Getting to Know the Neighbors

Working in an office brings about many challenges, especially if you happen to be a cube dweller. My biggest challenge is trying to attend conference calls (ConCalls) while those around me do the same. I am in an older building with high wall cubes so the sound is muffled a bit but you still hear everything your neighbor says unless they whisper.

My current neighbor, I will call him "Don", is loud..To be honest, with the type of work he is involved with (finance, layoffs, PO's, etc) he really needs an office but alas, our company has decided only mid and upper level management gets offices (even though we have several sitting empty right now) and the rest of us must work in cubes.  This makes things interesting when non-work phone calls take place.

Again, "Don" is loud and sits right next to me.  Without trying, I hear damn near every word of every conversation he has while he is in that cube.  I really try to tune it out but he is so loud it really is impossible.

Thanks to "Don" talking as loud as he does, I feel I know quite a bit about him and his non-work life:

His son just got married and went on a cruise, leaving a vehicle with a slow leak in one of the tires.  As expected it was flat when the happy couple returned.  I can only assume the son is not mechanically inclined because he called his dad 2-3 times to get advice.

"Don" has a pickup truck that leaks oil and the labor involved to fix it (the rear main seal is bad) will cost more than the truck is worth.  He puts a quart of oil in it every week or so.

The battery in his truck mysteriously would not hold a charge after the mechanic diagnosed the rear main seal leak.

His AT&T U-verse contract promo just expired and his new bill was $65 more per month than the promo rate.  He spent 15 minutes on the phone with AT&T trying to get it reduced with most of that time trying to figure outhow AT&T calculates taxes and fees which never are the same from month to month. I can empathize with him as I suffered through the same thing a little over a year ago.

I have also heard a couple of questionable comments being made but since I only heard one side of the conversation I won't speculate on the intent.

Mind you I have only had two short conversations with "Don", one about the battery (he did not mention the oil leak) and one regarding the problems we have been having with our network connections in this building.

I am certainly looking forward to the day I get to move back into the main building.  I am not a fan of working out of the building I am in right now.  My old space did not have noisy cube neighbors. They all went someplace quiet and private to make their personal calls.  The only thing I had to contend with was the atrium walkers who carried on conversations (sometimes very personal) while they walked their laps but at least these were disturbances were short, just as they walked by the front of  my cube.