Most of us have been there: You are concentrating intensely on some important project and all of a sudden, the phone rings.

It’s that colleague asking for the umpteenth time that day: How are you progressing on this or that project? The project deadline is still three days from now and you have told him many, many times that progress is looking good.

Or that one coworker who always calls and interrupts your workflow, breathlessly asking whether you will be available for a meeting that is scheduled for ... next week.

You feel upset, because no matter how many times you tell them just to send a text message or email for non-urgent issues, their calls always break your concentration. And they keep calling and calling, citing “panic” as their reason.

Constant interruptions at work by coworkers who simply won’t get the message could leave you more than just feeling upset.

A 2008 study by Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, and Daniela Gudith and Ulrich Klocke of Germany’s Humboldt University, explores the negative consequences of impaired concentration for workers.

“People compensate for interruptions by working faster, but this comes at a price: experiencing more stress, higher frustration, time pressure and effort,” the study found.

Maria Tarisa of people development consultancy Daily Meaning said that pushy coworkers could cost organizations in the long run.

“This can lead to inefficient collaboration [and] cause organizational productivity to decline, which could possibly cause organizations to fail in meeting their targets,” Maria told The Jakarta Post.

This is why you must respond properly and promptly to pushy coworkers, so you don’t give them a chance to break your concentration.

First of all, have some sympathy for your coworkers, since it could be that they’re in a more stressful and anxious situation because of the nature of their job. This could be the cause of their pushiness, Maria said.

She suggested that people who worked at advertising agencies, auditing consultancies and technology companies could be more vulnerable to higher levels of stress and anxiety, and therefore tended toward pushiness.

Separately, psychologist Rahajeng Ika explained that a coworker’s personality could also explain their pushy approach.

“[Some personalities] tend to panic easily and to be insensitive to other people's schedules,” she said.

Maria said that perfectionists also tended to be pushier than other personality types, but she also pointed out that organizational leadership could be a factor.

“Imagine your direct supervisor calling you once every hour to ask you whether tasks A, B and C are done. If you don’t know how to deal with your pushy supervisor, you will have no choice in the end but to also keep pushing your team to make sure that tasks A, B and C are completed as quickly as possible,” she said.

Maria said that this kind of leadership style would result in an organizational culture in which everyone was constantly panicking.

Imagine having the desk phone in your cubicle ringing off the hook from multiple coworkers asking about progress on their projects while you are managing five different projects at the same time.

Rahajeng advised taking an assertive tone with your coworkers in such cases.

Maria, meanwhile, pointed to several techniques that would help you communicate your concerns.

“Highlight matters related to [their] professional behavior, and avoid personal criticism,” she said.

Using more “we” rather than “I” in your communication would also give a strong sense of a common goal, Maria said.

“For instance, say: ‘We are all concerned about client satisfaction, and to satisfy our clients we need a conducive work process. To produce high-quality content, we need to concentrate on our tasks,’” she suggested.

Afterward, you can gently ask your coworkers if they could please refrain from interrupting you with non-urgent phone calls.

Rahajeng also said that companies needed to define what was “urgent” for efficiency and productivity.

“Let’s say that you define urgent tasks as those that need to be done by tomorrow. Then, the organization needs to create a standard operational procedure that phone calls are allowed only for urgent projects with a deadline of less than a day,” she said. This was also critical to prevent colleagues from pointing their fingers at each other.

As for maintaining harmonious working relationships, when you give them feedback also matters.

“Give your coworker feedback about their pushy attitude once you’ve delivered the project. By then, your coworker is likely to have calmed down [and] your message is more likely to stick,” Rahajeng said.

“If you give them feedback on their pushy behavior when they are feeling high anxiety over an unfinished project, they’re more than likely to forget your feedback and interrupt you again next time,” she added.