Monday, October 10, 2011

Harassment III

My crazy office neighbor is at it again. I'm meeting with students who want to join my lab all day (yay!!!), so I want to meet with them in my office - not a conference room. I'm losing my voice (from not drinking water all day) so I'm practically whispering during all these meetings. It's still too loud for my office neighbor. That leads me to believe that maybe the students are loud, and it's not me… But that is neither here nor there. He tries to shut my door during one of these meetings. But university training taught me that we can't have our door closed when meeting with students. I explained to him that I have to have my door slightly open to be in compliance with policy. (This discussion was in front of the prospective student, so that was awkward). The office neighbor went back to his office and started blasting classical music. I suppose this action was meant to anger me, but it made me afraid. I feel as if I am unable to speak in my own office without retaliation. Fortunately, he didn't email my boss like he did before.

The office neighbor is leaving this winter break, so I just have a couple more months of this… Some other lucky university is getting him :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh dear. I can't do much else but express my sympathy.

-L said...

This is totally unacceptable. I can't believe that your boss allows this to occur. I'm lucky enough to be on a floor by myself (with the exception of graduate student office).

Anonymous said...

I found your blog because I was looking for advice/ideas for this situation. The same thing happened to me yesterday while meeting with my students. I meet with them twice a semester to go over their assignments, discuss their progress, etc. Well, my office neighbor told me to "keep it down" and close *my* door. I noticed later that he had left his door open. I was infuriated. I don't want to close my door while meeting with students. I'm going to see if there is a policy about doors being open or closed during conferences. I plan to stand my ground the next time he decides to complain.