So this dude is basically a 46 year old man child and I don’t wanna armchair diagnose people, but he’s probably on the spectrum.
He’ll say a pun or a “funny” phrase, stare at you till you acknowledge it, then when you do, he’ll just keep saying it over and over. Even if you don’t acknowledge it he’ll say it a bunch then switch to a new one.
He’s obsessed with making fart noises then pretending it’s someone else he’ll even do it while we’re eating lunch. I’ve tried the politely asking him to stop he just says “oh you know I’m just joking” then when I tell him its genuinely annoying he goes full kicked puppy and acts super sad for a few hours and gets all woe is me saying stuff like “oh well I guess everyone hates me I’ll just shut up forever”. Sometimes he even goes full non verbal and literally just tries to communicate by pointing and or writing notes.
It’s not like he’s an asshole he a genuinely good guy he’s good at his job and he’s got your back when you need it.
I guess I just have a hard time finding the balance between not being an ass to a guy with zero social skills and losing my sanity because he can’t be quiet for 5 minutes.
That’s the trouble. Frequently this kind of merely annoying behavior is allowed to continue because nobody says anything because he’s not a bad guy. HR/the boss may not even realize it’s happening, never mind impacting work. You’d be shocked what people have gotten away with because ‘they’re nice people’.
part of their job is to smooth out these issues- there’s no reason to be aggressive about it, but if it’s impacting work, part of their job is managing it. shit managers though… will be aggressive about it- either with OP, or with this guy.
I agree that can be the case.
I have also seen cases (I spent years as a contractor working in many different places) where management knows about it but refuses to actually do anything about it due to laziness/nepotism.