Listening To Her Coworker Chew All Day Next To Her Is Making Her Lose Her Mind
This 38-year-old woman has a 41-year-old coworker named Ashley, and they have desks sitting right next to one another.
This arrangement has been going on for over five years, and they work in a hectic medical building. She and Ashley are part of a small group of people who have public-facing roles in the company.
They are in charge of doing various tasks such as data entry, answering phones, and assisting patients as well as medical professionals.
Unfortunately, Ashley has been admonished by their company’s management for a couple of things they have taken issue with.
Ashley will do things like step outside of her position and tell patients things she should not be discussing.
“One instance was making a very inappropriate comment to a patient regarding their personal life, and they filed a complaint,” she explained.
“She can also be very aggressive in her conversations with patients when she’s annoyed. The reprimands did nothing other than fuel her victim complex, and she proceeded to tell anyone who listened how it was all the patient’s fault, and she felt so attacked. All in all, she’s a very self-centered person and always the victim.”
Ashley also loves to complain about their coworkers too, and she’s quick to shush Ashley up whenever this occurs, so Ashley tends to be super defensive with her.
Also, whenever she has attempted to address a problem with Ashley in the past, Ashley will just act in a passive-aggressive way for years after the fact.
Viacheslav Yakobchuk – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual person
It’s easy to see why Ashley will always be someone she works with and not a best friend. She dislikes Ashley immensely, and other people in the office feel the way she does.
Currently, the problem she has with Ashley is that she recently began spending four-plus hours out of their seven-hour day eating at her desk.
“She’ll start with a snack at 10:30 [and] take 45-60 minutes to eat that,” she said. “Then she’ll have her lunch at 12 and will still be eating it at her desk at 1:30 or 2 p.m.”
“Then she’ll have cookies or carrots or something at 2 or 3 and eat that for another hour or so. She will also talk to patients and call people while eating and chew while on the phone with them.”
“Recently, she’s started to keep a bag of chips in her desk drawer, so it’s like a sneak attack of crunchy chewing beside me at random times.”
Being forced to listen to Ashley chew right next to her for north of four hours every single day is making her lose her mind.
She’s tested wearing earplugs while Ashley snacks away, but it makes her job pretty impossible, as she has to be able to hear what the patients have to say to her, and their office is loud already.
She’s tried to take breaks while Ashley eats, but Ashley eats nonstop now, so unless she wants to spend half the day away from her desk (which isn’t practical), that’s not a solution.
She’s scared to bring up the chewing to Ashley since food is a touchy subject for many people. And given the way Ashley loves to play the victim, she knows Ashley will just spin things and make her out to be the bad guy.
“I am hesitant to go to management without a plan to deal with it because I know their answer will be “then no one can eat at their desk,” she continued.
“She’s the only one abusing this privilege I don’t want to take that option away from other people who eat in a reasonable amount of time.”
What advice do you have for her?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
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