Life | Work | Style [1] • By Keiko Rosenstiel • August 27, 2008 • Email [2] Print [3]

Last issue we asked Blue Avocado readers how they would react to hearing the activity of a co-worker in the next cubicle clipping his fingernails. Ack! Some readers provided
humorous ideas and others gave practical advice, perhaps because of personal
experience? Here are just a few of the letters:

Those of us who have lived in cube environments for years have found the best way is to ignore them with music and headphones. And a few of us can just turn off our hearing aids, which we need as a result of using loud music to drown out the fingernail clipping noise. -- Dave Cannard, Portland, Oregon

I actually witnessed my supervisor clip her toenails into a trash can about two feet from me. What did I do about it? A week later she applied deodorant and I quit. -- Louise

Clearly your co-worker doesn't have enough to do. Since there is rarely a shortage of work in most nonprofits, maybe you should tell him that you're happy to share items on your to-do list. -- Michelle Johnson, Davis, California

Leave an anonmymous bottle of flaming red nail polish and an emery board on "The Clipper's" desk with a note: 'Here's a little something extra to put on your freshly clipped nails." -- Alan E. Yue, Life Foundation [4], Honolulu

I was the person clipping! For years I thought that talking on the phone at work was the perfect time to clip my fingernails. But one day I overheard two people complaining about someone ELSE who did it. I was stunned to realize this was considered too uncool for words, and embarrassed that no one had ever told me. In retrospect, I wonder if my two co-workers staged that  conversation for me to overhear. So remember: some of us are just ignorant or from a different culture, and we would appreciate a gentle soul clue-ing us in. -- Jan Masaoka, Blue Avocado [5], San Francisco

Lean over the top of the cubicle and ask: 'Would you like to be alone, this seems like an intimate moment for you? Or go to the doorway with your trash bin and at the next clip yell, 'Two points!" BUT, since my boss has been known for the same bad behavior, I'll remain anonymous! -- "Rad-Raw"