NBCDEAR E. JEAN: A coworker (who's distantly related to the CEO of my company) talks over everyone—including our manager—and interrupts us all constantly. I can't remember the last time I actually heard a person finish a complete thought when this woman was in the vicinity. Our team is so worn down by her that when the company hired an expensive consultant to brainstorm design ideas with us, we all went mute—true story! It also doesn't help that her voice is loud and shrill. How do we deal with someone like this?
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MISS ROLLERED, MY PARSNIP: Hand me that geranium-red Expo marker. We'll whiteboard it:
PAIN POINT: Can't find a cab in the rain. SOLUTION: Uber (Valuation: $18.2 billion)
PAIN POINT: Can't make a power-hungry harpy shut up! SOLUTION: The Dingbat Jar (Valuation: $11)
Take Miss Shrill for daiquiris and tell her she's smarter than Madame Curie and more passionate than Joan of Arc but that everyone thinks she's an ass. Then put a jar on the manager's desk and decree that everyone who interrupts a colleague must put a dollar in—but wait half a jiffy. The jar. Hmmm. A jar. That could be an app, right? Good Lord! If that's not the WhatsApp of apps, I'll plug my hair dryer into Elon Musk's Tesla outlet.
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