Our right to a quiet working environment

[dvbuk55]

..... and Orwellian to me.

No. The farmyard noises are Orwellian.
The nose to the grindstone is Dickensian.
The management is Machiavellian.
And us? Oh yeah. We are Quixotic.

Now you are just tilting at windmills there clash Of course there are those who cannot join in any banter because their thought processes are too slow and/or they have no sense of humour.

[SWIM]

I love the banter..most days anyway.
every office has a few sociopaths.

[RedBagMan]

Of course the other side of the coin are the killjoys who have a hard time passing the time of day, grunt their way through IPS and wander lonely as clouds whilst working.

And in what way is that affecting others? Some of us just get our heads down and get on with the work that we are paid to do. In case you hadn't noticed your job description does not mention enjoying yourself and messing around.

I believe the job description said something about working in a "factory type environment" ... live with it knowing full well you are "superior" at all levels ...

It could be worse - you could be working in a factory

[wandle]

In the small office where I work there are certain colleagues that are driving me insane with their constant inane drivel. Every day is the same; talking complete bull****, repeating the same catchphrases over and over every day which may be amusing on hearing once but not repeated every day ad nauseam, tuneless whistling and singing, and their constant complaint of how much work they have to do and how hard they work then always being first to finish usually hours before their contracted finish time.

It is really getting to the stage where I am going to flip and somebody is going to get their teeth rammed down their throat. I am not a violent person but there is only so much anyone can take. I am not suggesting a library like environment, I obviously expect the usual workplace banter but what happens in my office is more like what I imagine a psychiatric unit must be like. The way things are going I may get to find out first-hand.

Either you work in the same office as me or every office is just the same. There's a depressing thought.

Afraid it's pretty much the same in my office. For example, whenever somebody famous passes away, and it's been on the news, you nearly always have the same two individuals (I'll call them A and B) having the same loud conversation EVERY time:

A: 'Did you hear, old so-and-so died yesterday'
B: 'What did he die of?'
A: 'Lack of breath, apparently'

Now I like a joke as much as anybody, and the first time I heard that 'banter' 10 years ago, although I thought it was in bad taste, I will admit that it did make me laugh. The first time. Because I didn't know the deceased personally, or any of his/her family. But when does the 'joke' wear thin ? The fifth time ? The hundredth time ??? FFS!!! Doubtless there will be some who would say it's just their way of dealing with tragedy, resorting to 'gallows humour', but.... Quite recently, B was on a day off when we heard some sad news about a guy who retired about 2 weeks after A came onto our shift. Our old mate had passed away out-of-the-blue, in quite tragic circumstances, and his family were devastated.

The next morning, I could not believe my ears when A told B what had happened, and their conversation followed THE EXACT SAME PATTERN, like it was as if no-one would find it the least bit offensive. Joking like that, about someone we all knew personally? I really felt like screaming at them, 'is there nothing you morons will not joke about?' but I know I'd be wasting my breath. They've got so ingrained into acting like 'lads' when at work (even though both are over 50) through years of being told 'you've got to join in with the banter', 'give as good as you get' etc etc that they now show no semblance of humanity or even recognise how juvenile and appalling their behaviour is. And most of the other sheep in the office feel they've got to behave like it too, just to 'fit in'.... Now THAT'S a really depressing thought

[Lounge Lizard]

Of course the other side of the coin are the killjoys who have a hard time passing the time of day, grunt their way through IPS and wander lonely as clouds whilst working.

And in what way is that affecting others? Some of us just get our heads down and get on with the work that we are paid to do. In case you hadn't noticed your job description does not mention enjoying yourself and messing around.

I believe the job description said something about working in a "factory type environment" ... live with it knowing full well you are "superior" at all levels ...

It could be worse - you could be working in a factory

"busy factory-style environment" actually, although I've never known a stylish factory.

[Lounge Lizard]

In the small office where I work there are certain colleagues that are driving me insane with their constant inane drivel. Every day is the same; talking complete bull****, repeating the same catchphrases over and over every day which may be amusing on hearing once but not repeated every day ad nauseam, tuneless whistling and singing, and their constant complaint of how much work they have to do and how hard they work then always being first to finish usually hours before their contracted finish time.

It is really getting to the stage where I am going to flip and somebody is going to get their teeth rammed down their throat. I am not a violent person but there is only so much anyone can take. I am not suggesting a library like environment, I obviously expect the usual workplace banter but what happens in my office is more like what I imagine a psychiatric unit must be like. The way things are going I may get to find out first-hand.

Either you work in the same office as me or every office is just the same. There's a depressing thought.

Afraid it's pretty much the same in my office. For example, whenever somebody famous passes away, and it's been on the news, you nearly always have the same two individuals (I'll call them A and B) having the same loud conversation EVERY time:

A: 'Did you hear, old so-and-so died yesterday'
B: 'What did he die of?'
A: 'Lack of breath, apparently'

Now I like a joke as much as anybody, and the first time I heard that 'banter' 10 years ago, although I thought it was in bad taste, I will admit that it did make me laugh. The first time. Because I didn't know the deceased personally, or any of his/her family. But when does the 'joke' wear thin ? The fifth time ? The hundredth time ??? FFS!!! Doubtless there will be some who would say it's just their way of dealing with tragedy, resorting to 'gallows humour', but.... Quite recently, B was on a day off when we heard some sad news about a guy who retired about 2 weeks after A came onto our shift. Our old mate had passed away out-of-the-blue, in quite tragic circumstances, and his family were devastated.

The next morning, I could not believe my ears when A told B what had happened, and their conversation followed THE EXACT SAME PATTERN, like it was as if no-one would find it the least bit offensive. Joking like that, about someone we all knew personally? I really felt like screaming at them, 'is there nothing you morons will not joke about?' but I know I'd be wasting my breath. They've got so ingrained into acting like 'lads' when at work (even though both are over 50) through years of being told 'you've got to join in with the banter', 'give as good as you get' etc etc that they now show no semblance of humanity or even recognise how juvenile and appalling their behaviour is. And most of the other sheep in the office feel they've got to behave like it too, just to 'fit in'.... Now THAT'S a really depressing thought

and when someone's wife dies there's always the witty comment about widowers soon regaining their hearing.

[BettySwollocks]

There doesn't seem to be that much banter at my D.O. anymore
it was pretty wild at one time, a fantastic laugh, but yeah, we had a few numpty's who would annoy the crap out of u,
but there was more than enough characters who would bring a smile to your face to make it worthwhile coming to work,
nowadays, moral is so low, and theres so many new faces, it's so quiet, it's really hard to pin point any particular individual who is constantly an annoying c**t,
and trust me, we've had more than our fair share here,
i work nights at my D.O. and one particular guy that i work with was constantly getting on my wick with his whistling,
even with my iPod on i could hear him, i ended up having a "semi" snapper at him because he was getting on my nerves
luckily, he realised how and why i could find it annoying, and stopped (albeit the occasional sub-concious whistle),
the last thing i want to do is fall out with a colleague, especially when on nights when theres only 2-3 of us on,
if someones pissing u off, tell them and explain why politely, if they continue, well at least then u can say to yourself u have acted reasonably and done the right thing,
sooner or later, they might need your support, no prizes for guessing what u should do.

[George door to dawes]

..... and Orwellian to me.

No. The farmyard noises are Orwellian.
The nose to the grindstone is Dickensian.
The management is Machiavellian.
And us? Oh yeah. We are Quixotic.

Now you are just tilting at windmills there clash Of course there are those who cannot join in any banter because their thought processes are too slow and/or they have no sense of humour.

There are also those who after having being left in the s*** by management everyday dont have time to mess around and have to run round like a madman to make sure they are not left behind by the driver.... At least that my excuse!