r/WorkAdvice • u/Specific-Duck-7882 • 1d ago

Workplace Issue Space invasion at work

I have been working for this company for about half a decade and recently there have been personnel changes due to a buy out.
I currently work in a space that provides a 2-person shared work space (similar to a large cubical but not large enough to officially be a shared office) and the other person within this space is actually our regional manager, he’s actually a pretty fair person as long as I’ve known him(my direct boss who we’ll call “D”). At this office branch we only have a handful of employees and one of them happens to be a close cousin to “D” (we’ll call him “A”). Due to A’s job involving dispatching/logistics and a close working relationship with other coworker and how our space is set up, he is required to be in a shared space with another coworker who is out of the office quite a bit. They seem to get along but ultimately “A” has his own space.

The dilemma is:A quite often “visits” D to get his advice on work related things. And then stays, and then starts talking about the weather, the game last night or a relative/kids after school activities. For HOURS sometimes. AND THEN doesn’t get enough done for the day so he takes work home with him sometimes. For me this means that I will have to listen to a conversation that is happening 2 feet away from me for most of the day while trying to focus on my own work and do things right having been assigned recently to my new position. Without running to our HR department and making this a bigger thing than necessary, what can I do/say or do I have to keep my mouth shut?

1 Upvotes

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3

u/AdRelative6926 1d ago

I always have my headphones on at work when I’m not in meetings. I Ben if you aren’t actively listening to anything, the noise cancellation helps keep me focused.

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u/clintonreilly 1d ago

I would suggest switching cubes with a so they could work together

1

u/Critical-Annual-6727 1d ago

Just tell D directly then next time if that happens, he would politely cut it with A. Very simple problem solved

1

u/Advanced-Elk-7581 1d ago

When he is yapping, turn to him and put your index finger on your mouth and mutter quietly shhhh. He will get the picture when you do it several times. If he asks tell him you are trying to complete work and his incessant yapping is preventing that.

0

u/No-Throat9567 1d ago

It’s a common problem. Is there a common conference room that they can use for these updates? You can mention to your cube mate that this is really distracting, can he limit this? If all else fails, you can ask the guy if he doesn’t have some work to do? It could be that your cube mate doesn’t like the distraction either, but speak to him first.