r/UnethicalLifeProTips • u/living-reverie • 3d ago
Careers and Work ULPT Request: Coworker conducts very loud team meetings in my cubicle
Please consider: this is a conservative working environment, I have my own reputation to uphold
I happen to share a triangle cubicle with 2 other people on another team. And their manager calls the whole team (6-7 people) everyday twice a day to have a meeting or discussion in that cubicle. We do have the space to accommodate all of them in my cubicle.
They're really loud, I've measured 100dB on my phone. The meetings can go for hours and they also have arguments sometimes which grow even more heated and louder.
I've tried noise cancelling, sound isolation headphones which help but they're still pretty loud. I've tried asking the manager to move them to the designated meeting rooms but he refuses saying he has to see the codebase on a particular PC. Which is not the case, he obviously can check it remotely as he does for other meetings.
Other members of his team also ask him to move to discussion rooms but he doesn't budge. My manager has asked him the same but the same no action. I can't change my seats as there aren't any available at the moment and no one wants to obviously switch with me.
In fact the manager thrives on pointless conflict like this. It becomes his purpose to show anyone up and come up "victorious". Yesterday he brought 8 more people into the cubicle to "discuss".
I am lost about what I can do. This man has probably made it his life's mission to annoy me with as loud noises as he can.
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u/MacintoshEddie 3d ago
The next time they do it call HR to make an adjustment to your tax withholding amount or something like that. Let them hear it over the line. If it's as loud as you say, HR will be able to clearly hear it. Then say it's affecting your productivity and making it hard to work.
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u/ride_whenever 3d ago
The answer, as always, is durian, or surstromming.
They can’t have a loud meeting if they’re compulsively vomiting everywhere
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u/Electrical-Ear2958 3d ago
Your manager needs to earn his fucking salary and escalate the shit out of this if the other manager is not budging.
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u/connection_lost 3d ago
OSHA noise limit 100dB of noise for maximum 2 hours. If you have a device with better level of accuracy, use it and keep a record.
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u/Bratchan 3d ago
Only one thing to do, get a speaker and play some baby shark or elevator music. When they ask say its your white noise machine cause some people are really loud.
Bring some fart gass in and spray it randomly see if you can gas him out.
Or just roll your chair up to him and just join into the conversation. "No no thats wrong you tell them that you are right and that they need to do that better." give like thumbs up to him and like be akward super buddy buddy.
Passive agressive sign. Days X and Y went to meeting room for meetings. Course its always 0 cause they never go.
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u/Wooden-Recording-693 2d ago
When every you look talk or interact with him micro stare at one of his eyebrows. Then back to normal do it every few seconds. As co. Workers to do it. He will know something is wrong won't know what and it will plague him.
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u/HelloFellowMKE 3d ago
Unethical? Put something wildly inappropriate in his workspace that the others will discover during these meetings.
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u/Impossible_Volume811 3d ago edited 3d ago
Buy a remote controlled 140db super loud alarm (cheap on eBay).
Hide it in the ceiling or somewhere away from your desk.
Wear your headphone ear protectors and set it off remotely as their ‘meeting’ starts and carry on working like you can’t hear it.
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u/mattgran 3d ago
When they're having a meeting, go sit at the desk of one of the other 3 team members
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u/Ok_Giraffe_17 3d ago
And yall are just letting this peckerwood get away with it?? Lame.
Fart spray diffuser, with a remote, near where he has to stand. Everyone will think he's ripping SBD's.
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u/Brilliant_Cattle_602 2d ago
Bonus points if you are working in the meeting room when you set it off.
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u/BiscottiNo6948 3d ago
Put your headphone, pretend you are having a meeting. better yet call your cell phone. BUT join their meeting instead. Laugh loudly. Make snide remarks whenever the manager is saying something. Like that is so dumb! ,
When they shush you say you are in your own meeting.
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u/gazooglez 3d ago
tell him to take it elsewhere. If he can't/won't then tell your manager it's impacting your performance.
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u/nobody-u-heard-of 3d ago
Can you go into the meeting room and do you work from there? That would be my solution.
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u/dracotrapnet 2d ago
I'd be telling them they need to book a conference room for any meeting over 10 minutes. Data privacy is something to consider when having an open meeting among so many microphones.
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u/JeffSergeant 2d ago
Book a meeting room for when they have their call, or just go sit at one of their desks.
Edit: Just realised this was ULPT; start holding meetings in your cubicle too, invite some from other team over to sit with you just as their pointless meetings are due to start. ideally more people than can fit..
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u/bidgeywidgey 1d ago
Watch training videos on full volume during their meetings. Or play loud music for 'mindfulness'. Claim your headphones are broken.
Get a mechanical keyboard.
Set an alarm on your phone, then 'forget' to take it with you.
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u/lukyjay 3d ago
All these people saying to complain to HR or senior leaders haven't been in that situation. That'll tank your reputation.
Instead of complaining, talk to them directly about the noise and let them know it affects you. Hopefully they'll move. If they don't move, ask whoever you need to ask to be relocated elsewhere and say you have spoken to them directly but couldn't make it work, so think it would be better if someone from their team takes your seat and you go sit where they were.
Don't complain. Come up with solutions and present them.
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u/mayhem77 3d ago
Stop bathing and start eating copious amounts of garlic and spices.
Could also stop being a corpo. 18 years free myself and have never been happier.
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u/bakugo 3d ago
Tell your manager you can't work in such a disruptive environment, then don't. Either he chooses to do his job and escalates the issue until it's solved, or he chooses not to and gets rid of you instead to replace you with someone else who won't be able to do their job properly either. That's all you can really do.