Spotlight on L: Personal Grooming (At Work)

Each person has some different impression of what etiquette is and should be. Many people would have a different idea of what might be appropriate for, say a quiet evening at home versus a night out at a nice wine bar versus a smoky english pub. I would say it is not just appropriate but required to have different manners depending on the setting. I think an office setting with cubicles should necessitate some additional considerations due to the close working quarters.

Imagine yourself on a glorious Monday morning. You are in your own personal hell - sitting in a little cubicle, starring at a computer screen all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements... You hope that things should be a little slower, a little easier at least for a couple of hours, after all, it is just Monday morning. It should take a few hours for things to ramp up. You sit quietly sort of staring at your desk and sort of checking your email.

Click!

"What was that?" you think to yourself.

Click!!

"Well, that does sound familiar..."

Click!! Click!!

"Wait one second. I know that sound!!"

Disgusted you realize that L is clipping her fingernails. She is clipping them at work. And, not just at work...She is clipping those fingernails in the cube next to you. This cube is so close that you can possibly be struck by one of the stray clipped nails because you are clearly in the danger zone. Not the good kind of "Danger Zone" where Maverick is walking ahead of you down the tarmac...It's is bad danger zone where a gross fingernail can hit you square in the head.

I will leave you with a short excerpt from a Life At Work transcript from the washingtonpost.com.

Clipping fingernails in the office! Seriously, I think that I am going to start a cause to fight for manners education in elementary and high schools. It should be a requirement because it's obvious that parents spanning across generations aren't teaching their kids manners. My parents taught me good manners and etiquette and, thus, based on what I've learned I would NEVER clip my fingernails in any sort of public setting.