Don’t Intern-alize Your Coworker’s Rudeness

We had an intern in our office that was graduating, thinking about signing on full-time, and weighing his options against another job offer he had. He was also getting married and thinking about having kids. Given that I had a kid within the last year, he decided to ask me about our company benefits, especially pertaining to family leave. 

We sat chatting for about ten minutes about the different benefits offered. I asked him about different aspects pertaining to his family situation and suggested what may work best for him. 

Over sauntered my Super-Annoying Coworker. [Coworker] inserted himself into the conversation and proceeded to repeat everything I had just said. Then, he launched into a twenty-minute dissertation on the benefits of every job he ever had. The intern and I looked at each other and went back to what we were working on, while [Coworker] continued prattling on, completely oblivious that we were ignoring him. 

Finally, [Coworker] ran out of breath and walked away. I apologized for him and asked the intern if he had any more questions. He replied that he may have more questions… on [Coworker]’s day off.