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Imagine working in an office, and one of your coworkers is almost constantly talking. It’s not like he’s talking about work related things either. He’s simply telling you personal things about himself and his life that you’d rather not even know.

What would you do? Would you ignore him, get headphones to tune him out, tell a supervisor, or vent to another coworker?

In this story, one woman is in this situation, and she mainly tries to ignore the annoying coworker; however, one day she couldn’t take it and was venting to another coworker.

Now, she’s more upset than ever because she’s the one who got in trouble.

Keep reading for all the details including the supervisor’s response and some examples of things the annoying coworker talks about.

AIO if I escalate a complaint about the office talker higher than my supervisor?

I (F32) work in an office environment, there’s probably about 20 people on my floor. Office/cubical set ups. There’s 3 people on my team and a supervisor.

I get a long great with the gal (F24), we’ll call her Susie, and the guy (M60s maybe), we’ll call him Marty.

Marty is a nice guy probably would not hurt a fly, but Marty is a freaking TALKER. He never shuts up. And his stories have zero point, not to mention they are sometimes borderline inappropriate or really not a work place topic.

His stories also run together because just burns through topics.

He really does talk a lot!

He only rarely talks to me because I think he can tell that I’m really not into it.

I give short responses, repeat responses, don’t make eye contact, and really just continue my work.

This doesn’t stop him from talking at you, though.

He’s followed me to the bathroom before, talking still (I thought we got to a natural end to conversation.. apparently not). Followed me to the stairwell when I was on my way out to leave, followed me to the file cabinet THEN back to my cube, still talking.

Susie is too nice.

Susie is great, kind to everyone, goofy and fun to talk to. Just one of those easy going people that makes work enjoyable.

She’s so nice.. self proclaimed too nice because she feels bad not listening to Marty’s stories.

So he will go and go and go and go to the point that one of us will call her phone, like she’s getting a phone call, so he’ll walk away.

We’ve clocked him before at an hour and 15 mins standing in her cube talking. It’s excessive.

With how much talking Marty is doing, I have to wonder if he’s getting any work done.

Like I get it socializing breaks up the monotony of the work day. It’s normal to talk to people at work! But what’s not normal is listening to the same person walk the hallway, stopping at nearly every office or cube telling the same 35-40 min story that can easily drag on longer.

I don’t just listen to his interactions with Susie, I hear that one and then the 3 others before or after that.

It’s distracting for one because his voice is a hard listen. And for two, honestly, it’s wildly annoying.

Yikes!

I got in trouble recently because I was venting to a coworker/friend in the office about him because he was on a tare again with Susie and was pushing 35 mins at this point and I had his had it. So I went to the other side of the office where my friend sits and vent.

Some.. office nark.. heard me ‘being mean’ when I was having a private, quiet conversation and told my supervisor.

I got counseled for unprofessional behavior and was told if it happened again I could be written up.

Her supervisor wasn’t very understanding or helpful.

I told my supervisor that I was sorry for the behavior but that Marty had me at my Witt’s end and told her how much of a distraction he can be because he’s so annoying with his yammering.

She said ‘there’s nothing I can do about Marty’… apparently counseling an employee on having appropriate length conversations in the office is not a thing.. like we’re at work, not a freaking backyard BBQ catching up with all our friends.

She basically told me I could wear ear plugs or bring my headphones in and wear them while I work if I need to.

That was the solution. And it has me fuming.

She’s not sure what to do.

I don’t know if I should escalate it because I’m so mad that I’m getting counseled but not that actually workplace problem, Marty.

And I’m not the only one who vents about him, unfortunately it was just ME that an office nark heard.

Would I be overreacting if I escalated?

Here are some examples of things Marty talks about.

For reference, here are some Marty topics/stories:

-I had a red onion in my pantry that was going bad so I cut it up *paused for juicy reveal, sucks teeth* and put it in my crisper.

-talks about how lettuce goes right through him and makes him go in his pants.

-gives us deep dives into every single ingredient and spice he uses in his breakfast (this ones daily)

-his fiber intake, his ketones, his blood glucose reading, a detailed description of his car insurance policy.. and the not to mention he’ll mansplain tasks of our own job to us if he runs out of things to talk about

Why can’t the supervisor talk to Marty? How is he getting any actual work done if he’s spending hours a day chatting with his coworkers about things they’d rather not know?

Let’s see how Reddit responded.

Here’s a vote for headphones.

Another person suggests looking for another job.

This is what I’m wondering too.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a woman who finds herself in a tough spot when a coworker reports her for the “policy violation” of having her personal water bottle at the register.

One person says to escalate the situation.

I don’t understand how the supervisor can say it’s no big deal for Marty to talk all the time. Does she understand how much time he is wasting and how much of his coworkers’ time he is wasting?

I think she should escalate the situation and look for another job. Her supervisor needs to take this seriously.