How to politely deal with annoying office mate?

Where do you draw the line between asking someone to curb their annoying behavior and just being too sensitive?

The guy with whom I have to share an office has many annoying habits. He flips his pen between his fingers all day. Every few flips result in the pen crashing down on the desk. The actual flipping makes a really subtle noise, but enough of a sound that it makes my skin crawl with the anticipation of the crashing. How can I politely ask him to stop, knowing I'd have to remind him many many times (this is definitely his "thing" since he does it *all day*).

He has other habits, but the pen-flipping is by far the worst.

I've tried listening to headphones, but (1) I don't always feel like listening to music and (2) it doesn't drown out the sound enough. I've actually resorted by wearing earplugs, but even then I can still hear the pen crashing down on the desk.

There's no way around it. You are going to have to come right out and say something. Try an approach like, "Joe, I guess it must be a stress reliever for you but the pen flipping and dropping is adding to my stress. Could you please stop?"

Great!! It's always best to be straight forward and honest. Sometimes people don't even realize that they're being annoying. Report It

Just start doing something that will annoy him. He will either get the hint and stop, or be too frazzled by whatever it is you are doing to concentrate on his pen flipping.

You have to be honest with him; making up some lie would be difficult, and that never works anyway.

So just tell him, politely, that him dropping his pen every few seconds is really nerve-wracking for you, and is affecting your work. Ask him to please stop flipping the pen, as that's what's causing him to drop it all the time.

If he's an adult, he'll understand.

Just be open and honest and tell him how bad it bothers you! I love eating sunflower seeds and the person I share a small office with told me how much it annoyed her to hear me cracking them in my mouth and well I bought seed less ones. She was nice about it and since she was nice I figured I would be too.

If he doesnt seem to respond in any way then the next best thing to do would be to report it to your supervisor, maybe he will talk to him and give him a warning if he does it again, or maybe he assign you on another office space. but before you go ahead to do this ask him one more time that it has been bothering you lately and haven't been able to target concentration on hard work that needs to be done with.

Start doing the same thing as him, only make the pen crash down more frequently. Its possible that it will start to annoy him as much as you and either he will stop or he will say something and that will give you your opportunity to chime in.

I would be honest adn tell him. I would say nicely that I need to talk with him for a moment and I mean no offense but I was wodnering if he could work on a few things just to make both of our days more enjoyable. Thanks

Somebody dropping a pen is not the end of the world. You need to figure out what is really bothering you. Maybe you should seek professional help.

Seek a therapist. Obessing like this on a one petty little habit is unhealthy not to mention weird.

just tell him about his annoying habits......or look around for another job.......or sabotage his work so he gets the sack....