An office worker experiences disruptions from hallway conversations near their office door and seeks advice on how to handle the situation while respecting the seniority of those involved.
I work for a midsized company that has a centralized administrative office, in addition to locations where we do field work. I am part of the administration, and work permanently from my office. The unwritten policy is that we leave our office doors open, although we are allowed to close them for short periods if we are on the phone or need to work uninterrupted.
There is a conference room located directly beside my office that is utilized multiple times daily. Before and after these meetings, people will congregate in the hallway in front of my office door to talk. Occasionally someone will even lean on my doorjamb with their backside in my office. The conversations are loud enough to be disruptive, even if I am wearing headphones, and they are also blocking my exit path if I were to leave for any reason. Sometimes these conversations will last in excess of 10 or 15 minutes. I cannot ask the meeting participants to go somewhere else, because they are project managers, department VPs, clients and the HR department with prospective employees. Would it be rude of me to get up and gently close my door while they are standing there conversing? Or is it better to just grin and bear it?To answer your question, it’s worth examining why you cannot just ask these people to gather farther away. It should not be because they outrank you, but rather because what they are doing is in furtherance of company business. For the same reason, not only can you gently close your door so as to be more productive, but Miss Manners would think less of any boss who thought less of you for doing so.Miss Manners: Even when I try to warn them, I’m still scaring people on the walking trailsMiss Manners: I want to correct my sister’s text mistakes without hurting her feelingsIf you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation.and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our
Workplace Productivity Office Etiquette Disruptions Communication
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