Ian McKenzie has a few tips to keep those office visits as short as you like, so you can get back to work. There’s nothing worse than someone over-staying there welcome, at work or otherwise.
- Be the visitor. If you have to speak with someone, go to their office. That way, you can control the length of the visit. When your done, excuse yourself and leave.
- Turn away from the door. If your work space is arranged so that you sit with your back to the door, visitors can see that you are working and they might be less likely to disturb you.
- Close the door. If you have a door. This isn’t workable in a cube farm.
- Stand up for visitors. If a visitor comes into your office, stand up to greet them and don’t invite them to sit down. This will often shorten the length of their visit.
- Tell them politely. If you’re busy at the moment, ask them to come back. Set a specific appointment time if necessary.
I’d like to hear some more ideas from you lucky office workers.
5 Tips for Handling Unwanted Workplace Visitors – [Ian'sMessyDesk]
Our recent suggestion is a lot less subtle, but still effective. We’d made little polite signs, “Please ask another IT staff for help while I finish this.”
We put the signs up only when necessary. I don’t know if this would have application for people other than coders/support staff, but I just wanted to share it. It sits in a $2 Ikea picture-holder and the paper is 3×5.
[...] 5 Tips to ‘Handle’ Unwanted Workplace Visitors [...]
[...] Lifehack, several times in 2007 [...]