A very annoying person is my office mate, our office is a 6x6 concrete "cell" she talks non stop all day long, she reads my emails over my shoulder with me and reads her work to me. I have complained nicely and the stress is so overwhelming that my left eye has been twitching for 2 weeks, I have a constant head ache and my acid reflux is killing me. Should I just quit?

As a senior legal secretary where I worked at an insurance defense firm I was the happy "roommate" of a 19 year old twit who could not spell anything. She would constantly ask me how to spell the most ridiculously easy words. One day I handed her a dictionary. She handed it back saying that a dictionary would not help her as she had no idea how to spell the word so how could she look it up.

Well, after being driven totally bonkers by this twit after several months of tactically complaining about her to the office manager and not having her moved out of my room I had to quit to keep my sanity.

I did find another job in a legal office but this time I worked for a sole practitioner and had no other fellow twitty employees to contend with.

If you have another job offer - take it and run as fast as you can out the door to a life without all the stress. I was sorry that I left being the second highest paid legal secretary in the firm but I went on to bigger and better things and got to be a paralegal in the end.

If you can leave before you become a real basket case as the company could care less about you as they did, after all, hire the other person probably before you got hired in and they're not going to replace or reprimand her in a big hurry. Been there, done that.

Can you ask to be moved to a different 'cell'?

Give your reasons, this women talks,and ask questions constantly,and you feel a different cell would increase your productivity.

Most companys have safety statements and risk assesments which include work related stress.. (WRS)

I would talk to your HR department about it. That's what they are there for.

Also, wear headphones. Not the earbud type, but the big ones - so she can see that you've "tuned her out."

I wouldn't advise you to quit your job until you have another job to go to. But, start looking! You never know, this could be the catalyst that gets you to your dream job!