How do I hush an annoying coworker?
A lot of the solutions above are pretty passive-aggressive or outright hostile. This doesn’t seem like a guy who picks up on passive-aggressive hints, and trying to work around his annoying behavior is only going to bother you more. And, in office environments as much as most everywhere else in life, hostility is only going to make things worse. What you don’t say in your question is whether you have ever said the following, or something near to it: “Co-Worker, would you mind being quiet for a while? Thanks.” You see, by saying this, you’re not giving any reasons that can be worked around or discredited (as there are in Cool Papa Bell’s suggestion — Cool Papa Bell’s would be a great way to ask a normal, polite person to quiet down.. But this guy doesn’t seem to be normal and polite). Leaving out any reasons also gives you a bit of an upperhand, if we want to understand this situation as a powerplay, since you’re demanding something very simple from him that he has no reason to refuse.
