At long last I got a job in Switzerland and had my L Permit extended -- one day away from expiry. It is a fantastic job doing programming. The downside of it is that it is in an open-plan office. Open-plan offices are good for communication between different functions -- this I can witness -- but the downside is the noise disturbance when you are trying to do a complex technical job. I have got used to the coughing and people forgetfully singing when listening to music on their headphones, but what gets to me is that the person next to me sufferes from Tourette's Syndrome. The twitching and low muttering, I have learnt to ignore, but when he leaps to his feet and shouts at the top of his voice things like "<expletive deleted><expletive deleted><expletive deleted>YOU <expletive deleted>!!!" then it makes me jump out of my chair. He is very apologetic afterwards, as he is by nature a very polite person, but I do find it somewhat disturbing and even distressing at times. Is there anything I can do about this, according to Swiss law?

He can't help it so why do you need the law, your boss and everyone else in the office seems to be fine with it from what i understand, so just give this bloke a change and if you can't deal with it find a new job......

sorry if that was harsh it's just my point of view.....

Very funny

Imagine how this poor guy feels. If he's normally very polite then he must be incredibly embarassed by these outbursts. You should do what you can to make him feel more comfortable. Maybe you should leap up yourself and start a Tourette's Wave, turn it in to an office game, maybe you can persuade more of your colleagues to join in. Before you know it your dull open plan office will be turned in to a screaming barage of dirty language. That would be priceless.

A Tourettes Wave would be a fantastic sight! What a great idea! Does he swear in English or another language?

How about some headphones or ear defenders?

OMG, I'm sorry but this is sooo funny, it made me LOL. I also sit in an open plan office with spongy orange earplugs! Doesn't keep all noise out, but makes it all white noise.
Unfortunately, we're in a 'smart' building where the shades go down when it's dark and gray outside, so it's like working in a cave. When it's sunny out though, the shades go up and everyone screams because we're all suddenly blinded. It's hysterical, and I always start laughing when this happens 20 times a day on sunny days. I've got earplugs, but seems like I need blinders as well!!

that's 'kin disgraceful, next time he does it tell him to go *** himself.

Do you work next to me?

Fraid to say I'm guilty of this behaviour. I try to stop myself swearing, sometimes it just gets out, usualy when I'm working on a remote system, the network goes down, and the deadline is an hour away.

I wouldn't say I have tourettes, it's just the unique pressures of my work which just make me want to scream at the PC sometimes.

Maybe you should introduce a swear jar?

Peachy, you don't need me to tell you why you're going to clean that up, right?

yeah yeah, ok, wrist slapped

This poor guy as an illness and he cannot help himself i watched a programme on the bbc prime about people living with this illness and i can tell you they are very embarrassed about how they behave they cant control themselves and normally have little confidence to go out incase they start shouting as people stare at them. I think the guy who works in your office deserves a pat on the back for having the confidence to go out and find a job.

Please tell me you don't believe the OP.

i have a guy near me, at my office, who, makes so much noise... all I have done is get a good pair of noise cancelling headphones. I just do not understand how other people cope with the singing, humming, very loud talking or the other noises......

I feel really bad for him and you. It is awkward for you but probably painfully embarrassing for him.

Just treat this situation with compassion. No point in getting the law involved. That would only make things 100000 times more awkward and he would never trust you again.

I used to work with a guy that hated air conditioning. He would sneak in late at night and block all the aircon ducts, inside the ceiling. He also hated smoking (even though he was one himself...) so he used to smother himself in tiger balm to mask the smell of smoke from one of the other guys in the room... We only had a small office so the place used to bake at the best of times, so that combined with tiger balm... it's put me off tiger balm to this day. Adding an ultra-short fuse and abrasive personality and general uselessness made him a total unpleasure to work with. He also got done for sexual harrasment and for downloading pr0n. We would have sacked him but my boss was a) ineffectual and non-confrontational and b) didn't really understand the HR process, and we stuffed it up..

re the swearing - just introduce a swear jar. We used to have one at the helpdesk of one place that I worked. Every month we'd take all the money and buy beer and pizza...

If someone genuinely had tourette's syndrome and swearing was part of it, introducing a swear box would do nothing more than bankrupt the poor bu**er.

you guys opened my eyes!

I have a guy next to me who does the same. He frequently jumps up and swears loudly, usually in his mobile phone. But I never thought it is a disease!

I blamed it on him being Italian. But now I know better! How can I can I show him that I understand him now without making him feel ashamed of his syndrome?

I would just act normally around this poor guy and when hes having a shouting attack dont stare at him just ignore his behavour act like everything is normal and ok.