Office etiquette question

[prog]

Seriously: could there exist any medical reason why someone would need to spit very noisily -- that is, putting great vocal effort into creating and then and expectorating a significant phlegm-ball -- every time they visit the bathroom, with multiple loogie-hawkings per visit?

I am pondering leaving a note for this person, whose identity I have yet to verify, since it outgrosses my colleagues and I, who sit next to the bathroom, very much, but I don't want to seem insensitive if there's a chance that this person has a condition of some sort...

Comments

[poetgeek.livejournal.com]

[Sounds like Loud Howard.]

Medical reasons: smoking? other irritants? allergies? great enjoyment in annoying cow-orkers?

Recommendation: Suggest they seek medical attention immediately. This way, you will not seem insensitive, while politely altering them that their behavior may be slightly audible to others. Possible methodology to alert them to their symptomology would be running into the room shouting "Can you speak? Can you cough? I am trained. I will help you. Are you alive? I will help you! Call Paramedics! Help! Danger! Warning!" would likely provide a memorable solution.

this is an office mgt problem, not an interpersonal problem

[jadelennox]

Speaking as the first priest of Miss Manners, around here...

Leave your coworker alone. A person has the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy in the bathroom, and nothing is more likely to humiliate someone -- who may well have a serious medical condition of which he or she is aware, and which is under treatement, but which nonetheless require loogie-hawkings -- than the knowledge that others are listening to and noticing his or her bathroom gurgles. Just the thought of someone doing that to me makes me never want to show myself in public again. We have plenty of little lies that allow our society to function; one of them is that publically tabooed bodily functions which occur in prescribed areas are invisible and inaudible to everyone.

That being said, Gentle Reader, you do have a recourse. Go to you office manager and express that your work is frequently disturbed by bathroom sounds, and if it is impossible to move you elsewhere, perhaps it would be possible to add an inexpensive layer of insulation to the bathroom door, given its proximity to workspaces.

Re: this is an office mgt problem, not an interpersonal problem

[prog.livejournal.com]

Sage advice. Thank you for lessening the world's potential of embarrassment and regret.

(In my own defense I found I could ignore the spitting OK, but multiple orkers have said "Ew!!" at it, and I found that more disruptive. Interesting.)

Well sure...

[(Anonymous)]

Of course there could be reasons medically....

Of course, as someone else noted in the comments, doing stuff in the bathroom affords you a certain measure of privacy. If the walls are too thin, sure, ask some PHB to either get you moved or get the walls sound deadened or something.

I remember working in an office where my work area was in the back, past the bathroom. And so, sharing the wall with the bathroom left my privy (pun intended) to hearing such noises. Of course, in the summer, my section was too damned hot and I was mostly asleep anyway.

We know that 'prog' remember the office in winslow over by the dam, don't we? :)

j