Creeping In On People and Creeping People Out

Personal space is a real personal matter; what you are comfortable with, I might not be able to handle. This article is to remind everyone to be mindful about maintaining suitable distances in a plethora of circumstances in office.

01. Cubicles

There is a set of best practices to adopt when entering and being in cubicles. In summary, *knock gently and keep it to two quick taps
*wait for at least thirty seconds before you knock on the door for the second time
*do not enter unless called in
*do not peep
*avoid standing too close to the door as though you intend to eavesdrop

02. Workstations

If the person you wish to speak to is occupied, maintain a suitable and respectful distance and catch his or her attention.

If you need to catch his or her attention, say excuse me from a suitable distance and await the beckoning to move closer.

If the person is engrossed in whatever s/he is doing, try to return at a different time after getting an appointment over the phone.

If the person is speaking to someone else, avoid walking right up to them as it could be an intrusion on their conversation.

In short, do not creep in on the person and creep him or her out.

03. Common Areas

If all of us are to enjoy common areas such as the tea lounge, the lunch room, the TV lobby or even just a frequently used corridor, we need to ensure that we all give each other enough space to coexist.

04. Gatherings

At events or social gatherings, it is common to see people gang up in to small pockets of twos, threes or fours. If you are not a part of the pack, hover close and indicate that you wish to join them before you land yourself on to them lock, stock and barrel. 

There are times that you overhear conversations which are personal in nature or are not meant for your ears for whatever reason, in such instances, do not butt into the conversation or offer your thoughts on the topic. If you really need to raise a concern, request for permission from the parties actively involved in the conversation and join the conversation. You simply need to say ‘I am sorry, but I could not help but overhear what you just said about what happened at your son’s school, may I know some more details as I am worried about a similar issue at my son’s school too?’

In all honesty, all of us have heard or overheard conversations that we would rather not know of. The right thing to do in such instances, is to get about life assuming it never happened. Neither use or misuse the information that was not intended for your ears.  

Do you think that you are creeping out your co-workers by creeping up on them? Ask us at fullofetiquette@gmail.com and we will help you figure out how creeped out others are by you.

Photo by Jud Mackrill on Unsplash