Dos the word "coworker" annoy you?

[UnquietDad]

It's a creeping Americanism, for one thing.
What's wrong with "colleague"?

Plus, it always looks wrong with no hyphen. I read it as "cow-orker". What's orking and why would you do it to a cow? Sounds so rude.

I agree- colleague is perfectly adequate.

He he - 'dos'!

I dislike it too and always read it as you do. I either expect them to 'moo' at me or tell me they've been up since 6 doing the milking!

Sounds like there is some dysfunctional, co-dependency issues - have to work together and there is a 'safety in numbers' aspect about it all.

colleague is much better

My US-based company nearly always uses 'colleague' so I'm not yet sensitised to coworker - it reads cow- to me too.

Aaaagh, sorry for my Dos. There is no Disk Operating System in play here. Just personal stuff on my mind.

Yes. It makes my teeth itch. 'Colleague' is a far better word.

We use co-worker (with the hyphen ) It truly doesn't bother me, but frankly to be a 'co-worker' generally means needing the skin of a rhino so that probably explains it.

(It's easier to spell than colleague, which is why I think it's popular)

I always thought that co-worker described someone you shared a job with i.e. as half of a job share you would describe your other half as your co-worker. A colleague is someone else in your team.