What's your biggest pet peeve at work? What do your coworkers do that drives you absolutely bonkers? Who do you want to strangle? Tell us all about it!

For me, aside from the examples in today's entry, there's the coworker I like to refer to as The Banal One. Her latest trick: clipping her toenails at her desk on her lunch hour. There's no logical reason for that to be as repulsive as it is, but it's nasty. My general rule of thumb: if a particular aspect of grooming requires the removal of a piece of clothing, it's probably best done in private.

-- Lisa (lisa@selkie.net), July 06, 2000

Answers

The company I work at has a bad case of Small Town Syndrom. These people have worked together for years and years and are, of course, perfect. It just so happens that my desk faces the door of the office, so anyone walking by can see everything that I do. One day, my supervisor pulled me aside and told me that she was getting questions about what my job description was since I had time to do my nails during work. This had me INFURIATED because I DON'T do my nails during work hours. I do hand lotion and cuticle cream in the morning--before 8:00, usually, and only pull out my nail kit if I have a nail break or tear so I can trim it before it causes any more harm. The thing that really irks me about this situation is that I'm pretty sure I know who said something. He is one of those people that is soooo perfect -- he's almost too perfect. It makes you wonder if he's hiding something... Anyway, I had just pulled out my nail kit because I was doing a lot of typing and long nails just get in the way. So I quickly took care of business and was putting everything away when this person walked into the office and commented "Filing your nails?" The next day is when my supervisor pulled me aside. I wonder who said something to her....

-- Dawn Honhera (honhera@quixnet.net), July 06, 2000.