Just A Mutter Day In The Office

I like my job.
I like the environment I work in.
I like that I get to do different tasks.
I like that if I don't like what I'm doing at the moment, I'll be doing something different soon enough.
I even like the people I work with and for.

However

I work in a pretty small office suite.  I'm in the main part and there are three offices that span from mine.  The two offices in the front are occupied by quiet workers with calming voices and good office etiquette.  They know that if they're gonna be in a phone conference that shutting their door benefits the office environment and helps them to concentrate more on their meeting.  They know not to listen to their voice-mail on speaker-phone mode (or to at least turn down the volume before doing so).  They don't hold impromptu meetings in the center of the suite (which would essentially be next to my desk).  And they know not to stand behind me and read over my should when I'm typing and trying to ignore them so I can concentrate on my work.

The office closest to mine is occupied by two individuals.  The first - Dee - is a knowledgeable, soft-spoken, even-tempered woman who has been in this department for at least a decade.  She is an early riser, too so she's always first in the office to arrive (typically around 6am) and first to leave (3pm).  She knows the ins and outs of our specific department and I rely on her to answer my occasional query of "who should I ask about ...?"

The second individual - Ell - is also knowledgeable.  She is NOT soft-spoken, or even-tempered, and she's been working as a temporary employee for 6 months.  She worked for the business for close to 20 years, retired and, after a few months, decided she had too much time on her hands.  She is scheduled to be here two days a week but continues to find reasons to be in more than that.  None of that bugs me at all.  No, what irritates me is the discussion of all she is doing.

I don't need to know, for instance, that she's going down the hall for a few moments to get coffee or use the restroom.  I don't need to know that she's gonna get a few tootsie rolls from the basket in the center of our suite before she begins to work on her next task.  I don't need to know how her previous department got rid of their petty cash box because it was never kept locked.  (And, for the last time, that is NOT a petty cash box.  It is a deposit drawer for folks who sign out keys.  When the key is returned, so is the money and the entire transaction is tracked via signed records which I have from 1997 onwards.  I don't make change from that drawer, I don't refund soda machine ripoffs from that drawer or let people buy stamps from that drawer.  Finally that box is kept locked, in a locked drawer, in a locked office within our locked-during-off-hours suite.)  I don't need to know that the system she used before SAP was so much easier because blah blah blah.  I don't need to know that the manager she used to work with in a different department from a different decade had thus-and-such policy.  None of this has anything to do with anything on my desk today.

The positive side is that when she does shut up, Ell is a huge asset to our team.  She knows SAP inside and out and can find most any information I might need.  She was able to step into a vacant position and immediately picked up the ball, which was terrific.  She takes her (temporary) job seriously and responds to emails and issues rapidly.  But none of this is done without an accompanying near constant narration.  And these aren't under-the-breath mutterings ... these are out loud, full voice "and now I will follow up on that check request" discussions to - well - to no one.  Which makes days she's here "Mutter Days".

Today is just a mutter day.