Person working next to me smacks their lips

[Roosch]

The lovely young lady who works at the desk next to mine has an AWFUL habit of smacking her lips and eating with her mouth open, at her desk.

This is driving me up the wall.

What do I do without strangling an otherwise lovely person.

I would get some loop earplugs they dull the noise but you can still hear people if they are talking to you

Just to add that I have tried noise cancelling air pods. I can still see her out the corner of my eye and it’s really distracting for me.

Would you say anything and what??

I hope she reads this so I don’t have to confront her.

Ask her, politely to eat like a grown up. You may not want to embarrass her, but frankly some people need it.

I would ask her what she’s got because it sounds really nice. She’s likely to ask if you meant smells and that’s when you say no, I definitely meant sounds

I used to sit next to someone who cracked their knuckles. I left the job!

I feel for you x

Oooh that’s a good idea - thanks!

You have to exercise a certain amount of personal responsibility and stop looking at her.

Unless she’s eating food 24/7 I’m sure you can manage even if it is annoying.

you have misophonia, welcome to the club 😬

Your post made me lol, OP.
Does she have any false teeth? They seem to make people smack their lips 💋

does she have lunch at her desk? Can you leave your desk at lunchtime? Afraid if not, you'll just have to fume until one of you leaves.

I don’t think so. She looks about 30 and healthy!

No she keeps snacking, nothing too unreasonable. Also smacks when she drinks water.

My old boss used to lick his yoghurt lid and shove half a bag of crisps in his mouth in one go EVERY SINGLE LUNCH TIME and I could not stand it! We weren't allowed to take our lunch breaks at the same time so I had to sit there and seethe for 30 minutes, 5 days a week. Torture!

I never have lunch with her for this reason.
Ha, I’m fuming inside!

Professional assassin is the way.

Annoying and difficult. I think the only reasonable approach is to wait for a moment when you will not be overheard and be straight with her eg 'You're probably not aware of it but you eat noisily and with your mouth open. This isn't an easy thing to say. You're such a lovely colleague and I'm sure you wouldn't want people's good opinion of you to be damaged by something it's easy to change.'

Eek I’m too chicken to be direct!

This. Or,
"Look, Helen, you're a lovely colleague and I like you, but if you don't stop with the lip smacking I'm afraid I'm gonna batter you".

Do you have kids? Could you say something like 'we're trying to get Johnny to stop eating with his mouth open and smacking his lips all the time, its hard work, but we want him to grow up with good manners' and hope she takes the hint.

Steel yourself, honestly. You'll be proud of yourself when you've said it.

If you can't be politely direct with her there isn't a lot you can do.

Just reading this has made my heart pound! I can't cope with people eating near me, and on the rare occasion it happens I put headphones on.

I never really know what “lip smacking” is?? I mean I get its an annoying noise but what are they doing exactly.

I'm sure it's annoying but I don't think you actually have any right to confront her about it, she's not actually doing anything wrong.