cubicle coffee: bad form, or perfectly normal? :)

[Paducah Home Theater]

Are you saying this brewer is a cubicle next to yours?

Yeah it's the cube next to me. I guess I'm just spoiled, I was here in the same spot in the late 90's but 12-14 years ago I got moved into a large room that four of us shared. I had a cube then but it was like backwards, each of us were in a corner and the next guy over was over 20' away, and the most I could ever hear was a few other people.

Due to growing pains we got moved and absorbed into the big cube farm again so now I'm surrounded by people. There is a young guy next to me who does the brewing. Another guy across the walkway wears headphones to listen to music, except he beats his pen against the desk hard and clicks it to the beat of the music so all I hear is this whacking and clicking. Another guy has the keyboard from hell, it must be 20 years old, one of those clicky ones that is very loud. I'm next to some industrial sized air conditioners that sound like a freight train. It's driving me crazy. Freight trains, clicking, conversations, ink pen drumming, eating, bubbling, coffee aroma, people walking by... grrrr. I liked the solitude at my old desk.

Edited August 14, 2015 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters

[dtel]

There is a young guy next to me who does the brewing. Another guy across the walkway wears headphones to listen to music, except he beats his pen against the desk hard and clicks it to the beat of the music so all I hear is this whacking and clicking. Another guy has the keyboard from hell, it must be 20 years old, one of those clicky ones that is very loud. I'm next to some industrial sized air conditioners that sound like a freight train. It's driving me crazy. Freight trains, clicking, conversations, ink pen drumming, eating, bubbling, coffee aroma, people walking by... grrrr. I liked the solitude at my old desk.

 

You apparently have no Canadian in you at all.

[oldtimer]

I don't know.  That beautiful rant was worthy of the Kids in the Hall.

[Jim Naseum]

 

Are you saying this brewer is a cubicle next to yours?

Yeah it's the cube next to me. I guess I'm just spoiled, I was here in the same spot in the late 90's but 12-14 years ago I got moved into a large room that four of us shared. I had a cube then but it was like backwards, each of us were in a corner and the next guy over was over 20' away, and the most I could ever hear was a few other people.

Due to growing pains we got moved and absorbed into the big cube farm again so now I'm surrounded by people. There is a young guy next to me who does the brewing. Another guy across the walkway wears headphones to listen to music, except he beats his pen against the desk hard and clicks it to the beat of the music so all I hear is this whacking and clicking. Another guy has the keyboard from hell, it must be 20 years old, one of those clicky ones that is very loud. I'm next to some industrial sized air conditioners that sound like a freight train. It's driving me crazy. Freight trains, clicking, conversations, ink pen drumming, eating, bubbling, coffee aroma, people walking by... grrrr. I liked the solitude at my old desk.

 

i hate noise pollution, and light pollution at night. smelll pollution can be bad too, once in a while it is ok. the other day i had a meeting with a lady and i thought for sure i would begin choking due to her perfume. i had to step back and hold in a caugh. i dunno man, everyone's got their thng. my special irritiation is outdoor adverts that spoil the landscape. i gots lotsa gripes. LOL! but, i just carry on.

[Travis In Austin]

Microwave popcorn, coffee, baked apple pie from next door, the smell of fresh cut grass. I guess any of these could be offensive to anyone. It they are, too bad. You have no right to an odor free environment. You have the right to change jobs, even move to Utah where the consumption of coffee is much less.

The only time you can shut down odors is if, as previously mentioned, they are considered toxic, or constitute a legal "nusiance" and fresh brewed coffee doesn't qualify.

If you you think you have it rough at work because of occasional odors I would suggest you go to Hope next year, go to the Klipsch plant when it is downwind from the Tyson plant, you will never complain about the smell of fresh coffee again.

Edited August 15, 2015 by dwilawyer

[Paducah Home Theater]

If you you think you have it rough at work because of occasional odors I would suggest you go to Hope next year, go to the Klipsch plant when it is downwind from the Tyson plant, you will never complain about the smell of fresh coffee again.

There's a difference between a negative workplace aspect that comes with the territory, and a neighbor voluntarily being annoying while everybody else is trying to think.

I kind of have multiple jobs, and one of them requires me to regularly visit a welding shop, where it is over 100 degrees in the summer, only a gas grill is available for heat in the winter, the smell of burnt rubber/plastic/paint/metal and shielding gases are always in the air, you walk on a bed of metal shavings with every step, etc. I've worked at two other factories that weld as well, one built lawnmower engines and the other built truck wheels. I'm quite aware that my day job is pretty pampered.

Edited August 15, 2015 by MetropolisLakeOutfitters

[Travis In Austin]

I appologize for not wording my thoughts very carefully above. I wasn't intending to direct them to "you" personally, although that is clearly the way it sounds when I used "you" throughout. I meant the collective "you" as in "us". I should have said "when a person" instead of you.

Noise to me is a completely seperate issue. There are most certainly annoying and distracting sounds that common courtesy can eliminate. Cell phones in a theater, texting in a theater are a couple of the most egregious examples.

I do know that law libraries are designed to have the break areas away from the inside of the actual library, with seperate air handlers. They have specific quiet areas designed in them. Some people obviously put time and effort into that design.

I never understood how anyone could concentrate in a cubicle atmosphere to begin with. Phones ringing, people popping in and out, walking by, conversations right next door, and on and on.

There must be resources available on how to minimize the distractions, but none come to mind right off hand.

[BigStewMan]

Years ago I worked on Terminal Island in San Pedro. Had to drive through the gate of the federal prison to get to the coast guard base. In that area was a starkist plant.  Some days…oh man, it reeked for blocks.  I always wondered if that smell got into the clothes and cars of the workers.  Flash forward to this past year, i’m getting physical therapy and BSing with the therapist. He mentions that he used to work at the starkist plant. So, i asked him…he said yes, that smell gets in everything…he had to change clothes outside when he got home. that would suck.

[muel]

I appologize for not wording my thoughts very carefully above. I wasn't intending to direct them to "you" personally, although that is clearly the way it sounds when I used "you" throughout. I meant the collective "you" as in "us". I should have said "when a person" instead of you.

Noise to me is a completely seperate issue. There are most certainly annoying and distracting sounds that common courtesy can eliminate. Cell phones in a theater, texting in a theater are a couple of the most egregious examples.

I do know that law libraries are designed to have the break areas away from the inside of the actual library, with seperate air handlers. They have specific quiet areas designed in them. Some people obviously put time and effort into that design.

I never understood how anyone could concentrate in a cubicle atmosphere to begin with. Phones ringing, people popping in and out, walking by, conversations right next door, and on and on.

There must be resources available on how to minimize the distractions, but none come to mind right off hand.

 

I've used this a lot to help mask unwanted noise:  http://simplynoise.com/  

It really works!  Helps with tinnitus as well.