Discussion on:

What should I do: Annoying co-worker disrupts productivity

I HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE SAME THING WHERE I WORK. DUMB PEOPLE THAT CAN'T SPEAK WITHOUT SWEARING, WHISTEL, TAPE THEIR FEET, DO ALL KINDS OF ANNOYING THINGS AND WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO WEAR HEADPHONES. I HAVE TRIED EAR PLUGS, BUT THEY GIVE ME A HEADACHE, IVE TRIED TO GET MY DESK MOVED, THEY WILL NOT, IVE ASKED HIM TO STOP AND HE SAYS I AM TOO SENSITIVE AND SHOUD SEE A SHRINK, I HAVE FOUND ONE SOLUTION.. SUGGESTION... USE THIS AS SIGN TO PUSH FORWARD TO A BETTER JOB WHERE HE WILL NOT BE. SOMETIMES NEGATIVE THINGS PUSH YOU HARDER TO ADVANCE TO BETTER PLACES. THAT IS WHAT I AM DOING TO DEAL WITH THIS. WORK ON GETTING OUT OF A JOB THAT HOUSES IDDIOTS. IF ANYONE WANTS TO EMAIL ME TO VENT ABOUT THEIR DIP S**T (ANNOYING COWORKERS) EMAIL ME WITH ** ANNOYING COWORKERS ** AS THE SUBJECT OCEANDREAMS1979@YAHOO.COM - SHANNON 29 NY

I'm just wondering if there is a much bigger issue going on underneath that we can't see, maybe you don't even realise yourself.
I once worked in a factory where we were building and testing HF and VHF radios, a very noisy environment, day in and day out. The supervisor also had a commercial radio constantly playing at her desk, and her mobile phone going off several times a day and also would proceed to have loud conversations right there in front of us.
HOWEVER, she made it quite clear that she had a problem with MY noise level and that my noise/conversations etc distracted her. i have never had a problem of being the "noisy one" in a workplace before, so I found this quite surprising, especially since she made so much noise herself.
After delving further into the problem (by consulting all my co-workers, and other supervisors) we found that there was quite a few underlying problems and they were:
1) She was an old jealous b*tch and my standard of work was far better than hers
2) I had a vibrant, helpful personality and colleagues would come to my desk for help with anything
3) I got along well with everybody, people did not get along with her
4) she was guilty of making a lot of noise, personal calls etc so needed to deflect the attention away from what she was doing.
So, in a nutshell, this supervisor had many issues with me that she could not address so accusing me of being noisy and distracting was the only way to tear me down. I quite often used to think, "Is this really the worst thing I can do?" as her reaction towards me was really out of proportion to the problem. But after I stepped back and realised what was really going on, it all made sense.
So, is there another some other issue with this "noisy" person?

A sea story.

when you are on deployment, you have no where to go, and you cannot get away, no matter how you try. It serves to be tactful in situations where otherwise you would find yourself able to walk away. I my case I have a pet peeve. Slurping noise when you drink.

yes i know , now you are all walking around making slurping noises just because you know it annoys me now. Well that's what I get for bringing it up to my cohort in crime. So from then on, for quite some time, people would see me walk in and go out of their way to slurp away, extra loudly like it was the funniest thing in the world.

then we had the guy that would cropdust our office on a daily basis, oh it was funny the first time, butt every day? CMON!.

then there is the guy that tells you the same story over and over, lets call him Cliff( oops that's his name) He used to tell us that the Masons were really in charge of the world. On daily or weekly basis. And thats not all, there were about 10 or 12 different stories that he would tell, depending on the questions you asked him. Of course I found it fun to get him started when the day was dragging on. "So, Cliff, how long has your phone been bugged" and let the journey begin. Everyone else would just sigh and look at me with the question "why do you do that?!" Yes I was also the annoying co-worker. We can all be annoying.