Pet Peeve: Using Your Spit In the Workplace

I only decided to write this based on the sheer disgust that I embrace seeing something that people do everyday which I akin to "picking ones' nose" in public.  While I am not a germaphobe by any means, I do have this one little pet peeve that bothers me to no end.  I hate when people lick their fingers and then touch things at work.

It goes something like this:   You get called into a meeting, there are handouts which means someone will be tasked with the disbursement of related papers; reports; agenda's etc.  Of course, I start to cringe when I realize that the person already standing up walking towards me is reaching for her mouth, I see it in slow motion; the fingertips meeting the the lips, the tongue darts out softy to wet the fingers and voila! there you have it, an instant sticky at your beck and call!

And the most horrid part of this, is when they touch that goo to the paper that they want to hand me. Nuh-uh. I refuse to take it. Just a little fact, there is no conclusive number of how many bacteria are actually in your mouth, however according to an article from Paul Arnold Managing Editor at Bright Hub

"It has been estimated that there are over 100 million in every millilitre of saliva from more than 600 different species."

I gag as I watch someone who insists on sticking pens in their mouth, wet their fingers to get their pages ready to fax, and what do they do? Yes, that's right, they then take the pen out of their mouth and punch the numbers on the machine as if to mark their turn with their sloppy seconds.  I do not want to share your spit, I do not want to kiss you, or your Dog or your Lover, thank you very much.

We do have finger-rubbers (yes, that is what they are called), to help you go through all those papers, and guess what?  You will no longer have to "hock a loogie" as a remedy for your paper-separating problems.


I believe it is obviously is an unconscious behavior from other-wise health sensitive people that do wash their hands in the bathroom after they use it...or do they?  It is odd because these are the same people that complain when someone sneezes or coughs anywhere within a city block of their vicinity but think nothing of wanting me to share their gingivitis.

So if you are one of those people who say to yourself: "Yes, that's me, I do that". Then please, stop it.

Thank you.

Ref: http://www.brighthub.com/science/genetics/articles/45935.aspx