BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Coworker conversations about kids gripe!

I share an office with two other people. That is crowded enough. One of my office coworker's just hired a new person. The newbie is nice. However, I was trying to get some work done. Its hard enough to tune out conversations. I try my best to tune people out. However, I had to overhear my coworker, who's desk is closer to mine, talk with the newbie about their kids! No birth stories, but just talking about their children. It was so annoying! I thought about bringing my ipod to tune them out, but that is passive aggressive. I cannot concentrate, when I overhear conversations. Any ideas how to tune these people out? If I got up from my desk right there, it would of been obvious I was annoyed. What are subtle ways to tune people out? Especially when the conversation steers toward their children. I don't disclose the fact about being cf at work, because as far as I am concerned, it's no one's business. How do I handle this without being obvious? I don't want to sour coworker relationships because I don't like their conversation topic.

I don't think it's passive aggressive to bring your ipod to work--there's nothing wrong or untrue with saying it helps you concentrate on your work. We have people in my office that do it and no one thinks it's inappropriate. Could you bring a radio in and keep it low enough that only you hear it? That might help you focus on your work if you feel uncomfortable bringing your ipod. Good luck!

I go through this from time to time and I did have to resort to the iPod. I also have a small radio/cd player on my desk. I find that if I turn it on low (not loud enough to disturb my office mate) the rhythm of the music helps put me in "the zone" I need to be in to do data entry.

ETA: this is really funny. We were typing the same thing at the same time!

I too resorted to my iPod for these situations...plus, the iPod really does help me focus with or without conversations to tune out. But, as for being inappropriate - lots of people where I work have iPods or other headphones and no one thinks it is inappropriate. So, if you think it will help, I'd say go for it!

I don't think there's anything wrong with bringing in your iPod. It sounds like it's all conversations that distract you from your work, not just conversations about the other workers' kids. So if you start using it when your colleagues aren't talking about their kids, they probably won't make the connection when you start to use it when they are talking about them.