# Is touching co-workers OK? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 3, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-touching-co-workers-ok/833424 "2019-05-03T15:42:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 177
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-touching-co-workers-ok/833424/177 "2019-05-04T17:29:21Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > You are indeed trying to diagnose me. You are diagnosing me as being ill because I don’t want to be handled by other people willynilly. You suggested two possible diagnoses, both of which are problems with wanted touch, which is not a problem that I have. Not wanting to be touched by anybody whatever time they feel like it is not an illness that needs to be treated. > > … > > What are you suggesting the arachnophobe in that example do? Quit the job, so that the other person can put up Halloween decorations – and not only so that they can put up Halloween decorations, but so that they can put up Halloween decorations to their precise individual taste? … Hardly. Look, nearly everyone has a mild phobia or two. You’re not mentally ill for having one.But not wanted to be touched, even by people you know well, is a phobia. Ask nicely. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-touching-co-workers-ok/833424)._