ASK KALI: How Do I Retain My Sanity?
Dear Kali,
I work in an office building and am having trouble with my cubicle neighbor’s annoying radio. She keeps the radio tuned to the local soft rock station at a volume that is loud enough for me to hear it pretty clearly. Sometimes I even catch myself singing along with songs I hate. It’s like the soundtrack to my workday life. I’ve noticed that the radio station plays the same songs over and over again every single day. Right now, it’s playing “That Don’t Impress Me Much” by Shania Twain. I’ve swear I’ve already heard this song today.
Essentially, this crap music is driving me crazy. A few months ago, I told her that the radio was too loud, but the silence didn’t last very long. I get along with her and would hate to have bad relations. But I’m afraid I’m going to snap one day and bash the radio to pieces.
What’s the best solution to this? Should I just go ahead and tell her to lower the volume again? If so, what’s the best way to tell her without making enemies?
Sincerely,
Soft Rock’in Cubicle
Dear Soft Rock’in Cubicle,
Work can be prison enough without having to suffer all day listening to somebody else’s sucky music. I have a couple of suggestions you might try.
- Ask your cubicle mate to wear an earpiece or headset.
- Bring in your own radio and let your coworker know that you would like to alternate her music and yours every other day.
- If it still makes you crazy, try earplugs.
You may be working with this person for a long time and it is important that you work something out you can both live with.
Peace & Goodwill,
Kali
So what do I do about the cube neighbor’s depths of the earth nonstop gutteral burping? Every time it happens I feel like there’s been an earthquake. And she seems like such a nice person.
Comment left on April 5, 2007 @ 8:46 am
Wow! That’s a delicate issue. As a World Class Burper myself, I’m impressed by earthshaking burps in my private life. But at work, that’s another matter. I mean, how do you even bring something like that up? Maybe this is an idea time to use one of those anonymous email places. This one looks a bit too mean for your situation (http://www.anti-greeting.com/), but something like that perhaps.
Question: Do burps really offend you? Like, for most people and in most situations, I don’t mind at all, but I will almost alway giggle or comment if someone gets off a good one. But, if the person is a yucky person that I don’t really care for, their burbs or other body sounds/smells etc. are really gross to me.
Good luck! This is a tricky one
Comment left on April 5, 2007 @ 11:09 am