# Trimming nails at work? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 31, 2009, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393 "2009-08-31T19:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/41 "2009-09-02T17:45:47Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Who claims it isn’t acceptable behavior? Are you Miss Manners?😕 Most people who weren’t raised by wolves. Did you not read the thread? ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/42 "2009-09-02T17:58:58Z")
To be able to cut your fingernails at work don’t you have to purposefully bring in a clipper to begin with? Why the hell are you bringing a fingernail clipper to work? Fingernails get trimmed what, once per week? Is it that hard to work it into your home routine once a week? I clean my ears with a q-tip daily and I still manage to do that at home. Are there people that like to clean their ears at work too? How about shaving? Eyebrow plucking? Nosehair trimming? Teeth flossing? Keep it at home folks. Or at least go hide in bathroom stall. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/43 "2009-09-02T19:51:33Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > Do you at least TRY to get them to land in the garbage can? No, I just do it at my desk. If it falls on the desk I brush it off and if it gets into the keyboard I use the airduster to blow it onto the floor. Maybe its the color of the carpet, or the tininess of the nails, but I doubt anyone would really notice it. That’s why I just let the night crew clean it up. I don’t really see what the big deal is. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/44 "2009-09-02T19:56:46Z")
The big deal is that there are pieces of you sitting on the floor. It’s gross. As others have mentioned, would you cut your hair in your cube? Shave? Floss? Clean your ears? Your nails are not measurably longer than they were when you left the house, or measurably shorter than they’ll be when you get back there. Deal with it at home. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/45 "2009-09-02T20:05:45Z")
I cut nails at work often, though generally those of other people. (I’m a nurse) Occasionally I cut my own because I will discover after a day or two off that my nails are longer than I’d like them to be for giving care, etc. (What won’t bother me at home will make me NUTS at work, since my patients have fragile skin and Im always afraid of scratching them, or even of poking a hole in my gloves.) If I am cutting my own, you bet I either go into the washroom, or am in another private location. (Using my own personal nail clippers that I keep in my locker. Not using the patient clippers, which are sterilized between patients) ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/46 "2009-09-02T20:16:38Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > The big deal is that there are pieces of you sitting on the floor. It’s gross. As others have mentioned, would you cut your hair in your cube? Shave? Floss? Clean your ears? > > Your nails are not measurably longer than they were when you left the house, or measurably shorter than they’ll be when you get back there. Deal with it at home. If there was a little hair, like a quarter inch too long on the sideburns, sure I would. However, hair is more noticeable, so I may be self-conscious about that. Shaving and flossing require water and might stain and get things wet, nails do not. As for ears, yeah sometimes I’ll stick a finger in there when no one’s looking, but its wetter than your nail and tends to be oily, so I would probably refrain. My nails may not be longer, but when I leave the house early in the morning I don’t have time to go over all of them to make sure they are all of some exacting length that I prefer. If I notice something wrong with them, I’ll clip them. Plus, even though I’ve decreased the frequency, I still sometimes bite my nails a little. When I catch myself doing that, I clip them so they don’t bother me the rest of the day. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/47 "2009-09-02T20:41:49Z")
An employee here was just recently taken aside by his supervisor and told to stop trimming his nails in his cube. The click-click-click was both annoying and distracting to several employees around him (including said supervisor). Mind you the weird thing is that he did it almost daily. I figure he must have werewolf nails or something. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/48 "2009-09-02T21:08:01Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > If there was a little hair, like a quarter inch too long on the sideburns, sure I would. However, hair is more noticeable, \*\*so I may be self-conscious about that. \*\* So in other words, you KNOW that this is gross and socially unacceptable, and you just don’t care, as long as the only people who know about your gross unacceptable bodily leavings are the custodial crew. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/49 "2009-09-02T22:30:00Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > So in other words, you KNOW that this is gross and socially unacceptable, and you just don’t care, as long as the only people who know about your gross unacceptable bodily leavings are the custodial crew. Nice. No, I don’t find it gross, I find it self-conscious to disappear into my cubicle and come out with a new hairstyle. I care if something’s gross, which is why I don’t pick my nose or burp or fart around people if I can help it (farts sometimes have a mind of their own). I think you should stop thinking that I’m some piggish slob by holding your personal standard of hygiene over me like a dicator and acknowledge that some people have different standards of what is gross than you do. I’ve explained exactly why I don’t think nails are disgusting (dry, tiny, does not stain, better than the alternative, etc.) so the least you can do is either try to convince me otherwise by citing germ statistics or make a case that your standards trump mine. So yes, I am nice, damn nice, because I don’t do any disgusting things like pick my nose in the vicinity of other people. Any more compromise than that and I feel that I’m simply enabling a stupid and debilitating phobia of other people’s. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/50 "2009-09-02T23:07:45Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > Most people who weren’t raised by wolves. Did you not read the thread? Yes, and a good number of posters (around 8 or so) have no problem with it. It’s only gross to a certain few. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/51 "2009-09-03T12:38:12Z")
I don’t think it’s particularly gross either. I was discussing this with my daughter last night, who _does_ think it’s gross, and I asked her if she was disgusted to go into a barber shop where the floor is covered with hair clippings. She said no, but she thought it was more akin to going into a place where there are piles of dead skin peelings. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/52 "2009-09-03T13:00:59Z")
It drives me nuts. I’m a teacher, and for some reason my students think it is okay to clip their nails in class. This semester, I’m making it grounds for getting kicked out of the classroom. It’s not that it’s gross, it’s _that sound_. The horrible pace of it. _click_…_click_…\*click." I can hear it from the other side of the room and I know it is the sound of flesh being separated from bodies. It’s worse that the sound of nails on chalkboards. And, well, do it at home! Nobody ever has any reason to clip their nails more than one or two times a week. Why would you possibly, ever, in any circumstances, choose a time in public? Do you people really walk around with nail clippers at the ready, just in case the terrible urge hits? Are you really so compulsive that you can’t hold off a bit? ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/53 "2009-09-03T13:09:06Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > It has happened. The woman who had the previous shift left her toenails strewn around the workspace. Didn’t even have the manners to clean them up. I collected them, put them in a small container, with a note: “I almost threw these away, but then I thought maybe you wanted to keep them.” > > She never did it again. This reminds me of the Soprano’s episode with Tony in Italy visiting the mob and he notices the mob queen makes her maid pick up her clipped nails off the ground so that they don’t fall into the enemies hands. SHe had them burned so no one could put a curse on her. I was taking a class once and a woman who sat near me decided to tear off her acrylic nails. SHe did it with her fingers not a clipper, and the noise and chipped mess of a pile she created was hideous. She also told us that she had a gastric bypass and if she leaves suddenly its because she has bad gas. I say if the occasion really requires it clip if you must, but be discreet, and dispose of the clippings. Don’t save the clippings like a coworker did in his desk. He retired and I had to clean out his impressive collection of nail snips. That was gross! ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/54 "2009-09-03T18:15:10Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > It’s not that it’s gross, it’s _that sound_. The horrible pace of it. _click_…_click_…\*click." I can hear it from the other side of the room and I know it is the sound of flesh being separated from bodies. Fingernails = flesh to you? It’s not mini-amputations. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/55 "2009-09-03T18:31:38Z")
It’s a body part. It belongs ON your body, until such time as it can be removed discreetly and disposed of properly. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/56 "2009-09-03T18:56:18Z")
I love my father, but he does this in the living room. It’s disgusting. I’ve only done it in public if one of my nails breaks, or gets really jagged or sharp – and I almost ALWAYS leave the room – if I can’t go to the bathroom, I’ll go to a backroom and use a napkin. (My clippers ARE handy though for cutting a loose thread or something like that) I have, however, _painted_ my nails in public. (On my lunch break or whatever). ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/57 "2009-09-03T19:25:45Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I don’t think it’s particularly gross either. I was discussing this with my daughter last night, who _does_ think it’s gross, and I asked her if she was disgusted to go into a barber shop where the floor is covered with hair clippings. She said no, but she thought it was more akin to going into a place where there are piles of dead skin peelings. Yes, but the OP seems to be about corporate America, not a barber shop. You’d be silly to walk into a barber shop and _not_ to expect to see piles of hair on the floor. The whole environment of any salon or barber shop usually involves at least some small talk, the sound of scissors, electric razors and often the sound of nail clipping because many salons offer manicures. But an office isn’t a barber shop or salon, so it seems reasonable to expect _not_ to see piles of hair clippings or nail clippings or leftovers from someone’s electric razor sitting around. Plus, the hair and nail clippings at a barber shop or salon are usually very quickly disposed of. Just leaving a bunch of nail chips sitting around on your desk is pretty disgusting, especially if you’re in a situation where you regularly have people stop by to meet with you, even moreso if they’re unfortunate enough to have to use a part of your desk. I sure wouldn’t want to have to brush someone’s fingernails out of the way so I could take notes at a meeting. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/58 "2009-09-03T22:14:35Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > It’s a body part. It belongs ON your body, until such time as it can be removed discreetly and disposed of properly. You constantly shed skin as you walk, not to mention hair. I suggest a full body condom.😛 ---
**Author:** ![taxi78cab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47c2d/32.png) [@taxi78cab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/taxi78cab)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/59 "2009-09-03T22:28:12Z")
I keep nail clippers in my purse to deal with hang nails or broken nails. I have clipped both at my desk, over the waste basket, but _only_ a broken nail, never all 10. I certainly don’t find it as offensive as others apparently do. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393/60 "2009-09-06T02:47:12Z")
I have at work, but only in the bathroom or outside. Anywhere else just seems a little off to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trimming-nails-at-work/508393.md?page=4)