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He Holds Loud Meetings In His Cubicle: How Can I Make Him Stop?

This article is more than 8 years old.

Reader’s Question: What’s a good way to deal with rude or insensitive people in the workplace? I work in an office environment where almost everyone is in a cubicle. My new “neighbor” seems to think it’s okay to hold conference calls in his cubicle. He’ll squish five to six people into his cubicle and then put his telephone on speaker with lots of other people on the call. He does this several times a day and the noise level is so loud that I can’t concentrate to get my work done. Technically, he works for a different department and different boss than me, so how can I get him to stop being so rude to everyone in the office?

Lisa’s Answer: I feel your pain! It can be difficult to be productive when having to block out loud background noise. In offices where there are lots of employees working in cubicles, there are usually a fair number of small conference rooms available for meetings. Check to see where the closest conference rooms are located and the process for signing up to use them. Print out this information.

Then, approach the offender directly, because often times, this person doesn’t realize how disruptive their behavior actually is. You could say something like: “John, I’m not sure if you realize this, but holding conference calls and meetings in your cubicle is making it difficult for me to be productive at my job because of the noise. Since you just moved into this building, I thought it might be helpful to have the map with locations of all the available conference rooms along with the process for booking usage of them. I’d really appreciate it if you could hold your meetings in one of the conference rooms, in the future. Thanks!” (Then hand him the map of all the conference rooms and the process to book them.)

When you speak with “John” do so in a calm and relaxed manner, with a smile on your face. Try and take a helpful attitude; since “John” is new to your building, he might not even know there are conference rooms available nearby where he can hold his meetings. In situations like this, it’s always better to “take the high road” and be calm and helpful instead of angry and accusatory.

If speaking directly to the offender doesn’t solve the problem, go have a confidential discussion with your manager. Let your boss know about the situation and what you did to resolve it. Tell your manager that since “John” doesn’t work in the same department and has a different boss, that you felt the appropriate process was to bring the situation to your manager’s attention so he/she could work it out with John’s boss. Your manager should want to solve this issue quickly, as most likely there are others in the department whose productivity is being disrupted by his behavior.

If both speaking to the offender and then asking your manager for help still doesn’t resolve the problem, the next course of action is to ask your boss if your office could be moved to a different location that is quiet – away from the offender.

Finally, if your workplace doesn’t have many conference rooms, you should ask your manager and HR representative to consider re-working the office space to allow for additional meeting rooms. This would most likely be greatly appreciated by all the employees working in the building.

Lisa Quast, author of the book, Secrets of a Hiring Manager Turned Career Coach: A Foolproof Guide to Getting the Job You Want. Every Time. Join me on Twitter @careerwomaninc

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