The Art of Nonconversing...

You know, being silent really is a lost art these days. I have no idea where or when our society lost the ability to go 2 minutes without rambling on about something or another. It really is unfortunate that this skill has slipped through our collective fingers because sometimes all you really want, Nay need, is some good, old fashioned, silence... I realized the other day just how noisy my life is. ( yours probably is too, you just have to stop and notice ) I stopped for a minute and mentally counted the number of sounds that surrounded me at that given moment. There were a ton of them; computer, fan, printer, radios, creaky desks and chairs, talking, etc, etc.. The most annoying of all of these sounds came from the people in the room who were rather loudly debating some mundane point.

I work in an office that is about 25x15. Oftentimes there will be 4 to 6 people in it chattering away. It can be annoying as hell when you're trying to talk to a contact on the phone, or perform other tasks we have that reqiure concentration. I truly cant stand it when people see that you're busy, or involved with something important and insist on striking up a loud conversation right next to you. Its just rude. The office just isn't large enough for 3 separate conversations to be going on simultaneously without it sounding like a nightclub rave.

Maybe it's just me, but out of courtesy when I see that someone is engaged in activities that even remotely appear tedious I quiet down. If someone tries to engage me in a conversation around that person, I'll motion for them to follow me and head away from where the other person is working so they aren't disturbed.

Apparently, I'm a rare or dying breed or something like that. Why? Because out of almost all my coworkers I'm the only one that is able to do this. Everyone else just dosen't seem to care one bit if they impede someone elses ability to get their job done without distractions.

I guess the real issue here is that I don't like people who are unable, or better yet unwilling to think of other people. It takes real effort not to simply go off and tell them to shut up and stop being a thoughtless asshole. But we cant do that in the modern workplace can we? it just makes the workday all the longer when you have to suffer the fools that work there.

Who knows, maybe I'm developing antisocial tendencies in my old age.. ( I am, I admit it ) I would probably be completely happy working largely by myself. Either that or get some new, more professional coworkers.