I have a day off today and at first I thought I’d gone deaf. Then I realised it’s just the blessed, blessed peace of not having to listen to my colleague chewing, chomping and gulping all the livelong day.
I work in an open plan office and while I’ve learned to ‘screen out’ a lot of background noise in order to concentrate, it’s impossible not to notice some sounds or to be drawn back into the general hubbub from time to time. Without a shadow of a doubt, the most annoying noise is the constant rustle-rustle-chomp-chomp-gulp-gulp of my colleague who sits behind me. I use the word “constant” advisedly because she just doesn’t seem to stop. She’s a chain eater. I don’t know whether it’s an uncontrollable appetite, boredom, or if she’s trying to be the hostess with the mostest to Timmy Tapeworm, but dear [insert deity of choice] it’s annoying.
AIBU to want to condemn all Constant Eaters to having to work in a hypothetical room by themselves where they can out-crunch each other and not disturb the rest of us? (A really poky room with temperamental air conditioning and a printer that always needs the toner cartridge replacing.)