askST Jobs: Meetings, chats at the breakout area near my desk can get quite ‘lively’. What can I do?

In this series, business correspondent Timothy Goh offers practical answers to candid questions on navigating workplace challenges and getting ahead in your career. Get more tips by signing up to The Straits Times’ Headstart newsletter.

How can I address disruptive behaviour in a shared space without creating workplace tension?

Shared spaces work best when employees are considerate of those around them, and workplaces should cultivate such norms collectively rather than impose rules.

“Colleagues should feel able to raise it directly and in the moment. If a gathering has become disruptive to those working nearby, a simple, good-natured reminder that this is a shared space is usually all that is needed,” said Li Fengling, a certified senior professional at the Institute of Human Resource Professionals.

“It is also far more effective coming from a peer than from the HR department.”

Li said most employees may not realise how far their conversations carry in an open-concept office, and escalating such issues directly to HR could turn an ordinary moment of friction into a formal matter.

“HR’s role is to set the conditions, not to police the pantry. Where every small matter is routed through HR, colleagues stop taking ownership of their own environment,” she said.

She added that common areas are meant for everyone, and the informal conversations that take place there can be valuable, particularly for newer colleagues finding their footing.

“What it is not is a space where anything goes. In an open-concept office, there are no walls to contain a conversation. What is a relaxed chat for one group can potentially become background noise for the colleagues seated a few metres away,” said Li.

So, the answer is not to restrict the space, but to be clear about how it is used.

Guidelines should be practical, agreed and communicated to everyone – how long a group discussion should run before it moves to a bookable room, what volume is reasonable during core working hours, leaving the space as you would want to find it.

“Once that has been done – set out plainly, communicated to all, and displayed where everyone can see them – then the expectation is clear, and it is on each of us to meet it,” said Li.

Tan Weixi, managing partner at Workplace Asia, said that rather than confronting colleagues about their behaviour, it may be better to have a conversation about how the shared space should be used.

“A common area belongs to everyone. So the question is not who has the right to use it, but how we can make sure everyone gets to use it comfortably,” he said.

Some simple ground rules could help, Tan added. For instance, informal gatherings could continue taking place in the common area, while larger or noisier groups could be encouraged to use it only at certain times or move to designated areas.

“The aim is not to create a long list of rules. It is to remove the ambiguity and give people a basis for using their common sense,” he said.

“Ultimately, shared spaces come with shared responsibility. Having access to a space does not mean having unlimited use of it,” Tan added.

Timothy Goh is a business correspondent at The Straits Times. He covers commodities and currencies, with occasional forays into listed companies.