How to politely ask colleagues to converse somewhere else?

Question

I work in an open plan office and we have some meeting rooms people can use. However, often when people leave these rooms they will keep talking outside of the meeting rooms for 10-15 minutes, disturbing me and other colleagues. I see everyone doing it, from my teammates to management to parttime callcenter employees. I do not have the option to move my work space.

What is a polite way to ask people to 'go talk somewhere else'?

I feel like it's rude to disturb their conversation, but they are already disturbing me...

Answer 1

What is a polite way to ask people to 'go talk somewhere else'?

"Please, can you take this conversation to a conference room?" will usually get the job done.

The best solution in truth is to use noise canceling headphones. I like it quiet when I work, and will avoid appearing like the bad guy as best I can.

If they are talking at a volume above what your headphones can block out then ask "Please, can you take this conversation to a conference room?" and be sure when you ask the question, they can see you are wearing headphones, this way they know you are already taking steps to keep your work environment as quiet as you can.

Most folks do not intentionally wish to disturb others productivity at work.

Answer 2

Be direct, but blame only yourself

Try wording it like this:

Hi, I'm having a hard time concentrating. Would you mind talking somewhere else?

I actually do this several times a day. We have QA folks, management, junior programmers, and none of them realize the value of a distraction-free work environment for deep thinking tasks such as refactoring or systems architecture. But they respect that my tasks are different from their tasks, and a simple statement that I cannot concentrate with the conversation nearby usually works.

Answer 3

Well there's a few easy things to do first before saying anything to anyone about it. To start with you could use headphones or earplugs to block the noise out so you can concentrate.

You could also look to move desks if possible so you're further away potentially but that is still very passive.

Alternatively;

The British Approach

We're known for being passive aggressive but polite about it. Start off with 'sorry'. Apologise for being angry and say something to the effect of 'could you talk in one of the meeting rooms I'm finding it hard to concentrate'. Or you could subtly join in with the conversation and start moving so they follow you elsewhere in the office which would potentially make them a bit quieter from your desk at least.

Failing that, mention to a manager or colleagues to try and keep chat quiet in the main office and save prolonged conversations to meeting rooms.

Either way whilst they're putting you off doing work, raising a concern over the noise will make you look like the bad guy here so you may need to argue your reasoning to someone.

Answer 4

It's a job for HR.

As this sounds like a widespread practice, not limited to one or two people, I'd suggest it's a job for HR to alert people and create and communicate a policy to the staff in general.

So I'd suggest discretely contacting HR and asking of they could e.g. email all staff (which would be anonymous from your point of view) requesting them to respect colleagues around them by not having discussions near cubical areas after meetings. Encourage staff to talk quietly in their own offices and cubicles and not loiter. Perhaps a more general "keep the noise down" policy.

This is only common sense, after all.

They might also post a notice near meeting rooms to reinforce the idea.

It probably won't completely eliminate the issue, but it may cut down the worst of it.

If you're in an open plan office it cuts both ways. People do have a right to expect to exchange reasonable off-the-cuff remarks (you don't want to create a repressive atmosphere), but they also need to respect those working around them by not loitering.

A somewhat more cynical way of looking at it is that you have an interesting opportunity to listen in on conversations and perhaps find out useful things you would not otherwise.

Answer 5

When I'm working at a client's office and a group discussion happens near my work area I simply stand up and say (with a big smile) "Gentlemen, go away, go away! I'm trying to put bugs in here." while simultaneously make shooing away motions with my hands.

Answer 6

Not some deep profound answer, but since this appears to be a recurring issue in your case, I'll just add an idea that worked in a university I'm affiliated with where they had a recurring issue with noise during examinations.

One thing that can work, if there is a hallway outside the offices, is simply to put up a brightly coloured "Shhh... Please be quiet!" sign outside the office. Make sure it's very visible: one university I was at complained that even a sign in the middle of the corridor wasn't working, so they put up a red flashing bicycle light on top of the sign. They've rarely had problems since.

Evidently, you should check for departmental permission before just putting up such a sign. However, if you can, it will have two major positive effects:

1. Alerts people of the need for quiet. Frequently, when people are jabbering away, it's not because they want to disturb, it's just carelessness. They hadn't thought of the fact that silence is appreciated. My guess is that a sign will take care of 80-90% of the problems.

2. If the noise continues, they know already that quietness is appreciated; hence, you don't have to alert them of new information; you simply have to remind them of what the sign has already said. This gives you more authority, and therefore less of a confrontation is necessary to bring things into order.

Hope it helps!

Answer 7

If you want to resort to telling them yourself. I would suggest going along the lines:

I appreciate that your conversation may be of importance but I think it may benefit us both if you took it else where. It will benefit you since their will be less background noise and less people listening in whilst it would allow me to concentrate on my work.

This takes the standard format of

• Say what is wrong.
• Suggest an improvement.
• Say how this benefits them as well as you.

You may be able to think of a better way that it benefits them but I think this overall structure is fairly polite.

Answer 8

My experience has been that saying it politely but straight works well. Something like "I'm sorry but could you please continue this conversation somewhere else?" or a variation of it.

I don't recall anyone ever being offended by it (or at least not showing it).

That said, our situation was the opposite of what you describe. People, myself included, would start a short conversation at a colleagues desk and for valid reasons these conversations would grow long and possibly involve more people, without moving the conversation to a conference room.

After some time, we talked about this and many people were disturbed by this behavior but we're also sometimes doing it themselves. We agreed that it was fine to let people know that they should move their conversation to a room. Slowly over time the situation got better, and you could see the same people who started a conversation also saying things like "let's continue this discussion in another room".

Of course, open plan offices are still noisy and it's really hard to change that. Noise cancelling headphones help, but isn't a complete solution.

Answer 9

We could overcomplicate things, but this is a common thing in my workplace, especially for my team. We tend to have discussions and our Scrum master (team member) can be quite loud. I guess it's in his nature.

When someone approaches us asking if we could be quiet or book a meeting room we won't get mad. We are humans, and we understand it bothers you and will tone down or move.

If you are sitting next to a meeting point e.g. coffee machine or whatever I'd suggest you ask your manager if you can be moved to a different section, because you are not performing like you would if it was more quiet. You can't keep people from meeting at the coffee corner!

If people won't listen, that's a different thing and then you can only indeed contact HR or whatever, but I honestly believe it will not become even close to that point.

Answer 10

Besides what's already been suggested: while it might seem silly, a "friendly"sign on your door or somewhere they can see it is really useful. Might be a typical "do not talk loudly" or "keep quiet or you'll scare the programmers!", everything depending on your workspace, and the circumstances.

Answer 11

If you don't like the idea of noise cancelling headphones:

If you are allowed or have the room on your desk or in your area you can put a semi-loud fan or white noise generator near you. The humming noise won't bother you and will dampen the sounds of the people talking. And if there is a way for you to block the line of sight from the conference room it will help you to not subconsciously listen for people to talk.

If you can't see people walk in to the conference room it won't be in the back of your mind while working to think "I hope they don't talk when they come out" then you actually tune into them more. So a distraction can work wonders.