Welcome to another one of my blogs in the series “52 types of difficult people”. This blog is about Type 10: The Loud-Talker. Unfortunately, they exist.

#10: The Loud-Talker.

Linda is way too loud. 

Linda’s a good worker. She gets to work on time, knuckles down and gets on with the job. But now for the bad news.

Linda works in an office with a dozen or so other people. And she’s loud; really loud. She doesn’t yell. Nor does she try to ram her ideas down other people’s throats. But nonetheless, she’s loud. And as one of her colleagues put it: “It’s like she thinks she speaking to someone on the other side of the road.”

The volume of Linda’s voice makes it hard for her colleagues to concentrate on their work. And when they’re on the phone – which is most of the day – they can find it hard to hear what the other person is saying.

And let’s face it, there’s a limit to how many times you can say to someone “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch what you said. Could you say it again please?” before it gets on their nerves. So Linda’s volume isn’t just annoying. It’s also frustrating and at times embarrassing.

But her loud voice isn’t the only problem.

As if Linda’s loud voice wasn’t bad enough, she also has a loud laugh. And she laughs a lot. But it’s not that she’s been told anything funny. Not at all. She laughs when she’s talking with them and laughs when she’s on the phone to clients.

Her colleagues used to think it was just a nervous habit. A very annoying one, but just a nervous one nonetheless. So they let her off the hook. But these days they’re not so sure.

But in any case, here’s the thing. When her colleagues are on the phone, not only do they find it difficult to cope with the volume of Linda’s voice, they also find it difficult to cope with her laughing. It adds to the difficulty they have hearing what the person’s saying.

And they’ve had clients complain. It won’t be a surprise to know that clients don’t like phoning up about a serious issue and hearing what seems like a party going on in the background,

Linda’s been told.

Linda’s been told by her colleagues.

Now in case you’re wondering. Yes, her colleagues have told her she’s loud. They’ve told her she speaks so loudly it interrupts their work. And they’ve asked her to be quieter. When they’ve been on the phone and Linda’s been in full flight, they’ve even used the little hand movement – of the sort most of us have probably used from time to time – which means ‘Could you please turn it down a bit?”

But Linda’s not particularly apologetic and any reduction in the volume is always short-lived. She says her friends and family have sometimes told her she’s a bit loud. But as she says: “It’s the way I am. I’m bubbly. If they don’t like, it’s too bad.”

And Linda’s been told by her manager.

And yes, her manager has also spoken to her about it. In fact, she’s spoken to her many times. She’s told her she’s had complaints. She’s asked her to lower the volume because it disturbs others.

Her manager has explained to Linda it’s an open-planned office and the sound travels. She’s delicately asked her if there was anything about her health or hearing she’s benefit from knowing about. And she’s told her if she has any sort of problem with her voice or hearing, the office could be reorganised to help her out.

But no. According to Linda she’s fine and apparently other people are the problem. They just don’t like her and the volume of her voice and the way she laughs are nothing out of the ordinary. So needless to say, the problem still exists and her manager is still dealing with it. 

Linda is a classic Loud-Talker.

As far as her workmates are concerned, Linda speaks too loudly. The volume of her voice makes it difficult for them to concentrate on their work. She’s what we call a Loud-Talker. But the volume of her voice isn’t the only problem.

According to her workmates, Linda also laughs very loudly, laughs a lot and laughs at odd times. She laughs out loud when there’s simply nothing funny to laugh at. And they sometimes feel she’s laughing at them. They sometimes feel like she’s mocking them or putting them down.

But this is leading into dangerous territory. It’s leading into the world of conjecture. But the point remains. She laughs loudly enough for it to make it difficult for her colleagues to concentrate on their work. It annoys them. And it’s been known to get up the nose of plenty of clients as well.

Anyway, let’s leave it there. If you’d like to have a chat about The Loud-Mouth, or any of the other types of difficult people I’ve documented, or want to know how we might be able to work together, please go to the contact page of my website. You’ll find lots of ways of getting in contact with me there.  But just before you go, here’s a quick video with a little more about Loud-Mouths.

And now for a quick video

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