Annoying co-workers

Jackie_Jormpjomp

Just want to vent about my annoying colleague for a sec. FEEL FREE TO JOIN. 

FI and I made a work-related move for his career to a place we NEVER had any intention of living. ( we grew up on opposite coasts, met in Chicago and lived there for 5 years.)  We agreed before moving that it would be temporary and at most last 2-3 years. 

I have tried to remain open-minded, but I'm just not happy here. I found a job and it's going well, although I am the youngest in my office by 25 years -- and I'm 32. I am in a marketing role in a consulting firm and mostly I keep to myself which is perfect for me. I have lunch with my co-workers and engage in group conversation, but I don't really pop by co-workers offices to chat because of our age differences.  I'm ok with my job and it pays well, but mostly I am ok with it because I know that it's not permanent. 

Enter annoying co-worker. I could go on and on about the many ways she is irritating (she even describes herself as "nutty"), but she mostly just seems very un-self aware. Today at lunch (and this is not the first time she's done this) she put me on the spot in front of my boss, trying to see if I would be interested in "converting" to a consultant. I'm not interested - it's just not for me, and I don't want a career change. 

It was super awkward.  Luckily I was able to mostly avoid answering this because our managing partner joined us and the convo shifted. How do I answer this in the future? Obviously I don't want them to know I am basically counting the days until we move. 

charlotte989875

Priscilla2016 said:

Just want to vent about my annoying colleague for a sec. FEEL FREE TO JOIN. 

FI and I made a work-related move for his career to a place we NEVER had any intention of living. ( we grew up on opposite coasts, met in Chicago and lived there for 5 years.)  We agreed before moving that it would be temporary and at most last 2-3 years. 

I have tried to remain open-minded, but I'm just not happy here. I found a job and it's going well, although I am the youngest in my office by 25 years -- and I'm 32. I am in a marketing role in a consulting firm and mostly I keep to myself which is perfect for me. I have lunch with my co-workers and engage in group conversation, but I don't really pop by co-workers offices to chat because of our age differences.  I'm ok with my job and it pays well, but mostly I am ok with it because I know that it's not permanent. 

Enter annoying co-worker. I could go on and on about the many ways she is irritating (she even describes herself as "nutty"), but she mostly just seems very un-self aware. Today at lunch (and this is not the first time she's done this) she put me on the spot in front of my boss, trying to see if I would be interested in "converting" to a consultant. I'm not interested - it's just not for me, and I don't want a career change. 

It was super awkward.  Luckily I was able to mostly avoid answering this because our managing partner joined us and the convo shifted. How do I answer this in the future? Obviously I don't want them to know I am basically counting the days until we move. 

So I have about 4 weeks left of a job that, due largely to geography I didn't want to stay at. In my field you apply in August/September, hire in October/November to being the following August, so I was applying for jobs before I was ready to tell people I was unhappy there. 

I made add it a point to participate on committees, volunteer when appropriate, but also never say I was staying there long term. I wouldn't come out and say I was unhappy, but also deflected any questions about my long term prospects. You can always say, "I'm learning a lot in the position/ want to see what I can accomplish in this job before I move to a different one". No need to lie and say you'll stay here forever, but I do believe you want to maintain good relations with people you're working with in case you end up staying longer than expected. Also, limit the lunch time you spend with her?

madamerwin

Ugh, annoying coworkers can be the worst. Luckily I don't have any at the moment... For once, no one I work closely with is annoying.

There was a person, however, a few months back. When she up and quit (no notice, more on that later), I was secretly happy. She was young - mid-twenties - and incredibly ditzy (which she constantly blamed on English being her second language, even though she is very fluent in English and moved here as a toddler).

She was in a position at a higher pay grade than me, but she had NO CLUE what she was doing. I was pretty bitter knowing I could do her job better than her, despite me not having any prior experience.

What really got to me, though, was that when I would be having conversations with other coworkers, she would chime in with the most random statements, most of which were not at all related to what we were discussing (but clearly she was only half-listening). And, despite sitting in the same room, about 15 feet apart, she would regularly come up to my desk, stand WAY too close to me, and talk to me while I was trying to work. No sense of personal space. 

Other times, she would talk to me from her desk, but she would talk so quietly even the person three feet away could not hear her. She was also very perky, to the degree that it was clear it was fake.

It turns out she left because her boss realized that she did not have a handle on her job. She was supposed to be in some leadership training, but her boss pulled her out of it because it was clear that she needed to get a grasp on her own job duties before anything else. Everyone else in her pay grade was in the training. She also lost her supervisory role (the guy she supervised was most definitely smarter and more capable than her). So, the morning after this all went down, she came in early, left a note for her boss, and proceeded to try to sneak out before her boss noticed. Luckily, the boss DID notice and tried to talk to her before she left, but she wasn't having it. It was an all-around weird situation, but I was really happy when she left.

Jackie_Jormpjomp

charlotte989875 - that is some excellent advice! Thanks Your position sounds similar to Teach for America, in the regard of relocating.  I would love having the chance to travel like that!