My coworker talks to herself constantly.... can i tell her to STFU?

Question

I have to share a small 10x10 office with a woman who can not do anything without talking to herself. It is annoying and I want her to stop. I don't want to hurt her feelings because she I am sure she would not take it well that I am completely annoyed by her existence.

sooooo Should I try to break it to her gently? Tell a superviser that I am tired of the distraction? Do nothing?

this is honestly the most annoying thing ever...
hearing random numbers and names and bs constantly is annoying.... plus she stacks up work for almost a year then gives it to me to do!?!??! wtf?

Answer 1

You could repeatedly say What, are you talking to me? Maybe she will get annoyed by that and stop.

Answer 2

I have a co-worker who is like that too, except that she's doing it for attention (I think many just do it without even noticing or it helps them remember something). I just ignore her and don't give her the attention she is looking for, so when I'm the only one near here she stops it because she knows it's pointless.

In your case, maybe you could just mention it to your co-worker that it's confusing for you to hear her talk to herself all the time and it distracts you, because sometimes you think she's talking to you. If you manage to talk to her about it without appearing very annoyed then it probably won't hurt her and she would likely try to decrease this. It's worth a try.

Answer 3

I would definitely try to address it with her first before going to a supervisor. The supervisor will probably tell you to go back and do that first anyway. I would break it to her gently, and maybe tell you do it yourself sometimes but you keep it under wraps at work so you don't disturb her. Hopefully she'll take the hint, but if she doesn't then you need to be more direct. Something like, "I don't think you realize that you sometimes talk out loud when you work. I don't mean to be a prick but I really need a quiet work environment to work efficiently, can you do me a favor and tone it down?" She should stop completely. If not, then bring it up to the boss.

Answer 4

if you say nothing and do nothing, you will end up killing her and going to jail. Seriously. working close to annoying ppl for too long can lead to suicide or homicide.

1) look for a better job. a "work environment" really makes or breaks the job for me. But until you find a better job, try these:

2) Embarass her. Based on one thing a person told me when i was talking to myself (once!) that made me embarassed and hate myself: "you know, i told a psychiatrist friend of mine about you and he says that people talk to themselves out of a sense of extreeme and severe lonliness."

that's not true (people talk to themselves because they don't think about the people around them and how annoying it is!), but that will make her feel bad about herself and maybe cut down.

3) the other thing is to do to her what she does to you. a former boss i had used to say "blink!" all the time. I mean all the time. Just "blink!" at her every 5 to 10 min all day. everyone hated it but no one said anything to her because she was a Director, but it sucked majorly. So you wanna annoy your annoyer, try that! "Blink!" Do that after everything she says to herself -- "Blink!" at her 3 times. have fun with it! Just don't do the "blink" thing if there is a chance your boss hears you and gets annoyed at you or you'll be the one to get the axe.

Answer 5

Sometimes you have to be blunt. I waited 6 months before I said something to a new co-worker who constantly talks to herself. I asked her to chat with me in the conference room. I politely told her that when she continues to voice her thoughts out load, it prohibits me from concentrating on my own thoughts. She was nice about it and didn't realize she was doing this among many other annoying habits like drumming her long nails on her desk and slamming her hand on her desk when talking on the phone. I brought these to her attention, she promised to try to improve. I had the CEO to back me up, I told him I was ready to quit over the constant annoyance, so he said she goes before me. Now, I feel more in control. The next day after our conversation, there was no improvement, so instead of being polite, I just talk over the cubicles and ask her "who are you talking to?" I will continue to do this until it improves. I am actually doing her a favor to stay on her annoying behavior because if she doesn't improve, we will let her go.

Answer 6

OMG, do we work together?!? I have that EXACT same problem with one of my co-workers! Whenever I go into her area to send a fax or file documents or whatever I have to do, she is constantly talking to herself about something! When I ask her to repeat what she said (thinking she was talking to me) it's always "Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie. I'm talking to myself". It annoys me to no end. And then whenever she needs me to do something (as apparently I was hired to take on her work load as well as my own) she says "could you please...." and gets distracted. She never finishes what she asks. At first I would stop what I was doing and wait the usual 5-10 minutes it took for her to get undistracted only for her to forget what she was going to ask in the first place. And God-forbid when she does get out what she wants you to do, you don't do it RIGHT THEN. "Have you done [this] yet?", "I need [that] ASAP". WTF? Since when does making more money than me qualify YOU as my boss, lady?!? I have work to do too! At least, that's what I WANT to say, lol!
Now, I just ignore her. It's the best thing you can do. All supervisors say to come to them with any problems, but honestly, all it'll do is CAUSE problems. You could always start talking to YOURself and see how she takes it. Or do things to annoy her like constantly clicking your pen or humming. I hope your annoying co-worker problem is solved soon.

Answer 7

I just started having this problem at only 11 days at a job. We all have some sort of mental disability so that is why we were hired. Long story short. My mental disability is PTSD and Anxiety. His disability seems to be organizing his thoughts? Mine is under control with medication but once we left the training room and my cubicle was beside his I noticed he was constantly talking to himself and making distressed noises. They are trying to teach us a lot of information way too fast. I dealt with it part of the day by listening to headphones on my right ear because I could block it out that way but once my battery ran out about 4pm all bets were off! He kept explaining what he was doing out loud to himself every time he did it. Finally I said: "Can you maybe not talk out loud? I understand it helps you reason but can you maybe think it to yourself in your head." He replied: "I ll try." Then a few minutes later he started again. I then told my lead and my direct supervisor was off yesterday when it happened so she said: "Talk to ___ when he gets back Monday." Then he started pounding on the keyboard with keystrokes really loud! So loud that I had to say: "Can you not type so loud or type/pound on your keyboard?" Again he said that he has always done things this way. I am a little annoyed that i got a great desk yet I have to sit next to this person (who probably deserves a job just as much as I do) but doesn t have his impulses under control. What can I do? I guess I will hash it out Monday with my supervisor before I find the urge to strangle him. Anyone who has dealt with this for months. God bless you. I couldn t even deal with it for a DAY! :(

Answer 8

I used to work with someone who did this all the time, very very irritating. In the end I ignored her, even if it was clear she was talking to me. I would look up after a while and say, 'sorry, were you talking to me, Im so used to you talking to yourself I switched off, sorry'. It worked.

Answer 9

I've been dealing with this for 8 months.