I work with a coworker who is a chatterbox.
He loves talking regardless who it is - clients, coworkers, random telemarketing guys, recruiters, you name it, he doesn't need a reason to start blabbing. He tells them all his life story. Even the recruiter calling for an ex-employee reference gets to listen to what he did over the weekend.
He just walks into my cube often, and starts a conversation without asking if I am busy or not. Today he did the same while I was working on something really important for the client. I told him I am busy and will continue the topic at a later time. He left, and 10 minutes later returned with a different story. I repeated my reason as to why I couldn't talk, but he was back in another 15 minutes. Finally, I told him that I am really busy, I need to focus, so quit interrupting me and he just stormed out.
How can I politely deal with this kind of person in the workplace when being subtle hasn't worked?
I work for a small business company with only 6 employees, so it's hard to avoid these type of personalities. Unless you are straight in their face this guy doesn't get it. If I give him indirect clue that he's being annoying, he immediately asks - What is that supposed to mean? I deal with this on a daily basis.
We don't have HR and the boss lives out of state. So anything goes in the office and he's senior employee here.
Did I address the situation correctly by telling him not to interrupt me up straight? is there is a better way to handle it next time?