eating at desk 16

[jerry1423]

I work near a person who eats at his desk. It really would not bother me if it was quiet foods, but it is always things like chips, carrots, and stuff like that.

Sometimes I wear factory earplugs so that I can concentrate on my work better.

Would I be appropriate to approach our manager and ask if this can be stopped, or am I just overly sensitive to those sounds?

 

[swivel63]

my boss farted in front of me one time.

it took everything in my soul not to laugh. i bit my tongue for a good 10 minutes while he was asking me questions.

i had a co worker one time who had the messiest arguments with his girlfriend (now wife).

 

[cranky108]

Although it may be common to answer a ringing phone in a near by cubicle, while the owner is away. It's also common for the owners wife to call and chew you out for answering there phone (Only some people wives).

It also common to have a phone in the office that no one answers, as it is one number different from.... In my case a pharmacy (People calling asking for drugs).
No wonder we turned the ringer off. Although a new coworker was horified that we turned the ringer off. We told him if you turn it on, you have to answer it. Got an bunch of laugh's from that.

 

[Ztrain1985]

Come work where my friend works if any of the above bothers you. These are the rules (not kidding):

No loud or excessive talking
No eating at desks (including snacks and sodas)
No music allowed (head phones and Ipods included)
No conference calls (or speakerphone calls)
No talking on the cellphone (or texting) for non work related issues
No comics or political items on the cubile walls

Just silence and diligent work all day.

 

[ctopher]

I worked at a small company once where 'the' rule was:

-No longer than 2 minutes in the restroom

It was in the engineering area, watched/timed by the manager. It may have been because of annoying sounds, or ??

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[Ztrain1985]

I afraid to think of what other reasons might have been caused that rule...

 

[MikeHalloran]

My first real job ever was sweeping floors, carrying a rod, making blueprints, and minor drafting for a consulting civil/ structural engineer, whose office was in a 16th century church... oddly enough, the same church where my Cub Scout troop had met just a few years earlier.

He was a nice guy, but a real stickler about any kind of noise. Office rules included no loud talking, etc. You even had to walk softly because the old floors squeaked and groaned.

You could tell when The Boss was out on the road, because the Chief Draftsman, who'd been with him forever, would be whistling, loudly, incessantly, and quite musically. He was really good at it. It's been almost fifty years now, and I still miss the whistling.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[KENAT]

I miss the tales of Design offices old.

The places where where on the 1st of July the manager would come out and say "Gentlemen, you may remove your ties".

Frankly Ztrain, some of those rules aren't such a bad idea.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at posting policies:

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[Ztrain1985]

from whos perspective... management or the employee?

And yea, I agree they are best for the work enviorment. But when your friend can show up to work in torn jeans, dancing to his Ipod while muncing on a donut at his desk... it does make me jealous.

 

[Drumchaser]

The last few posts bring to mind a few conclusions that have become painfully obvious the last few years.

A structured work environment and the ability of some current managers to manage effectively.

Fortunately I have a supervisor who is his own man, runs his own shop (as much as the current hierarchy will permit) and requires results on a timeline.

If you stay busy, show initiative, and produce, he bothers you not. If you dally, a discussion will come in to play.
He does not wait till your yearly review to give you guidance on the program.

My prob is with some of the other managers who do not (cannot) deal with confronting/managing their employees.

It is my belief most folks need accountability and structure in their workplace....what has happened to this?

Individuals who are untethered tend to be counterproductive to the mutual goal of the organization.

Managing effectively is a skill that apparently some folks cannot grasp.

 

[jmw]

Management love to bang on about teamwork but always forget that every team has a captain who directs, decides and carries the responsibility.
Thus in any environment without that captaincy there is no team work and precious little effective work as too many people "do their own thing".


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[EngineerDave]

Hmm historical issues with the office space

1) Having cube that open faced the mail room. Big time source of interruption in the days before heavy email usage. Everyone picking up mail stopped to say hi since I was a known jokester

2) Another job with an area with a open cube that people would congregrate around while I worked. Brought in ipod to remedy that. Boss was ok with it. At least I could tune it out.

3) Current job where one girl just migrated into. She has the "Do you live in a barn" type outdoor voice. Hopefully this will be remedied when the office is renovated. Sound falls off with the square of the distance and I'm hoping she's in the far corner at that point.

 

[SKIAK]

You know, when I first read this post I thought you were just overly sensitive. I have recently obtained a new neighboor who does very similar stuff as mentioned above. It appears that karma has a sense of humor. The most annyoing being the mucus that he attempts to fling down his throat with a violent swirl of wind through his nostrils. I have started asking him if he needs a tissue, but I don't think it has soaked in yet. I'm going to start making projectiles out of paperclips and fling them through the air with rubber bands...

 

[ctopher]

We have a guy in our area like that. A positive side to not being there soon...

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[ivymike]

Do you guys work in my office? There's a snorker across the row from me. As luck would have it, his first name rhymes with snot. The guy behind me smacks his lips, often.

 

[ykee]

first name rhymes with snot??

 

[ctopher]

I used to work with a guy like this called "Noc".
We had lots of noc-noc jokes based on snot.

Smacking lips while eating, talking with mouth full of food, and other noises, are considered rude and not polite.
Manners are gone these days. They are just not taught anymore and a lot of people don't care anymore.

When I politely asked a guy next to me to stop popping his gum every second, he said he didn't notice he was doing it. I asked him if he was aware which office or building he was in. He doesn't talk to me anymore...I'm fine with it.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 08; CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion

 

[monkeydog]

I just finished my tuna sandwich, the lady that will go heat up her curry soup did not say anything, and the guy that enjoy's his breakfast burrito did not say anything.
But maybe I did not hear them because of the telecons with loud talkers and speaker phones going on.
The loud talker/belcher was away from his desk, so I didn't have to worry about bothering him.

 

[fanadorf]

Wait did any of you go to college? I would think that living in a dorm would at least show you how to survive life where other people actually exist...

 

[casseopeia]

LUDPEKA1, There was a time when I thought no way does anyone have 30 GB of music, until I got assigned a mind-numbing graphic task where the only thing that kept me awake was the music I listened to, and downloaded. I now have almost 20 GB of music on my iTunes.

But the earbug style headphones make my ears hurt after awhile. I sometimes wish I could unplug the earphones and just crank the music like I did when I was in the field, but then I guess we would have a thread about the 'awful' types of music people listen to....

"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"

 

[ctopher]

Life doesn't start until after dorm living.

Chris
SolidWorks 08, CATIA V5
ctopher's home (updated Aug 5, 2008)
ctopher's blog
SolidWorks Legion