We work at the same company, but it’s a giant place where we’re not expected to know everyone. It always happens when I go out for a smoke break.
I don’t know how it happened, but somehow she starts a conversation with me every time she sees me, and it’s really irritating. Even if I already have a conversation going with someone else, she walks right up and starts talking about the weather…as if we have to drop what we’re doing to reset for her. The part I hate the most is because I was nice/polite to her the first time, she won’t back off now. She’s boring to talk to, and she gave me unwarranted advice on how I should stay in contact with my dad (it came up because of the “spending holidays with family” thing that she of course brought up). Then she overshared how her kids don’t want to talk to her anymore.
Is this the sort of thing where I just begin ignoring her (a couple of different people I was with have done that already), or do I just come out and tell her to leave me alone? Burning a bridge isn’t going to affect my work (office politics-wise) because we have nothing to do with each other. And frankly, I don’t care if she’s lonely or whatever. If she’s in this situation in her 50s, she’s unaware of whatever problem she has and I’m not going to be the one to fix her.