I need a sanity check, please

[figmo]

Here's the situation:

You're in a large, open room, working side-by-side with someone. A person from the other end of the building comes by and starts casually chatting, initially with just the other person you're working with side-by-side. Someone comes out of an office nearby and joins in the conversation.

The questions:

Is it rude for you, the other person in the open area, to also join in on the conversation?

Is it rude for you to acknowledge the conversation that had been held out in the open when chatting with the first participant later on?

or...

Is it rude for one of the people involved in the conversation to randomly exclude you even though they were holding the conversation right under your nose?

Please advise.

Comments

[aliza250.livejournal.com]

Different cultures process lack-of-privacy differently. You might want to break the ice by saying something like "it feels weird to have other people able to hear my conversations, I don't know how to let them know if that are, or are not, intended to be included."

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I think you have it backwards.

I am in the "fishbowl." Person A starts chatting in the general direction of Person B, who is sitting next to me, about hoping to get tickets to a concert. Person C comes into the fishbowl from one of the booths and joins in.

A little later when I wish Person A good luck in getting the tickets, Person A snippily tells me I "wasn't included in the conversation" as if I was supposed to somehow not hear stuff in a conversation in my work area. I had seen one of the two acts mentioned in the concert a few years ago, and thus had added "they kick ass."