Is it acceptable
while in the office to wear a sign saying "Please don't talk to me"

some days I really can't be arsed to listen to or be involved in the banal conversations that go on.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 9:02, 14 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I like to pronounce 'banal' as
'bay-nul'. Makes me laugh.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 9:03, Reply)

thanks baz
that got the first smile out of me today
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 9:04, Reply)

Yes absolutely.

can you listen to music?

Perhaps make a "Don't touch me" sign for the tube/bus/train, but it may freak people out.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 9:10, Reply)

I am listening to music
that is my saviour

hearing people I don't know is fine, or being surrounded by strangers, because in my head that still means I'm alone.

it's the people that I don't mind at work, or the ones I simply tolerate that grate on me sometimes.

like today.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 9:13, Reply)

I still have a little sign on my desk
acquired during the last World Cup, which reads "I'm sorry, I don't speak football".

Very useful indeed.
( le brian, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 10:15, Reply)

I love speaking football :)

On another note I overheard a manager call me a "thick cunt" when they didn't know I was listening/in the area.

Was tempted to quit right there and then because it was THEIR ERROR!!! GRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaargh
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 10:20, Reply)

Forgot to mention that I have neither the balls or the money to react like that though :(
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 10:21, Reply)

It's more than acceptable.
I'd love a sign that said "Think about it: do you really need to speak to me? Really?"

I don't often listen to music at work though, as I tend to swear at people when they interrupt me in the middle of a good tune.

It's not good when the boss's enquiry is met with "oh for fuck's sakes. What?"
( Moey, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 10:26, Reply)

I can imagine me doing that too
I think that worse than people coming to talk to me is being able to overhear the mindless crap they spout. for a bunch of supposedly intelligent people a lot of them are pretty thick.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 10:28, Reply)

Probably not
but when I worked in an office I did my best to cultivate an exclusion zone about me and my desk ....... It worked. Granted I had to filter out the background noise of foolish co-workers gossiping about utter mundanity but by and large they let me be.
(SpunkyMcSpunkbubble Diddled your nubbin on, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 11:03, Reply)

my colleagues tend to roll their eyes when I talk to them
so more often than not I just stay quiet. This morning the conversation about why people who live secular lives always seem to want to get married in churches did it.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 11:54, Reply)

A good invention
would be reverse-earphones. That is, the speakers are facing the outside of the earphones rather than pointing inwards. The speakers would of course be much louder than earphone speakers. They'll leave you alone this way.
( mistaspakkaman and the inedible shifting caterpillars, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 12:51, Reply)

My solution to this
is to wear an obvious set of headphones- not subtle little ear buds, but visible headphones. If people can see them, they know you can't hear them or are at least not listening, and usually they'll leave you alone.

If they don't, you make a show of removing them and asking them to repeat themselves. It doesn't take long for people to get the hint, unless they're being deliberately rude.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 12 Sep 2008, 13:05, Reply)

I set my stall out early
Luckily I work from home (mostly) but I do have to spend the occasional day in the office. On my induction I was introduced to the rest of the office and factory staff and spent a happy time filling in my induction forms (just paperwork wankery IMHO).
Unfortunately, several people tried to engage me in conversation about the REALLY important issues facing us as human beings, such as Big Brother (watched twenty minutes of the first broadcast, never will watch it again), football (tosspots game watched by tosspots and supported by tosspots YMMV) and certain "celebrities'" fatness/thinness/marriages/divorces (my opinions on "celebrities" are not printable, mainly because they are incoherent screams of rage and weeping at the fucking futility of it all and the sheer mindlessness of the "celebrity" watcher).

Since then, I rarely get dragged into conversation when in the office as I have no points of congruence with the denizens therein.

Fucking great!
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Fri 12 Sep 2008, 13:36, Reply)