OK. there’s a new person in my office. He keep sniffing. Once every fourteen seconds.
AAAAAAARGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Would it be rude of me to ask him to blow his nose?
I wouldn’t phrase it as “please blow your nose” but I do sympathise with your predicament. Constant sniffing is incredibly annoying. Perhaps you can say something like “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but your sniffing is making it difficult for me to focus on work”. Pleasantly, politely, without trying to make it a huge deal. He may be such a habitual sniffer that he just doesn’t notice it any more.
I was thinking along the lines of
“I hate to be rude but can you blow your nose. I’ve got hyper-sensitive hearing and it’s driving me up the wall” and then smile a i’m-your-friend-so-i’m-having-a-go-at-you-in-a-friendly-way smile.
I have given a tissue to a sniffler on the bus.
Quoth he, “Oh, it’s not that bad.”
Mudd respondeth, “Maybe not for you, but it’s killing me.”
I doubt that Emily Post would have approved, but it was strictly necessary.
I have a big issue with this too.
I am hypersensitive to irritating noise - clicking pens, folk rubbing their squeaky shoes against one another, fiddling with crinkly paper, and yes, sniffing. The minute I hear a noise like that I can hear no other noise in the room. It’s bad enough in an open plan office, but in a meeting, it’s murder.
It’s a tricky one with a new colleague. I have been blunt, and said “excuse me, could you please stop sniffing?” and that has actually worked.
In a different scenario, I was on safari in Africa last year, and one lass in the tour party was sniffing. Right in my ear. While we were waiting for a lion to emerge from the brush. I turned round and offered her a tissue, and she said “no thanks, I don’t need one”. I said “sorry, that was my subtle way of asking you to stop sniffing”. She never spoke to me again. No kidding. And she never stopped sniffing either. Argh…
It’s very annoying.
I don’t know why you think if they blow their nose it will stop the problem they are having. They will have the same problem after a few seconds again. All your doing is adding cymbals to the drum beat you can’t get away from.
I’d prefer a blow every minute than a sniff every fourteen seconds.
ETA: Whenever I’ve had this problem, one clear-out usually does the trick.
Just hand him a tissue whenever he does it. Eventually, he’ll get the message.
Every time he sniffs, you sniff. Till he figures out you’re mocking him. He’ll stop.
The better solution is to stuff Klenex up the person’s nose.
I couldn’t listen to the sniffing or the blowing.
I’ve assumed this is a snot issue and not a vocal tick the person has.
Doesn’t work for my allergies; I’m clogged but there really isn’t any mucus (the walls of my nose swell). But I try to avoid the reflexive sniffling when there’s people around.
The problem is when its extremely watery and immediately after you blow its dripping again. The only lasting solution is to stay home or just stuff something in each nostril.
This. I have allergies, and it’s often accompanied by a slow drip. I equate it to a dripping water faucet; you can turn on the water at full blast for five seconds, but the dripping will resume immediately after the wfaucet is turned off.
“Look, I sniffed like that all the time as a kid. When I started blowing my nose instead, I breathed better, and stopped getting ear infections. And people stopped complaining about my sniffing.* Try it.”
- Granted, they started complaining about nose blowing instead. You can’t win, sometimes.
Good for you. When my allergies are acting up that won’t work for me. I hate, hate, hate, when I’m snorting and sniffling and dripping, but there’s very little I can do about it. I do carry around tissues all the time, though.
If your colleague is suffering from something like allergies there might not be a good solution. Otherwise, they have an annoying habit.
[Buster Bluth]
“Mother! I can blow myself!”
[/Buster Bluth]
Give him some tampons and tell him they’re for his nose.
Watch out though – when I blow my nose, I sound like one of the Honkers on Sesame Street. So be careful what you wish for…
All I can add is, please don’t blame his mother. My son is a sniffer and I don’t know why, or how to stop it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said “Don’t shnerf. Blow your nose.” I hand him tissues. There are tissues available in most rooms in our home, my car,and my purse. The problem is not lack of access to tissues. More than once he has been sent from the dining table (after several warnings) to finish his dinner alone in his room. (not often, but there are times when I just can’t take one more sniff!) His response when I tell him to blow his nose is, “that doesn’t work for me!” What’s a mother to do???
I realize this doesn’t help you, or in anyway address your OP. I think reasonable ways to approach him directly have been posted, though I’d still feel shy about it. Is your work space separate enough that you could play a radio at your desk?
You know, I’d love to be able to not sniff, but it doesn’t work for me. I can blow my damn nose all day long and nothing will come out. One good snort and I can get a ton out. I’ve always been this way. I’m pretty sure it annoys people, but there’s nothing I can do. I wish I could, but I can’t.