Kill The Noise

Apparently, I’m not the only one in the office who has been bogged down by people being needlessly loud.  It has never been my expectation that any office I’ve been in, mimic the environment that one might find in a typical library.  Sure, I would prefer that my workplace be quiet enough to where I can get my work done.  I guess Kim took offense to not only the volume of the conversations around her, but the amount of conversations that were taking place in the vicinity of her cubicle.  She and I sit on opposite sides of the office, so in some way, I couldn’t share in her exact pain.  I know what she means when it comes to how loud people can be, whether it’s the sheer volume at which people speak or as she put it, the incessant laughing and “cackling” that has to come from our co-workers’ conversations.  It seems that people don’t have the courtesy to keep their noise levels down and I guess it really bothered Kim today.  It nearly drove her to tears.  I get it.

This is one of the biggest reasons why I get to the office and start working at 4:45am.  It’s quiet.  There’s no one there.  I can get work done in peace.  It truly is a beautiful thing, though it all goes to hell at 7am, which most people start to trickle in.  Still, I enjoy my solitude and even if I wake up early to get it, I will have my calm before the storm.  Sleep be damned.

Maybe I should be thankful for the gaming headset that I wear in the office?  I use a pair of Astro A40’s, which, when plugged into my phone, allows me to drown out all ambient sounds around me.  I truly have no idea what the hell is going on around me.  Whether I’m on YouTube or Spotify, I can tune everyone out and it truly does help me from going crazy, like Kim did today.

If I did have a complaint, it would be a little different than the one that Kim has.  I know that our department is always in need of people, “bodies”, if you will.  For years, I have questioned the extent to which these bodies need to be qualified to do the job.  I’ve seen people come and I’ve seen them go.  Some can do the job and clearly, others can’t.  That probably goes for all jobs, especially those that require some measure of formal education.  I can only assume that many of the people that the department hires look good on paper, but when it comes to the reality of who they are, I have been known to question just who the department is bringing in.  I can’t be the only one who has these questions.

There are two people who, if you’re asking me, are struggling to do the job.  Qualifications and ability aside, I can hear them everyday when they speak that they are not proficient enough to communicate in English.  I know that one of them was actually close to not being hired because their interviewer said as much and yes, it was because the applicant did not speak English well.

I have made it a choice not to converse with either one of these people.  I would prefer not to dumb down the way that I speak, just for the sake of talking to them and hoping that they might understand me.  If I have to change the way I communicate, because of the likelihood that I might confuse you otherwise, you’re probably not someone I need to be talking to.  I’m sure that these two are wonderful people and that there are people out there who speak to either of them happily and willingly.  I am not one of those willing people.  I refuse.

Kim is struggling.  I’m struggling, but not because of the noise.  Unlike Kim, I have the tools to help me tune out all of it.  I just don’t like many of the people with whom Kim and I work.

Noise.  Broken English.  Genuinely annoying people.  Nosy people.

That’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg and I don’t see it melting any time soon.