I am a software developer. I work in a relatively small company (30/40 people) and we are all in the same open space. I am the lead of the iOS team, and I have a problem with the lead of the Android team. It is really difficult to focus because he is always around, seeking for attention/acknowledgment. He starts working way earlier than everybody else at the office (around 6:30) and he doesn't have lunch, so he has much free time, that he can spend bothering other people.
There are times when we need really to discuss as experts of our teams, and I am fine with that, but other times he interrupts me for no real reason. Here the list of the annoying and distracting things he does:
- Coming to my desk and start talking and walking behind me, even if he can clearly see that I am with my headset, he continues till he gets my attention. Sometimes he even shakes my chair.
- After coming at my desk and winning my attention, he tells me: "check the email", and then he wants me to open it in front of him, but he doesn't even wait for me to read the just received email, but start talking about it, as if I know everything already. (most of the time stuff not immediately relevant, and that I am gonna read anyway probably when I finish the current task)
- A variant of point 2 is "Check Slack"...and the same story.
- He comes to my desk and says something like "oh, about that thing... don't forget also to do that". But there is no reason why I should forget, and also I know how to do my job. So basically he gives me information that I don't need.
- He is talking/explaining things to the junior developer of his team, and he distracts me says "ehi ehi, tell him...when should he use static methods"...and then he waits for my answer as in interrogation. And then from there, he can start telling some pseudo-related stories, about some developers that didn't know how to use that thing.
- Out of the blue start making "jokes", and he talks out loud.
Recently I started counting the interruptions, and yesterday I counted 15. If you are a developer you know how difficult is to get the focus again if you are distracted while you are working on a complex problem.
He is socially very awkward and almost everybody in the company has some kind of problem dealing with him. He is almost 50, and I think he can recognize he is mediocre, that's why he is always seeking for attention, always trying to prove he knows a lot.
Anyway, I would tell him he is bothering me, but I had a hard time trying to win his cooperation because in the past it was impossible to deal with him, always grumpy and on his position like he was always right, and completely blind for seeing other solutions. So I am afraid that if he gets offended he is gonna start again acting in that way, which is probably worse than the distraction.
What would you suggest to do?