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Regardless of whether you work in a major corporation or a little firm, you and your colleagues undoubtedly have to cope with noisy and/or disruptive co-workers. How do you handle this ticklish situation? First, you have to decide just what you feel you can bring yourself to do about it. Here are several helpful suggestions for keeping your cool and maintaining relative peace and quiet in the workplace.

Noisy, distracting colleagues frequently are unaware that they are creating distractions. Some just have irritating habits, while others actually prefer to disrupt their fellow workers. Your best bet, if you hope to stop them, is to discover why they are being noisy and disruptive and what is really at the bottom of their antisocial behavior.

The first type that you really have to deal with is the one who doesn't know that his or her habits are causing distraction. This person often feels that the office noise simply covers up any noise that they could possibly make, so their thought is "so no one can really tell that I am making a noise".

A perfect example of this is the person that will sit at their desk and sniffle all day instead of stepping away and blowing their nose to take care of the issue. These annoying coworkers drive you to the point that you want to throw a tissue box at their head. The better option however is to kindly offer them a tissue or simply mention that their behavior is wearisome.

Another type of people are those trying always to be the center of attention. They can be hard to manage as they strive to be noticed, with hopes of moving up the ladder of success.

This kind of individual doesn't leave you with many coping options aside from trying to achieve a meaningful dialogue. If that turns out to be fruitless, you will have to discuss the situation with a manager. Let's face it, you will still be expected to perform your functions. And you may just find that, given the productivity-hampering activities of this difficult colleague, there may be other co-workers who are just as distressed as you are.

Loud coworkers are a common issue in many workplaces today. However, there are a couple different solutions that can be undertaken that will help you maintain your sanity in a room full of noisy coworkers. Office noise can be easily prevented by simply speaking to the co-workers. Often, they don't know that they are being noisy, but indicating this to them can often get them to stop. Sound masking may be required on your end to ensure that the noise isn't overwhelming. Ultimately, the person that you're dealing with may be unconcerned with their noise, so telling them about what they're doing may be necessary to quiet your workplace.