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Workplace behavior can make or break your daily experience.

The following story involves a woman who works at a state agency and struggles with a toxic coworker named Chris.

He constantly interrupts her and makes annoying noises with his pen. He is also known to treat women differently.

Despite his long tenure, his actions continue to frustrate everyone around him.

So she finds herself wishing he’d soon leave the workplace. Do you think this is fair?

Read the full story below for all the details.

The retirement cannot come soon enough

This story is not about me. This is for my coworker.

I have been there for one year and one month.

My jerk coworker, let’s call him Chris, needs to retire.

Chris has been with the place for around 20 years. It is a heavy union environment.

Once certified, it is very, very, very difficult to get rid of you.

This woman has known Chris to be a toxic coworker.

We are around the same age. He is slightly older than me.

He has a reputation across the entire place and known as a toxic employee.

He is a pain to work with and around. It makes sense why my position was open last year.

The best part is that he seems to have no use for women in the workplace.

He only values them if they do work for him or if they are in a lesser capacity.

He is not a manager or a team lead. No one works for him and never will.

Although she has 20+ years of experience, Chris didn’t think she was smart or had potential.

He has been passed over many times.

But with a female admin assistant, for example, he acts like they should work for him.

I happen to be a woman. I may be new to this environment. It is a state agency.

But I have over 20 years in my field. I have held leadership roles in the past.

He does not think I should be as smart as I am or whatever.

When he wanted to talk to her, he would just stand behind her.

That is not really the problem I have. I can deal with that and have dealt with that most of my life.

It sucks, but this gives a sense of how much I dislike this person.

This is the stuff that drives me to want to throat punch.

He will walk up behind me and just stand there until I acknowledge his presence.

Then, he will start talking to me.

He would also annoyingly twist his pen’s plastic cap over and over again.

He just stands there. There is no, “Hey, are you busy?” He also cold calls me on Teams. I ignore those.

Also, while he talks to me in person, he does this thing that annoys me.

While he sits in his cube, he does it, too. He has one of those cheap old plastic click pens.

He will twist it over and over. It is like he is going to open it up and take out the ink, so it squeaks.

He just does it over and over and over. He is completely oblivious, I hope, to the noise it makes.

It is like nails on a chalkboard.

She just wanted him to retire already.

And last but not least, when he is not doing those annoying things, he takes his online meetings on speaker.

This man then has the audacity to complain that others talk too loud.

He says they interrupt his thoughts and they do not understand what it is like to work in an office.

Just shut up and retire already.

I think we all have that one coworker who is annoying as hell, don’t we?

Dealing with this kind of employee every day can truly be exhausting. It’s understandable why OP started feeling annoyed.

Indeed, when someone repeatedly pushes your buttons, it’s hard not to react eventually.

Let’s find out what others have to say about this.

Here’s a possible response.

This person shares a similar experience.

Dude wants the attention, says this one.

Finally, here’s another valid point.

Even the calmest person reaches their breaking point.