AdminSecret

When it comes to idle chit-chat with your coworkers, are you a Chatty Cathy or are you all business?

I think being able to chit chat with coworkers really helps an office environment. I worked at one place where if they saw you talking they would run out and ask if it was about work. And I kid you not, they asked that we not laugh because it was disrupting. So the office was this depressing, quiet, morguesque environment that everyone wanted to leave as quickly as possible. Add to that the twice weekly meetings that were on such topics - as when to have additional meetings, and pretty much everyone left. The managers, however, were baffled as to why morale was so low and turn over so high.

I can't operate in an environment that's too quiet.  I like to talk with people.  While I can respect that some individuals function better when it's quiet, however for my part I genuinely enjoy human interaction.  I also use it to gauge my esteem among my peers.  I believe that as long as my productivity isn't negatively impacted, a certain level of office chatter is acceptable.  In fact, I tend to need it to avoid going into "auto-pilot."

You know auto-pilot, when you snap to awareness 40 minutes later and realize you were working (and working quite well) but can't remember a thing you just did.