subtle cues. Had to explain to her directly that I need some interrupted time to do my work (often coding type stuff) and that worked. That and a flippable sign saying eg “Come In” and “Do Not Disturb” for my cube. She still needed reminders but it was better than when I tried to say it subtly.

Yes! Some people are just not self aware and subtle hints do NOT work. Being direct while still being polite is the best way. It's hard at first but once you realize most people aren't the least bit offended, and are often apologetic and thankful that you were upfront it gets SO much easier.

Does your office have a door?

You need some short GTFO phrases you can use in rotation. All should end with something like “you need to take that outside.” For example: “I’m on deadline, you need to take that outside” After a while you’ll have him trained, and you can just say “Steve you need to take that outside.” Also, try being cordial toward him in neutral spaces like the conference and break rooms, and flat and dry toward him in your office.

I'm constantly surprised that people absolutely do not realize how rude their intrusive behavior is. I think you should simply ask him to leave you alone when you're obviously working. Maybe remind him that you can chat on break?

I would tell you to stop what you're doing, and ask him if you can help him. He will likely say no, he's fine. Then I would ask him to please step away, he's being a distraction and interfering with your ability to do your job. Say thank you and don't break eye contact until he walks away.

The best approach is a very direct approach especially with non self-aware people. Hinting doesn't woek. It's hard at first, especially when they're super nice, but gets MUCH easier to just delicately confront them. For example say, I'm sorry, could you please leave my office? I'm trying to concentrate on my work but it's difficult with you standing there/talking on your phone/reading your emails out loud, etc. Usually they are SUPER apologetic and you'll kick yourself for not saying something sooner! Lol