# Gah! Fingernails!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-fingernails/358881>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 31, 2006, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-fingernails/358881 "2006-05-31T15:19:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-fingernails/358881/21 "2006-06-01T09:16:03Z")

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I have had a nervous habit of biting my nails since I grew up. The only way I can stop doing it is by carrying around some nail clippers and, whenever the urge gets too strong, to find a reasonably private place and clip, clip, clip. Sometimes – say, at a meeting – I have to hold it in, but I’m very distracted until the meeting breaks up and I can finally trim my nails.

But an interesting thing happened a couple of months back. A new employee got placed into the cube across from mine, and one day she mentioned that the clipping bothered her. And so now I find some other place to clip my nails if she’s around.

If you (politely!) told your coworkers that it bothered you instead of venting here, your problem might go away.

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**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-fingernails/358881/22 "2006-06-01T12:57:16Z")

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Oh, it doesn’t bother me enough to risk making them uncomfortable. Both are very nice men and I wouldn’t dream of hurting their feelings. It’s fun to vent here and purge the unspeakable. My own dear departed daddy used to trim his nails and leave tidy piles on the living room end-table. Gah! So I do have a tolerance for other people’s foibles in real life, though I might rage about them online. 😉 Oh and **MBG**? My little sisters used to bite their toenails when wee girlies too!

And, **Punoqllads** , I think snipping is a good alternative to your compulsion to bite! Totally preferable to public nail-gnawing.

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**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gah-fingernails/358881/23 "2006-06-01T16:34:10Z")

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But it **won’t** make them uncomfortable if you ask them to stop. Just don’t phrase it like it’s a deficiency on their part. Just tell them the sound really gets to you, and ask them just to do it out of your hearing range.

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