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Handling the Chronic Interrupter

The chronic interrupter is the office narcissist. They believe their needs are the most important and they want them met instantly, and they will insist that the world do just that.

A coworker once insisted on sharing some family vacation pictures with me while I was on deadline. I told her I would look at them later. After an hour, while I was still hard at work, she asked again if I wanted to look at the pictures. Once more I said I would look later.

After the third request I had to give a more dead-on answer: “As I’ve said, I am busy now. When I am ready to look at them I will let you know.”

That stopped her insistence. As promised, when I finished my work, I looked at her pictures.

It would have been easy for me to refuse to look at the pictures because the woman was so annoying. But it was important for me to keep my word. And I really wanted to share in her joy over the pictures.

With chronic interrupters you have to set boundaries because they are unable to. In meetings or in casual conversations you’ll have to ask them to stop interrupting you, and in the heat of deadline you’ll have to demand that they hold off on their requests.

If you don’t set boundaries their intrusive behavior will drive the relationship. And emotionally they are much too young to be at the wheel.