I finally found a weapon to use on the gum chewing girls in my office….Lysol!!! When they start chewing, I start sparying. The sound of them gaging and choking is so satisfying that I even take my earphones out. I freak out on them sometimes and everyone just thinks I am nuts. They laugh at me when I scream “who is chewing spearmint gum”!! Yeah it sounds funny to complain about that but it won’t be funny when I punch her in the face. Anyway, I am having the last laugh with the Lysol. I spray it right over the cubical. If they start to complain just say that you are cleaning your desk. Oh – – don’t forget to hide your can. One day they all ganged up and stole it off my desk. Let me know if this works for anyone else.

I want to use RAID.

When I was a kid, we were not allowed to chew gum in school or church. I remember when I had teeth pulled at 11 years old – I was given asprin gum and asprin lozenges. My mom had to write a letter to the school telling them that I was in pain and needed to chew them. I was asked to not pop it and chew with my mouth closed. THIS IS NORMAL! Is it not? I don’t remember me or my family taking any offense to this. A human being does not NEED to snap gum, pick their nose, poop in front of you, chew with their mouth open.

Maybe we should train the gum smackers that instead of sticking a piece of cud in their mouth, they should be confident enough to simply say..”I need to be the center of your world for 8 hours, please pay attention to me”. If it makes them uncomfortable admitting or asking for that…well….honey……yeah. It should.

I wonder if they need attention. It is truly disgusting and I wish that more gum snappers were aware of these posts so we didn’t have to suffer. Luckily, my friends and significant other also think it’s disgusting so I have support. I just hate my job! I know that I make mistakes that affect our clients and it’s because I CANNOTT focus on anything other than 8 hours of ..SNAP SNAP SNAP SLURP POP SQUISH SNAP POP SLURP SNAP. GROSS!

I just found out how to access all the entries between 2002 to 2007, including the hilarious gum humor entry. It is a MUST READ!

How to get there:

> At the bottom of this web page, find “Leave a Reply.”
> On the line above that, click the link to “Older Comments.”
> On the next screen, click “Older Comments” again. Do this for several screens until you get to Deb’s entry dated:

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 at 12:25 am

I just about fell out of my chair last year when I found this website! I also thought I was the ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD! I have been this way ALL MY LIFE, 46 years. I HATE HATE HATE the noise from Gum Gum Gum, Snap Crackle Pop. I could go ON AND ON.

By the way, I LOVE that one woman’s gum humor entry on- Aahhh! What happened to all the entries between 2002 to 2007? There were over 700 entries in all. I printed out every one of them last year and don’t see them anywhere. I do remember this webpage used to take a REALLY long time to download. Maybe that’s why the entries were removed?

Back to gum, the noises annoy me IMMENSELY. I experience IMMEDIATE and EXTREME ANXIETY A.K.A. PANIC, FRUSTRATION, DESPERATION, ANGER, SHARP RISE IN BODY TEMPERATURE AND SWEAT, and if I could not leave in a couple/few minutes, I used to cry. Because I get so PHYSICALLY SICK, and because I care more about me as I get older, I have more recently been covering my ears with fingers and walking away. If I can’t, it takes up to ½ hour or an hour for me to feel calm again after removing myself from the situation. If I must stay, now I like to walk away to put on hearing protection and then return, or if I don’t want to lose my place in line, I put my fingers on my ears. Hey, we all do what we have to do to get by.

THE GREAT NEWS!!!

Last year I found a GREAT PRODUCT that BUFFERS GUM (and much more). It’s an AM/FM HEARING PROTECTION HEADSET. You control how much you hear by wearing the headset OFF, or ON and by adjusting the volume. I bought them for $50 last year at Home Depot. They are worth their weight in gold to me.

http://cache.vendaria.com/vpop/VpopV6.html?ct=24&ctname=CT630X510D630X390&fw=630&fh=510&logo=479&fv=9&ap=homedepot_aearo_90534_00000&purl=MAIN_homedepot_aearo_90534_00000&iid=AddpfzJuvllqqqKlmLuJfwmvluKKJI&bg=D6D7A5&nm=BZOpener&curl=&err=0&title=Demo&tp=

AO Safety Worktunes Hearing Protector
Model 90534-80000
The headphones are yellow and black.

I just noticed that they are now made with a digital display, so here’s the link for that too:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xhc/R-202080169/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Personal Safety Digital Worktunes Hearing Protector & AM/FM Stereo Radio
Model # 90541-80025

If all else fails, you can go to http://www.homedepot.com and do a search.

Donna

She is a lovely person, and I’d rather not create resentment over an issue I know will not go away — bad habits are indeed hard to break — so I have just dealt with it. After a lot of trial & error, I’ve found some earplugs I can live with (MAX Foam, the orange ones). However, as many of you have noted, we’re the ones to suffer from offensive and disruptive behavior, and it is discourteous of our colleagues, friends, and family members to force us into this position by their own poor manners.

Reading through the many, many posts here, I was also intrigued to discover that the vast majority are incredibly well written — not only vividly expressing our shared frustrations, but with rather accurate grammar and spelling. I’m an editor and copywriter, and wonder how may of you are also in the creative arts. Is this sound sensitivity prevalent among those of us who “live inside our own heads”?

Incidentally, due to a tendency to unconsciously grind my teeth, I do frequently chew gum — as recommended by my dentist. But, as with just about everything else, there are discreet and inoffensive ways to chew gum.

She also eats lunch at her desk and all her daily snacks. The little mini carrots that she brings for her two snacks a day also make me crazy. She does not close her mouth. Instead I hear every break of those little sticks. All the while, she puts her gum in the side of her cheek like a squirrel to keep until she is finished snacking so that she can resume her gum chewing.

I never chew gum and I believe that it should be banned! There is nothing worse than going to the teller at the bank and having to watch them as they chomp like a hippo. When I was younger and worked as a chashier at Kmart, we were not allowed to chew gum. If we were caught chewing, we were politely asked to spit it out.

I agree with a lot of the others here in that I am so bothered by chewing of any kind that I thought I was the only one with this problem – at least until I found this post. Thanks for letting me vent. I would like to say more but I have to get back to work and stick my headphones into my ears so I can finish.

I have had this pet peeve since I was a teenager and still dealing with it in my 40’s. My family is well aware of my acute symptoms when listening to slurping, chomping, smacking, popping, and a mouth that’s chewing its cud. It’s not limited to gum… When I was a teenager I didn’t ask politely because I was annoyed and had no fear of holding back… But now as I have grown older… Why can’t I just do what I did back then??? Why is it okay for others to be so rude and I feel that I have to ask with my tail between my legs or in fear of retaliation (them chewing even louder)? uughhh

Sweet Lord!!!! Until today, when I received this blog from a co-worker; I felt like I was over reacting and I thought I was utterly alone. I transferred to a department stationed within another department, where the workers have been established for 8 yrs or so. It’s a warehouse type office; cubicles are our office walls and we have high ceilings. I work in the midst of older women and to be honest, we all know that women can be caddy.

This started in November when an older woman than I, who sits right next to me started cracking her gum first thing that morning. This was just the first day of many long days that now has turned into months… I am not exaggerating when I say; it seemed to crack every time her teeth came together. During the hours that this was going on, amongst trying to concentrate on my work I would: grab my temples, stand with my hands on my hips, pace my small cube, bend from the hips in hopes that the blood would rush to my ears to drown the sound, pace more, walk to the door of her cube just to turn back around and not say anything. Yes, homicidal thoughts started too…

I am known to my old co-workers of 3 years as the peace maker. If they had a problem they would come to me for advice. I am not a problem stirrer and decided to address this issue with a confidant. I wanted to handle this right so that I wouldn’t piss the woman off. I was told that it would be wise just to try to cope because there would be ramifications, even if I went to the supervisor. WHAT??? So, I just gritted my teeth and bared it… I even went and got an IPOD just so that I could drown the sound – I still heard the faintest cracking. I can’t tolerate it any longer. Seriously it’s affecting my health. I dread coming to work for the first time ever in 3 years. I carry the stress in my shoulders and have had a slight headache everyday for weeks. I of course couldn’t go to this woman because I was afraid of what she would do. I went to upper management. As my eyes filled with tears I explained my plight and asked for his help. He knew the name before I even spoke it. He had many complaints and said that I was right not to confront her. How sad is that?? Everyone tolerates this…Why? I am a single parent of 2 teenagers… why do I need to be subjected to undue stress when I live with it daily LOL

SOOOO… After 2 weeks or so of not getting a response, I finally had to confront her. I was ready to go postal. With my tail between my legs, with the softest and kindest voice that I could muster (I couldn’t hide my red angry face) I politely asked her if she would stop. As she looked at me, as though I were shit on her shoe, she said “I’ll try”. I said “I really appreciate it” again with the look she said “I said I’ll try”. That was the quietest day that I had in months.

Between her being away from her desk and me alternating my work between other locations; the cracking began again first thing this morning. I thought that I would just give her a friendly reminder and without my tail between my legs I said “Please remember the cracking of the gum” her response was “I JUST PUT IT IN!!!” I said that I understand but it drives me absolutely crazy (I guess I shouldn’t have admitted that right?) The whispers have now started; little quips are now being said… SERIOUSLY??? You would think that these people are in HIGH SCHOOL.

If any of you bloggers from “Is there a gum-chewing etiquette” have hiring and firing rights… fire them and hire me LOL I am a hard and silent worker