A 25-year-old office worker says his days are filled with nonstop chatter from two older colleagues who gather at the desks near him to talk about anything and everything.

Even headphones can’t drown them out, and despite warnings from management to take conversations elsewhere, the gossip sessions only grew.

Frustrated, he finally told his manager again. Read on for the story.

AITA for ratting out my teammates to our manager for constantly chitchatting in the office?

I (25M) work in a small team of five (2M, 3F), all seated together in row, with me in the middle desk.

Every day in the office, 2 of the older female staff constantly go to each other’s desk, and talk endlessly about their personal lives – husbands, kids, holidays, real estate, health conditions etc..

They often stand right next to my desk, so close that I can still hear them even with my headphones on. To me it’s really distracting and frustrating.

Once I got so annoyed I stormed off to the kitchen and kicked a chair on the way. I mean, they usually have lunch together and spend the hour talking non-stop anyway, what else do they need to talk about?

Just a bunch of chatterboxes.

Then there’s a former teammate (also F) who’s now in another department, often comes over to join them. Sometimes a couple of women from other teams join in too.

The remaining male teammate sits next to me and does not seem to care because 1. he’s Mr. friendly, 2. he’s like the oldest, 3. his English isn’t that good so he probably doesn’t fully understand their conversations.

The one remaining female is kind of ok, not really talkative.

Our manager (F) has already told the team several times that office chitchat should be kept to a minimum and moved to the kitchen or hallway, not around people’s desks.

Ah, so they’ve been warned.

I’ve directly mentioned the problem to her during our 1-on-1 catch ups, but lately she’s kind of given up, replying that as long as they get their work done, she won’t intervene.

When manager is not around, things get worse, they’ll work for 15mins, then talk for the next hour or so.

I’d maybe understand if they were super productive and their work is flawless, but in reality they hardly do their jobs properly..

Oh, wow.

I haven’t worked in an office environment for long, so I’m not sure if this is “normal” – like it’s acceptable to them to behave like that because they’re women, and older.

AITA for reporting my co-workers to my manager?

Or am I just overreacting and need to learn to tune it out like background noise?

Most people can’t believe he tattled on coworkers who just like to socialize, and think it was a pretty jerk move.

This person says kicking the chair is WILD.

This person says he could’ve just talked to them, but he decided to have a tantrum instead.

And this person says this is all normal and he’s way out of line.

Sometimes the loudest distraction isn’t the chatter—it’s the coworker who can’t tune it out.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.