Pet Peeve of the Day: Use Your Indoor Voices, Please

We have small cubicles with short walls in my office, and even with the white noise being piped in, voices carry. I practically whisper whenever I’m on the phone, and if I have to make a personal call, I usually take it outside or to an empty conference room. My team is often proofreading, which requires intense concentration, and I’m very careful about disturbing anyone. However, there are a few people who just don’t seem to get the concept of using indoor voices. In the next aisle, an accounting employee regularly carries on personal phone conversations as if she is speaking to someone with a hearing disability. Obviously, the occasional personal phone call at work is inevitable, but this is not the time to chat, as she is clearly doing. It’s amazing to me that no one in her department says anything to her — this entire side of the building can hear her. How can someone be so oblivious to the volume of her voice in such a quiet environment?