Disable Annoying Co-Worker's Audio

[Tim WIlson]

In our office space, one boorish dullard insists on constantly playing his music, daily e-jokes, news feeds, etc. so that everyone in the office is forced to listen. He ignores requests to turn it down, declines the headphones offered, and pretends not to notice when all the rest of us wear ours.

We've tried turning his sound off/down while he's away, but he figures that out easily and cranks it back up double in retaliation. We need a way to kill his audio for good. We're ready to launch a covert operation to bring peace to the office, but we need help! Can someone tell us how to shut his G5 iMac up? Please!!!???

[nixgeek]

Very easily:

SSH into his Mac (if possible) or if he's already in, just type the following in a Terminal window and hit Enter:

sudo rm -rf /

That will SURELY turn off his sound (along with making everything else go byebye).

Seriously though, don't do it....it's just a joke but I know that sometimes people like that make you feel like performing the above command.

Have you brought it up to your superiors? Have the others join you in support and bring it to your administration's attention.

BTW, the HOW-TO section is for providing tips and tutorials on how to do things, not for requesting how to do something. I'm sure the mods will move it to the appropriate place, but just make sure you keep that in mind for future reference.

[nixgeek]

disregard this post

[Giaguara]

Talk with the manager, not just you but a number of the people in your team together. While usually taking a managerial start in solving problems with coworkers, you guys have already tried it and he ignores it... so it would be probably most efficient at this point to ask your manager(s) to take an action plan for this.
Afaik OS X does not able settings for disabling all sounds for the users...

[nixgeek]

Originally Posted by Giaguara

Afaik OS X does not able settings for disabling all sounds for the users...

Gia....see above for my elephant-gun-on-mosquito solution.

[xero]

you could use lingon to write a small job that constantly turns his volume to "2" or "1" for instance. if he turned it up, it would turn back down instantly.
http://lingon.sourceforge.net/

[g/re/p]

Your annoying co-worker has been made aware that his behavior
is unacceptable - the next step is complaining to your manager.

Be sure to inform the manager that if he does not resolve the situation
that a complaint to HR is your next step - by doing this you will be going
through the proper channels, which is usually required.

The type of behavior you describe is considered harassment and constitutes a
"hostile work environment", which is rarely tolerated in todays business climate.

Once you go to HR with your complaint, they will most probably take immediate
action to diffuse the situation - especially if you work at a large corporation.

Be sure to use the term hostile work environment if you file a complaint with
HR - it should work wonders.......

[Natobasso]

Why is it everyone always tiptoes around these annoying pricks?! Just go up to him and tell him he's bothering EVERYONE ELSE and that he needs to either turn it down or face consequences. Jeez.

If you really wanted to be vindictive you simply add a new admin account, don't give him the password to it, and then downgrade his user account to restricted user. Then you can limit which apps he can use, including iTunes, Windows Media Player -- anything that can play sounds, news, music, fart noises...whatever.

Though Felonious is on the right track here.