Employee whispers all day long at his desk, having full-blown conversations with himself about things unrelated to work: 'He was arguing with himself over his personal life or people he knew.'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Dec 15, 2025 2:00 PM EST

This is almost as bad as having a whistler in the office.

There's nothing worse than having a coworker who is annoying in a way that you can't quite call out without breaching professionalism. If you're a higher-up, you have more leeway to tell your employees that they shouldn't sing under their breath in the open-concept office. In fact, you probably should tell your new hire to knock it off if they keep singing Hamilton when everyone else is trying to focus on work. But if you and your annoying coworker are on the same level, you probably don't feel like you can tell them to do anything, let alone to stop. 

Is it more unprofessional to be annoying in a way that bothers your coworkers, or to tell your coworker that they're being so irritating that you can't get your work done? There's no single correct answer, so the annoying person often keeps being annoying until they leave the job or get fired, and the annoyed person has to grin and bear it until they quit or get fired. You can't communicate with your coworkers in the same direct way you do with your friends or family, because being too direct can come off as unprofessional.

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  • The employee in this story doesn't know how to handle her coworker's incessant whispering. He literally whispers to himself for hours at a time, and either he doesn't know he's doing it, or he doesn't think other people in the office can hear him. How wrong he is! 

  • A man sitting at a desk using a computer
    via SEO Galaxy

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • This new employee keeps whispering to himself all day long, having long conversations

    So this new hire (about a week in), sits right next to me by my desk (the way the desks are arranged he's slightly across from me, but the computers are closer). All day long he seems to be whispering to himself and having full blown conversations with himself.
    via u/precita
  • At first I thought he was talking on the phone to someone all day, but I noticed his cell phone wasn't out and he didn't have any type of earpiece/bud in his ear. And this isn't just the usual whispering "Maybe this is how I do this," or "Wow this worked on the computer, now I understand."
    via u/precita
  • A man and woman sitting at a desk in front of a computer
    via SEO Galaxy

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Instead the guy is having full blown conversations with himself about things unrelated to work. And while he's whispering, it's "loud enough" that I can hear it. And this doesn't just go on for 10 minutes or even half an hour, I swear this was legitimately going
    via u/precita
  • on the majority of the 7 hour day. Like legit FULL BLOWN conversations about things, I couldn't exactly make out everything he was saying, but it felt like he was arguing with himself over his personal life or people he knew.
    via u/precita
  • Now I'm not his boss so I can't really reprimand him or anything, nor am I a supervisor, but I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll give it a few more days to see if he stops on his own, if not this is
    via u/precita
  • kind of crazy. I didn't hear anything about this guy till he was placed relatively near me by a workstation. I understand he might have medical issues (?) in real life, but this is really distracting.
    via u/precita
  • A woman sitting at a desk using a computer
    via SEO Galaxy

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • ImprovementBubbly8 Hi My mother in law is exactly like this - it's like a commentary of her inner monologue and she too could do this for as-long as you let her. She can't even go to the toilet without a commentary. Some individuals are "verbal processors," meaning they use speaking as their primary method for processing information, solving problems, and gaining clarity. For them, keeping silent can make it difficult to understand information or engage with it effectively. It's like a true form
    via u/ImprovementBubbly8
  • crossplanetriple "Hey, I'm not sure if you know this. You are talking out loud. Is everything good? Do you need any help?"
    via u/crossplanetriple
  • idekl I'm close with someone who does this. It's just an extra mental process that runs in their head, and not really on purpose. It would be distracting and difficult for them to try to suppress it. This should be treated as a logistical issue. His "medical condition" (I think it's fair to call it that) disrupts your work, so your boss and his boss should probably have a discussion about their sitting proximity to you.
    via u/idekl
  • MidWestRRGIRL It's a medical condition that they can't help it. I had an employee with that condition. He even yelled sometimes. He had no idea that he was doing it either. The condition was better when he's calm but if he hadn't workout for awhile, it would get worse. It doesn't harm anyone but if you've never dealt with it, it does seem to be scary and annoying. One suggestion is when he does it, you can try to talk to him to get him out of that mind zone.
    via u/MidWestRRGIRL
  • Nerdso77 "Reprimand"? What is there to reprimand? It sounds like he processes this way. If it distract a lot of people, that's one thing. If you have a hard time focusing, consider a small white noise machine or ear plugs. I often work with ear plugs to help focus.
    via u/Nerdso77
  • katedevil Having your company spring for some high end noise cancelling headphones might be a better solution here in the short term. They work great.
    via u/katedevil
  • Both-Ad1169 Our Director of IT was like this. He'd be standing in the back of a meeting mouthing words to himself. I was worried he was casting spells on us all for clicking on suspicious email links.
    via u/Both-Ad1169
  • Thee_Great_Cockroach Definitely go to your manager if this is going on for more than a few more days Some people do process like this, but all day and in a pit setting is very extreme and 100% disruptive to everyone else. I worked with someone like this, they were eventually dumped in a more quiet space where they could do this all day without disrupting anyone
    via u/Thee_Great_Cockroach
  • dechets-de-mariage I'm one of these people, although usually I do it in a whisper. My leader mentioned it a while back and I immediately tried to stop. That weekend I realized I do it at home, too; I think it started when my son was a baby and I would talk to him to help him build language skills (which worked super well btw). Anyway, i am a verbal processor and when something is upsetting or complicated I sometimes can't get through it until I can talk it out. I don't love it but i finally unde
    via u/dechets-de-mariage

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terrible coworkers employee annoying desk work talking conversation Office argument whispering
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