To be completely repulsed by my colleague?!

[Unicornchaser]

So my colleague that is in the desk next to me always appears to be suffering some cough or cold. Now, I am not heartless enough to hate him for that. But he is apparently utterly incapable of covering his mouth when he coughs! And I say cough, it's more a 'hauking' up of flem, reminiscent of a cat with a fur ball.

He also does not cover his mouth when he yawns 40 times a day and his breath stinks so wafts.

Is it wrong I'm so repulsed by him?! 🤢

(before someone mentions it - yes, obviously check aromatherapy stuff for pregnancy suitability first).

I worked near a man who used to make the most foul snorting sounds when sniffing (sorry, I really can't describe the horrible noise, but I'm sure that you know what I mean), all day, every day. Everyone else used to cringe and comment about it too.
Eventually, we approached his manager who had a word and he stopped his back-snorting. Apparently, he kicked off at the manager, shouting that he had every right to do this, he couldn't help it and that we were being discriminatory. I did have some (ok, limited!) sympathy with him but it obviously wasn't something that he couldn't help, as it stopped immediately and he didn't seem to suffer from any issues afterwards. It was just an unpleasant habit that he had imposed on everyone else in our open-plan office for years.
The silence was fabulous!

Another colleague had bad breath and we all kept a supply of mints that we kept sharing as none of us had the nerve to mention it. The man sitting nearest to him had to cover his nose with his hand when talking to him, it was so bad. Eventually, a manager was tasked with telling him and it turned out that he had a permanent abscess and fear of dentists. He did venture to the dentist and the problem improved slightly, but returned to normal levels as he didn't want further dental treatment.

Your manager or HR should definitely deal with this and I'm sure that you aren't the only one who has concerns even if you are a bit germ-phobic.
Enjoy your maternity leave OP !

I’ve had to reposition my monitor to block the sight of a man who bites his nails, eats with his mouth open and coughs without covering his mouth. He is vile.

Feign motherly concern. Ask "are you ok?....seem a bit chesty." Tell him to get GP checked....could be something untoward / sympotomatic - def. not normal!!! Afterwards keep on his case.......

Can you move your desk so you don't sit next to him?

My colleague holds one nostril shut whilst expelling snot down the other into a tissue. This is noisy but she doesnt seem to care. It seems to be just seen as normal amongst certain cultures but I find it gross.

Babyroobs - that's how you're meant to blow your nose! Gently, but one nostril at a time. It's how I do it, but I take myself away to blow my nose. I hate doing it in front of people, no one wants to hear me snotting into a tissue!

I agree everything but the crucial bit is gently.
If someone wants to create a tsumani in their nostril then they should be polite and nip out.

Hahaha nostril tsunami... nice!!
Apparently if you do it forcefully, it can blow bacteria back up into your nasal passages, so definitely gently.

Gross. We had one like this. He was known as the kraken.

He could be very ill!

How long has he had the cough and how old is he? We had a patient walk into the nurse practitioner clinic with mindblowingly foul breath and a hacking cough so we sent him for further investigations and he turned out to have advanced lung cancer. He was 43.

@CaptainCabinets no, it's just a cold. He will be very obviously bunged up with it then have a phlegm's cough for about 3 weeks following it.

He was better today after me recoiling in disgust after a particularly gross spattering and me giving him jip for not covering his mouth. But tomorrow always brings a new day!

Speak to HR, sounds filthy!