Chumly's Cubicle Etiquette Problem

Cubicle Courtesy

Because partitioned environments lack privacy, it's critical that cube dwellers develop a healthy respect for their co-workers. Being a good neighbor is just as important on the job as it is at home. Exhibiting courtesy, tact and empathy in the workplace will help you build productive relationships and camaraderie with colleagues. Here are 10 ways to build strong bonds and foster productivity when working with colleagues in close quarters:

1. Be a courteous guest
You'd never barge into another person's house unannounced. Likewise, pretend that cubicles have front doors. Before stepping into a colleague's work area, always knock gently on the side of the entrance. This allows the individual to signal whether he or she can afford to be disturbed at the moment. Consistently show that you respect others' time and privacy, and people will return the favor.

2. Use your "library voice"
In today's deadline-driven workplace, professionals must be able to concentrate on completing tasks without the constant fear of distraction. And there's nothing quite as annoying as someone whose voice seems to always reach a deafening level. Whenever possible, use a quiet tone so you don't disrupt others.

3. Curb casual conversation
While socializing in the office is natural and a great way to build camaraderie with co-workers, not everyone may want to know about the strange blind date you had last night. It's unprofessional and unproductive to spend more than a few minutes talking about your personal life during office hours. Fill everyone in on the latest news at lunch or after work.

4. Stay home with the sniffles
Suffering from an awful cold or flu? Control those contagions. Do yourself, and your co-workers, a favor by staying home until you feel better. If you absolutely must come to work, be considerate and cautious when using communal office equipment. For instance, if you use the photocopier, clean it off with a disinfectant wipe immediately after completing your project.

5. Have good scents
Be mindful of your neighbors' noses before you let your tuna casserole waft through the office. Your co-workers may not share your love of Calvin Klein cologne or cranberry-scented candles, either.

6. Ask before borrowing
Some people are protective of their office supplies. Respect that. Always ask for permission prior to using someone's stapler or raiding a co-worker's supply of paper clips. What may seem like no big deal to you could be regarded as bothersome or disrespectful to others.

7. Avoid décor disasters
Individuality is the spice of life. But err on the side of caution when decorating your workspace. For instance, don't put up potentially offensive calendars or political posters that may alienate others.

8. Hit the right tune
You may work best when the music's blasting. But that doesn't mean everyone shares the same strategy. Wear headphones whenever you listen to CDs or the radio. And be sure not to sing or hum along to the chorus; save those melodies for your morning shower.
9. Avoid phone faux pas
If you must leave your cell phone on during work hours, make sure that it is always with you and you have a standard, professional-sounding ringtone. Your neighbors might not appreciate being startled by "Dancing Queen" every 20 minutes. In addition, it's rarely appropriate or necessary to use the speakerphone option in a cubicle environment.

10. Be friendly
In today's fast-paced business environment, we sometimes forget the basics of professionalism. When you are away from your cube and pass someone in the hall, say hello whether they are a friend or stranger. You both work for the same organization and you never know whose assistance you might need some day.

Robert Half International Inc. is the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm with a global network of more than 330 offices throughout North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. For more information about our professional services, please visit www.rhi.com

Any-who the following day I find the note torn off and I am "advised" by a male Electrical Instructor (who was not there at all) to be careful or I will have a sexual harassment claim against me and I will be gone. I thank him for his advice but do not comment further except to outline the conditions of what actually took place.

I am pretty sure the Female Electrical Instructor ripped the note off the door and may well have made specious claims about my supposed behavior to whomever would listen.

Any-who after this I figure I'd best talk to the Chief Electrical Instructor and I tell him the whole story and I ask him if he thinks I did anything wrong and he says no problems and he asks for a copy the note I placed and I give it to him.

I meet one of the male Electrical Instructors who was there at the time and he tells me he thinks no harm has been done but I "have made my point."

What should I do now? Invite the female Electrical Instructor for a coffee? Avoid her like the plague? Get the Dean involved? Hire a lawyer?

Don't invite her for coffee. She will look to construe it as harrassment.

Nothing. It is the supervisor's job to take it from here.

For your own peace of mind, you might want to type out a descriptive log of events with times, dates and names and witnesses, then just keep a copy in your personal correspondence file at both home and work.

Documentation is your best friend.

I don't know. (Someone smarter will be along shortly). We used to have an open studio. I liked the camaraderie - in a creative place, camaraderie and somewhat loosey rules can be best, but we were both creative and techy - at deadline time conversations across the room could be killers when you were doing math and organizing (well, irrigation design on complicated properties didn't used to be something you plugged in online, and if I were doing that now, I'd still work it out myself before I'd trust a program, not that I'm any judge of current programs) or doing creative design in a short time. I used to love it when some people went home..

But in the circumstance you describe, I'd also just say, hey, I'm on deadline, and wave a hand down. Not to shut anyone up, but to ramp down volume. I had seniority (if we had such a fool thing) and people mostly got it, or caught on soon enough. But then, cubicles weren't in the way.

By the way, headphones aren't just good ideas for listening to music. When I worked in cubicles with noisy neighbors and other annoyances, those same headphones served as a survival tool to help block out their sounds so I could concentrate.

Thanks so far for the advice all!

I have had some AKG noise canceling headphones on order for some time now, and I will carefully document the entire scenario this weekend. I have lots of high quality headphones and In-Ear-Monitors but these AKG noise canceling headphones are a breed apart.

In any case, should I talk to the male Electrical Instructor that she was talking to at the time I asked her to "please be quieter" (and she went into her rant) t see what perspective he has on the scenario?

What should I do about the chance that she is spreading specious rumors about my good self?

You mean, a request for a common courtesy has become an attack on your character? This may not be good advice, but I would take it to a higher level of management right now. This might fester for awhile and seem to go away, but it will come up the next time there is any kind of issue at all. Suddenly, you're facing a "continuing pattern".

Personally, I'd wait a day or two to see what your supervisor does. If I were the supervisor, I'd probably adapt the note you gave me and write something similar in my own words and hand it out at a department meeting along with a bunch of other housekeeping type notes about the new work space.

If there is no evidence of action from your supervisor, you could always just request that a copy of your documented log be inserted into your personnel file.

As far as your co-workers go, I wouldn't bring it up unless you are already friends with them and approach it as a "was I in the wrong, how could I have done this differently" discussion over lunch. What you don't want to do is become a supplier of gossip for the rumor mill.

I just reread your description of the incident and I do have one observation for you.

They were in front of your cubicle, and not in or near their own cubicles right? What you may have done differently after she had her rant is politely ask that they at least move their conversation to another area than the immediate area of your cubicle. That way it is obvious that you are not attempting to shut them up, just asking that they move the conversation to another area so it isn't so distracting.

You also don't say where it was that you had posted the note. Did you post it in her cubicle or on a bulletin board in the department or elsewhere?

if there is any reasonable chance of talking directly to her (sounds like she is angry at the cubicled situation in the first place) - that would help since you will share an office, i presume, for some time. if not, i would ignore any provocation and baits. if she's itching for a fight, bringing it up to more and more people will probably be pouring oil into the fire. not sure though how the overall office works and how well people know each other there.... so, depends.

Amen to all of what Butrflynet said, but this post in particular. Don't make more of it than it already is. It was a small(ish) issue and blowing it up, relaying it to others, including your supervisor, or talking to her is just going to keep it an ongoing issue. It's over.

Regarding your suspicions that she is talking about you - nothing you can do about that. I'd just bet, though, that down the road others will have issues with her or vice versa and your incident will just be the first of many.

If someone were talking about me that way, I'd just let them do it and not contribute to that in any way, including explanations. You'll look like the classier one for not stooping to that stuff.

I agree with that, butryflynet - similar to the hand moving down in a room clear of walls.

In my old situation, a big room with, say six designers and a secretary (the word then, there, another whole subject. In my memory, secretary involved some pretty sharp skills) and hey, after the batch of us scattered and I had my own office and business in the same building, that room became the place for supermariobrothers, hiss* -- but -- we could have lunch at the big table and hash this stuff out, leaving it up to the designer/owner, who usually picked a sane solution.

As in, in an ordinary place, this stuff is talked about. A culture of behavior happens. If it is a real harrassment culture, then it gets tougher.

Maybe the person who mentioned this is an harrassment suit fearer. Or, worse, maybe he's right.


*Nothing against them. They were just rude to me when I later brought some of their mail that was in my box to their door. It was some giant tennis publication. I think they thought I was an old spy.

OK, just to clarify, I placed the "Cubicle Courtesy" note on the inside of the door leading into the "not-that-large room which has been cubicled"

My thinking was that the only people that would see it with any clarity would be those who entered the room regularly enough so that when they left the room they would have the time to read it.

The door is situated so that no one would think the note was directed at them in particular, and thus in no way did I direct it at the female Electrical Instructor!

Perhaps I could have done things differently after she had her rant by politely asking that they at least move their conversation to another area than the immediate area of my cubicle, however their conversation ended abruptly when she went into her rant. I had to go and teach the math I was working on right away so I did not stick around to see who said what to whom after the fact.

If you get the feeling that the silliness may escalate, your institution probably (or mebbe not, but might) have an ombudsman whose job description includes advising staffers on just this sort of difficulty. They are generally very useful people, these ombudsmen, and under-utilized.

I have to ask, how did the subject of sexual harrassment come up?

From your story, there wasn't anything provocative said, and it was said equally to man and woman.

Did you boss mean she could trump up some charge about you?

I would make sure I was never alone with this woman, and there's a witness to everything you say about her.

I find this strange, since I assume there are more men in your trade than women. Not to say a woman has to expect or put up with harrassment, but she's going to get a bad reputation for herself with your peers, both men and women, if she's the type that's looking for this type of thing.

The only logical solution is to kill her.

Very rational and well-considered advice. Take it, Chumly.

But preferably after she's had run-ins with others... then there'll be a bigger group of "suspicious characters".

The subject of sexual harassment came up as per:

"Any-who the following day I find the note torn off and I am "advised" by a male Electrical Instructor (who was not there at all) to be careful or I will have a sexual harassment claim against me and I will be gone. I thank him for his advice but do not comment further except to outline the conditions of what actually took place."

OK so that's the first and only instance of a reference to sexual harassment I am aware of and I agree that there wasn't anything provocative said!

My boss made no mention of her trumping up some charge about me, the sexual harassment comment came from a male Electrical Instructor (who was not there at all as a witness) but has his cubical right near mine.