He's masticating again!

I ranted about this (and other issues) a while ago in another post. But good lord man! Why does my cube-mate insist on eating in his cube? He’s sloppy, with the nasty sound as well as his general neatness. He’ll use a napkin and go to toss it in his garbage can…..AND MISS! Then he’ll just let the garbage sit on the floor, sometimes for hours, till he decides to pick it up. What gets me though is the sound. I sit 10 feet from him and I can hear him chewing. The only nastier sound would be Justin Bieber and Elton John making out. The funny thing is, he’s a very “prim and proper” guy. He gets his nails (finger and toe) done and dresses very smartly, not the kind of guy I’d expect to smack his lips when he chews or leave crumbs on the floor.
I can only imagine the complaints he has about me though.

I'm done, thanks for letting me piss and moan.

Politely ask him to stop?

Absolutely NOTHING ruins my mood faster than being forced to hear or watch a disgusting eater, particularly not when I'm not eating too. When I hear my own chewing it kind of covers it up and I can always look elsewhere. But when you're stuck hearing that, it's like you'll never want to eat again.

You all are way too thenthitive!

I used to have a co worker who sat in my row who was the same way...nasty nasty nasty...sounded like a toothless camel eating pudding from a 5 gallon bucket...AND he is gay...I mean, I thought gay guys were all about being sophisticated and stylish?!? This guy was about as sophisticated as my dogs flatulence. Im super glad I work elsewhere now...

Maybe you should work on your OCD.

Have you tried actually pissing and moaning? I would think a good round of that while he's eating would at least cause him to reconsider eating anywhere near you.

Do you have an ipod device? Hook up some computer speakers to it and drown his masticating ass out.

Be thankful he's just masticating.

Guy 2 desks away from me clips his nails at his desk. I keep asking my co-worker friend who sits next to the guy if he's ever been hit in the head with a flying fingernail, or if its ended up in his coffee.

OMG - I had that guy in my office too. And it did end up in a co-worker's coffee. All hell broke loose...

spitfirebill wrote: Be thankful he's just masticating.

Yeah, we had a night guy at the paper who was caught doing something that sounds like masticating... but isn't.

I found that when I worked in a cube environment, headphones were responsible for a greater portion of my happiness than any other thing.

4cylndrfury wrote: I used to have a co worker who sat in my row who was the same way...nasty nasty nasty...sounded like a toothless camel eating pudding from a 5 gallon bucket...AND he is gay...I mean, I thought gay guys were all about being sophisticated and stylish?!? This guy was about as sophisticated as my dogs flatulence. Im super glad I work elsewhere now...

Holy crap fury. That whole post is soo full of win it almost makes hearing him eating pudding out of a bucket worth it.

Get promoted out.

I used to work at the local newspaper, where I shared a desk-filled room with, among others, this really old guy who used to cough up these big ole phlegm balls--"huuhhhyyaack, huhhuhhyyackk, hhhuuuuhhhhhYOCK!"--then slide open his bottom RH desk drawer, spit into it, and gently slide it closed again.

I avoided that desk like the plague it probably contained. No detour was too long if it meant I didn't have to pass by Roy's... expectorant.

Margie

.....and now it's lunch time.....

Ugh Margie, what is it with newspapers? We had an old guy that would do a deep-knee bend, then let one rip. Another guy wore the same shirt for three months - we had an office pool going whether it would go for four. Same guy lost all his teeth to trench mouth – he'd walk by the trash can and "ding" spit one into it. Didn't get dentures for almost a year... you definitely didn't want to be near him while he was eating.

4cylndrfury wrote:

The problem is, I usually need to hear other folks so ear plugs are not a permanent solution. Though I do pop in the ear buds when he's eating lunch. Most other times I have the right one it (he's to my right). Funny thing is, I can hear his smacking mixed with the music often.
I don't really want to complain because he's a very nice guy. I've worked with much, much worse.

I dunno, Lesley. But I think you win! (Edit: And ew, I finally could not resist my own curiosity and Googled Trench Mouth. Ugh ugh ugh.)

Hey, Dr. Boost, feel better yet? (And if you don't, let me know. I've got more.)

Margie

Marjorie Suddard wrote: I used to work at the local newspaper, where I shared a desk-filled room with, among others, this really old guy who used to cough up these big ole phlegm balls--"huuhhhyyaack, huhhuhhyyackk, hhhuuuuhhhhhYOCK!"--then slide open his bottom RH desk drawer, spit into it, and gently slide it closed again. I avoided that desk like the plague it probably contained. No detour was too long if it meant I didn't have to pass by Roy's... expectorant. Margie

Good lord that's nasty! I once worked with a guy that "chewed". Now, chewing snuff is pretty nasty anyway (well, hocking a loogie is) but this guy took it to a whole new level. He always wore a button-down shirt with a pocket. He kept an empty Snapple bottle in that shirt, not cap. He'd dribble this chew spit into the open bottle no matter where he was or who he was talking to. Over the course of the day the bottle would get full and spill out as he walked. EVERY shirt had a stain 125% the width of the pocket and about 6" long.

I once had a coworker that used to keep his quid cup ( a small dixie cup) in his top right desk drawer. He would open it, spit and shut the drawer. At lease once a week he would open the drawer and curse a blue streak. Yup, cup had turned over. This guy was from Arkansas and has forever tainted my opinions of Arkansans.

I used to share an office with a guy who was really picky about ambient noise. I'm kind of a fidgety guy at the best of times, constantly readjusting my chair, getting up and walking around, fiddling idly with tools or whatever, moving lab equipment around because I think the desk would work better some other way, (cracking my joints, tapping out melodies on my front teeth, do I need to go on?) Anyway out of respect for my colleague I tried to keep fairly quiet and did manage to keep my natural noisy tendencies in check.

...then one day he goes out and gets a freaking AM/FM radio. It went on when he got in in the morning and went off when he left. For the rest of the more than a year I shared an office with him we had to listen all day every day to overplayed bad pop songs, "news", pundits, radio personalities, ads, noise noise noise and all stuff that I'd really rather not have polluting my head. I'm not nearly as picky as he was so I didn't complain too much, but I did make him shut the damn thing off a few times when I was in an exceptionally grumpy mood.

I did try the "how is this not the same thing as when I do that" line a few times but it didn't go anywhere. It wasn't really worth making an issue over anyway, but just annoying.