There’s a woman in my office that is really hard to get along with. She’s always complaining, and gets mad over the least little thing. I get along with her for the most part because I just let most of what she says go in one ear and out the other. The one real problem I’m having with her though is this;
My boss bought one of those single-cup coffee brewers. He did not want to put it in the communal kitchen we share with other practices in our office suite because he didn’t want to be paying for coffee for anyone other than his own employees. He had it placed in a back office which is next to this woman’s office. I enjoy strong coffee and like that I can save money by not having to buy my coffee on the outside. Apparently she hates the smell of coffee, everytime I make some, she shows her dissension by spraying air freshener and closing her door. Then the other day she said "we were talking about the smell of your coffee". I don’t know who else she was talking to, but to my knowledge, no one else has an issue with it. In fact, people tell me how good it smells, and some of the docs asked if I would make them a cup.
I am usually agreeable and change my behavior if something I’m doing upsets someone within reason. I don’t know if this is in reason or not. I kinda think it’s not. #1 – I am not the one who decided to put the coffee maker in the back office, the owner of our practice was. #2 – It’s coffee. If I were making egg salad, boiling cabbage, or making some other smell commonly found offensive, I’d understand her strong reaction. Should I quit making my coffee to appease her and keep office peace, or should I let her, the one with the problem, make the concessions. She could go to the practice owner or manager and ask that we put the machine somewhere else. She can close her door, etc. Keep in mind that this woman complains when people make too many double-sided copies at once because of the noise, complains about the type of music played, complains that one person coughs too much and another person sniffles too much, and one person smells all the time.
Most of the time, I do close the door to the office where the machine is while I’m brewing my cup of coffee, and then close it behind me to limit the amount of aromo escaping into her area.
Keep making your coffee – it’s there for a reason & you didn’t put it there. Don’t argue about it with her, just let her make her comments, then walk away. If she has a problem with it, she should just close her door or ask the owner if he could move it somewhere else. This is not your problem, it’s hers.
If she has a problem with coffee in the office, she needs to take it up with the manager who provided the machine. Since you have behaved admirably up to this point, it’s of course prudent to continue being a polite lady and not start being rude.
Firstly, don’t justify it or argue with her, she wants that and should not be indulged. Pretend not to notice if she is spraying air freshener (if it were me I’d assume she had passed gas). Do not stop making your coffee, and do not take any notice of her actions.
If she comes directly to you and asks you to stop, you could say "Oh, i’m sorry to hear that. It might be best if you talk to the manager about the coffee maker." smile and go back to work. Being blithely and politely unshakable is always annoying to those who have nasty intentions.
Otherwise, keep doing what you’re doing and take no notice of this beastly woman.
if she is the way she is, I don’t think anything you do will make her happy, she will just move onto something new to complain about..
leave the coffee maker where it is, if she has a problem with it, she can take it up with the boss and he would be the person to move it or tell her to just shut her door..
piss her off, when you go to make coffee, close her door, telling her "Im gonna make coffee, and don’t want to bug you with the smell.."
bet she will hate that..
i suggest you take it to a higher up. she hould not be giving you a hard time because you make coffee.
You already know that you’re not being inconsiderate. What you need to decide is how far you can go in squelching this disagreeable woman’s baseless complaints. You have done well till now by ignoring her–and this you can continue to do. However, there is a certain point at which failure to respond to, or to confront disagreeable behavior is to grant it tacit approval; and this is the point which your disagreeable co-worker is now pushing. Remember that your workplace is in theory a social democracy; when personal opinions are voiced, you have every right to say (politely, of course) that you personally, entirely disagree. And then let it go. You will find, I think, that after the the first few shocks of non-agreement, Miss Disagreeable will begin to sweeten up.
She sounds like a chronic complainer. I would suggest you keep your own private list of complaints she makes and if she ever does go to the boss, you can bring out her list of complaints and go over all of them at once. People like that are pretty transparent. She is also very immature by not confronting you directly with something that is bothering her, but instead behaves like a teenager.
You basically answered your own question and ‘Yes" I feel for you.
The woman is a dork and a whiner and you just keep on brewing!