Libby Hill

Dear Libby,

I have a part-time job in addition to going to school full time. I love it and get along with everyone that I work with, except for “Bill.”

Bill is one of the most irritating people I’ve ever met in my entire life. His personality is grating and when the rest of us are busy working, he shouldn’t just stand around and talk to each of us incessantly. I’ve never seen him do any actual work, ever.

And it’s not like I’m the only person who feels this way. All my other coworkers feel the same way. We’ve even talked to our manager about it, and while he agrees with us, he says he doesn’t have the heart to can Bill.

I don’t know what to do. It’s hard to get anything done at work whenever Bill is there and I’m tempted to quit.

— Really Wants to Kill Bill

Dear Kill,

It seems as though you have quite the problem on your hands and you’ve taken some good steps yourself. At this point, I wouldn’t advise you quit your job.

Before it comes to that, I think you should take time to have a heart to heart with Bill. While there’s no need to be mean in your talk with him, I think you should feel free to tell him that while you’re working, you’d really rather not carry on conversation. Hopefully he’ll take the hint and back off a little bit.

As for your manager, it’s really too bad he’s not as helpful as you’d like, but perhaps he has his own reasons for keeping Bill around. Don’t hesitate to go back to him, though, if this situation worsens or at the very least doesn’t improve.

Take heart, Kill, and try to be kind to Bill. I suspect his social ineptitude has plagued him all his life. Try to humor him and hopefully your workplace environment will start looking up.