Office harmony is fragile, especially when working in close quarters with your colleagues.

One worker’s patience wore increasingly thin as a loud coworker turned their routine frustrations into noisy disruptions.

Eventually, he contemplated formally complaining to HR to put a stop to it.

Keep reading for the full story.

WIBTA if I went to HR?

So I (M, 54) work in a typical corporate cube farm.

No one talks at this place. I mean almost total silence. When someone takes a personal call, they go into an empty conference room.

I’m talking silent.

But there’s one notable exception to this rule.

There is a coworker (M, about 50) two rows away who continuously makes loud noises all day.

This employee details an extensive list of grievances.

Things like:

• Picking up his keyboard and slamming it down on the desk.
• Slamming his hands down—hard.
• Practically yelling phrases like “OH, come on!” or “You’ve got to be kidding!”
• Extremely dramatic sighing.
• Exhaling forcefully with his lips together to make that “plububububub…” sound. (Try it—you’ll see what I mean.)
• Sneezing so loudly that water on my desk trembles. (I’m not exaggerating. Trembles.)
• Blowing his nose like a goose who has fallen to the bottom of a well.

Mind you, this list is from one day. Today. And it is only 2:30.

The employee has tried to combat this multiple ways, but nothing seems to work.

I play loud music through my noise-canceling ear pods. It doesn’t help.

Other people around me hear it. They snicker quietly or roll their eyes.

But not one has said anything to him—including me.

I mean, what would I say?

I have worked two rows away from him for four years, and this behavior started out of the blue one year ago.

He’s wondering if escalating the issue may be the only solution.

I want to go to HR and make a complaint because I am at my wit’s end. I don’t want to cause trouble for him or get a reputation as a complainer.

WIBTAH if I either made a formal complaint to HR or said something to his manager?

Sounds like this employee can’t take much more.

What did Reddit have to say?

At a certain point, excessive disruptions need to be addressed.

This kind of behavior definitely doesn’t sound appropriate for a workplace.

This commenter isn’t so hopeful that HR would even do anything about his complaint.

Reporting this to HR may scratch the itch, but it might not actually solve the problem.

It may be time for stronger noise cancelling or a new desk assignment.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.