I went to what is called a Quiet Room in a computer lab at school. After about half an hour of what seemed to me to be louder-than-necessary coughing by a female student in that room, I said "I'm sorry, your coughing is loud and this is supposed to be a quiet room."
A couple of students immediately responded, one by saying to me "If people's coughing bothers you, you should go home." A male student then said something to me that I have never heard before in my life, "Your typing is loud."
"My TYPING is loud? I'm writing a paper."
"It's loud."
"You have to be kidding."
He also said something like "You have to be kidding," and I started typing again. The female student coughed a few more times, less loudly, and then left.
A few hours later, when the room was nearly empty, another female student walked over to my desk and told me that I had to leave the room because my typing was too loud and it's a quiet room. I was almost as surprised by this request as I was by the accusation of the male student who had told me that my typing was loud earlier today.
I told the female student that all I was doing was typing. She said "You're bothering me. You should go to the other room if you're going to type that loudly."
Another female student, who was sitting at a table to the left and behind me, said "I agree."
The female student standing over me at my desk continued to agitate for me to leave the room. I finally said to her "Please step away from me," and she refused. I said again, "You really need to step away from me," and she said "No."
I went to the other room, to the help desk, and told the male (student?) who was at that desk that I was being told that I had to leave where I was working because I was typing too loud. He said "Why are you raising your voice to me?" I said "I'm not raising my voice," because I wasn't. He said, looking at me maliciously as he got up from his chair, "Yes, you are."
We both went to the room where the Typing Scandal was taking place. I went to my desk and resumed what I had been writing before I was accosted by the female student. The man got his older, female supervisor, who asked the two male students in the room if the typing had bothered them, and they both said no, they hadn't noticed it. One of them was sitting at the computer nearest my computer on one side, and the other at the nearest computer on the other side of my desk, all of which is across the room from where the woman who had insisted that I had to leave the room because my typing bothered her was sitting.
The supervisor spoke to both of the women, who then left the room. I went to talk to the supervisor, who told me "If you could try to be quieter..."
The conglomerate is making a lot of people hate me for no reason. The rest of my life is going to be like this, if the conglomerate doesn't stop persecuting me.
Copyright L. Kochman, May 2, 2016 @ 7:20 p.m.
