One of my co-workers picks and eats - by which I mean, he picks at his nose, ears, scalp, chin, etc, examines what he just dug up, then puts it in his mouth and eats it, smacking his lips a little each time. He does this almost constantly.
I’m not sure how best to deal with this - I can more or less tune it out most of the time, but one of the other members in my team is sickened by it, almost to the point of gagging.
It’s made worse by the fact that we’re a small team (4 people) and the three of us only recently moved in to join this co-worker as part of a restructure, so we’re still sort of interlopers.
And with such a small team, there’s nowhere to hide - if we do nothing, it’s a big deal and if we do something and it provokes unpleasantness or anything, the atmosphere will be unbearable in such a small group.
So… what to do?
[ul]
[li]Ignore it? (I can probably pull that off, but that doesn’t help my other co-worker, who is deeply affected by it)[/li]
[li]Say something to him quietly? But how will he take it?[/li]
[li]Say something to him as if making a joke? Again, what will happen?[/li]
[li]Take it up with management? I’m sure there is a resolution process for this sort of complaint, but again, with it being such a small team, a statement “one of your co-workers has complained…” carries no real anonymity to either preserve our standing, or to buffer his feelings about us.[/li]
[li]Leave it and just wait until he has consumed his own entire head, solving the problem? What?[/li][/ul]
Take extensive video of his foul habit. Murder him. At the trial, show the video. There is certain to be at least one juror who will vote to acquit you. I would.
If you can’t erect a screen then you’ll have to either ignore it or mention it to his manager. I cannot imagine how you could possibly being this up in person without causing friction.
There’s no way to erect a screen - were in a centre-facing pod of four curved desks and we do need to be able to see each other for team dialogue.
Trouble is with raising it to our manager is that I still think it will cause friction, and it might be friction of the type “why did you have to escalate it straight to management!? Why couldn’t you have quietly said something?”
The other thing I forgot to mention. This isn’t just absent-minded habit - he happened to be doing it when I we were talking about something today and I must have reacted perceptibly, because he paused, then carried on, with a little sheepish smile.
OP: If you’re keeping track of what type of suggestion gets the most votes and are going to enact the winning one, consider this another vote for what Cat Whisperer said. Try to capture the whole thing on video also.
Please tell me that you don’t work in any kind of food service role…
How old is everyone? Aside from that vile habit is everyone on decent terms with each other? Can you just say “Bob, it’s really grossing everyone out when you eat your earwax, can you please stop?” You don’t have to call him on it in front of others, just take him aside at some point. If everyone is an adult then politely (but firmly) calling someone on their odious personal behavior can be handled with minimal drama.
What’s he going to do? Complain to HR that you guys are nauseated by him eating his own boogers?
Anonymous note at all possible? Either via a throw away email account or literally a physical note on his desk?
I mean, if someone confronts him (coworker or boss), he’ll be embarrassed (hopefully, I mean, because dear God). This way, he saves some embarrassment.
Arrange with your coworker that next time, she won’t control her gag reflex. Wait until the next time he does it when all four of you are there, then when your coworker has finished vomiting loudly onto his desk, ask him if he’s considered seeking psychiatric assistance with his revolting compulsive behaviour. Ask him this in one of those very loud, very sincere voices which will carry to the next office.
(Seriously, if his smile was “sheepish”, that suggests he knows it’s not cool. So maybe a quiet word would be the way to go.)
Negative reinforcement. A small spray bottle of water on your desk, and nail him once or twice when you next catch him in the act. Then just pretend you have an itchy trigger finger every time he touches his face, and you should be good to go.
ETA: No, I am not being serious. But it would make for an interesting afternoon.
What I fear the most is disruption of the way we work. We’re a small team, facing a lot of challenges in a new corporate structure, heavily reliant on a spirit of interdpendence and co-operation within the team - and at the moment, this works (despite this problem).
It would not be very difficult for a disgruntled team member to wind back some of the team ethic and support and (without doing anything that would be identifiable or addressable as wrong, cause us all to look bad.
