Today, humming annoys me.

There is a woman who works in the maintenance/housekeeping department at the company I work for.  She is always very pleasant.  When she comes in to clean, collect garbage, etc. she always has a smile and a kind comment.  And I always have a smile and a comment to give back.  However…

Today, I was hosting a meeting in my office with a colleague.  We were in the midst of a very serious and extensive planning meeting to review concepts for our new website design.  This housekeeping woman came into the office to empty my garbage clean up.  While it seemed inappropriate to do this while I had a meeting going on, I let it slide because I knew she probably had a lot of offices to get done.

But here’s where I get irritated…

She spend a good 15 minutes in my office cleaning up, and the whole time she was in there she hummed.  Not hummed soft notes, HUMMED LOUDLY.  It was ridiculously distracting, to the point where our discussion came to a halt until she left.  She didn’t seem to notice.

Couldn’t this cleaning have been done after my meeting?  Or better yet, after the work day was over?

Are some people so oblivious that they don’t notice when they’re interrupting something, or being incredibly rude?  Am I overreacting?  Or is she intentionally being irritating?

In an hour this won’t bother me anymore.  But right now it does.  So thank you for letting me vent.  And my apologies if your maintenance crew hummed during your meeting today.  I feel your pain.