OMGosh, I am sorry, but I am laughing out loud as I read this !
Its been something on my YUK list for many years, and I cant stand to see anyone doing it, no matter what.
If it were me, I would stand up and tell her to just STOP IT, or just keep throwing kleenex's over her way, one after another after another until she got the idea ! Yes, your right...it is gross...LOL

Well,if the person didn't take the hint with the box of tissues I guess you need to get a little more agressive!LOL
If the supervisor doesn't take care of the problem I think I would leave a nice sticky note on their desk,or maybe stuck to a giant box of tissues,and tell them you don't want their "boogers" on your desk so stop flickin! If there is more than one desk they can land on the flicker wouldn't know exactly who left the note.Orrrr......You could leave a note every day saying," I am watching you pick your nose"! LOL

My experience is....if you let bad things happen...they eventually go away on their own. Stir the pot and it comes back on you....

Nicole__ I think you should come work in my cubicle and let the bad things happen, in other words let the boogers fly!
I believe you'll sing a different tune to "they eventually go away on their own" when a flicked picking lands on you!
blecccchhhhh
LIL

I don't see how those boogers are going to just go away! LOL They seem to be coming to your desk right now.

Many situations I would say should be tolerated to a point but this is one where I would do something. If it were simply picking their nose and wiping it on a tissue or in the wastebasket or something, I'd probably suggest looking the other way. But when you're under fire, literally, then it's time to do something. The first thing to do is talk to the person. That's the mature thing to do. In fairness, it's probably something they're doing unconsciously and not trying to be gross. It'd be pretty embarrassing both to the person and to the supervisor to have a supervisor bring it up to them when you could just quietly say hey, do you know what you're doing? Then if that doesn't help, you could always go to the superior. You could take it to the level of having some small boxes of tissues and when they pick-n-flick, throw a box their way yelling hey, you ever hear of PUFFS????, but of course the risk is that you'll be branded the nut in that event.

I know there's a couple people here who are so fearful of people and life they'll tell you never to talk to anyone else for fear they'll pull an AK-47 and wipe out the office. I've always found that pulling someone aside and saying something is far more effective than trying to constantly go over someone's head. Supervisors don't like it and the complainer is often the scapegoat whether they're right or wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I agree this is not a tolerable situation. I just advise caution on how you proceed.

Good luck.

Or you could put a sign up in the area that leads to his/her cubicle that says- "Caution- Nose-Picker Ahead" lol

Geeze, that's disgusting. I can't stand seeing that, sometimes people do it when they're driving, as if their windows aren't see-thru.

Since your handbook specifically mentions that supervisors are trained to address these errmmm "delicate" situations, I think you did the right thing in notifying the super. If, when you return from vacation, you continue to see flicking boogers, I would speak to the super & ask them what he/she wants you to do. See where it goes from there. If the super spoke to the flickerer & she has persisted, then your speaking to the booger-picker isn't going to matter one whit. There is NO way this should come back to bite you for having reported it..... this is not a case of nit-picking. Booger picking is altogether different & surely not an "unconscious" action.

This must be a man, I can't imagine a woman doing this.

I myself would tell him that what he is doing is unsanitary and disgusting as I handed him a box of kleenex. But I can understand that most people are not as comfortable with confrontation.

You should also worry about this person spreading disease. Anything they touch will have viruses on it. Wonder is he washes his hands after using the facilities.

That is truly repulsive and I would consider it a hostile work environment, with missiles being flung in your direction. :o)
Hopefully, your supervisor will handle it and make sure it never happens again. If not, you might consider going above her head.

I don't know if this is possible, but were I in your shoes, if I retured from vacation and found the situation was continuing? I'd simply walk into my supervisor's office, with my work, sit down, and tell them until they found me a new corner to work in, that didn't have germs being flung at me several times a day, I was going to sit right there and do what I had to do.

Frankly I think you should have spoken up when it happened and ask the person to pick up their own booger. I don't think it is fair to report it to a supervisor without speaking first to your co-worker. This may come back to bite you now.

This may come back to bite you now.

How so? I don't get that, at all. Someone else flicks boogers & Lil gets bit for reporting it as encouraged to do so by her handbook. Even IF Lil is a whiner & complains over petty stuff to her supervisor every week, day or hour, this is not minor nor whining. She's doing ~exactly~ as her handbook directs. It's so simple that even a cave man knows not to do this, so we're talking about a person who is basically very disrespectful of others.... that's a supervisors job to address, imo.

no help here but you do have my sympathy!

There are quite possibly some Health Code violations here; as well as LIL's right to "quiet enjoyment" of her personal workspace.

If your supervisor hasn't taken care of this issue by the time you get to work tomorrow, I'd go straight to the company's Health & Safety Officer in a New York minute.

If your cell take photos, take one, print it off and lay it on his desk with the tissue box. He knows what he is doing, but that will make him aware that people are watching.

I was just going to suggest taking a pic or video with your phone. Then I would write a little note asking the person to stop their disgusting habit. That way, if they get all ticked off at you and deny it, you've got it on camera! How uncomfortable and sickening! ::Barf!::

Blessings,
Haley

I said it might come back to bite her because her supervisor might just think that a person should be mature enough to speak to the person themselves before running to a supervisor with the gross booger complaint. It might show up on an evaluation that she was unable to work things out with co-workers. Doesn't take the initiative etc.

If you were the booger throwing co-worker, would you rather be told about it by your equal or would you rather have a supervisor have to tell you of this fault.

"Excuse me, but did you realize that you just threw a booger in my direction which isn't very sanitary" would have been the kinder remark. I know it is in the handbook that the supervisor can be the one to do this but employers may just resent someone not being able to handle their own minor complaints.

When I was working, if I had a complaint, I tried to speak to the person privately to work it out with them and if the situation didn't improve or change, then and only then would I take it further to a supervisor. Then at least, I could tell the supervisor that I tried.

Thanks you guys for the suggestions. After grossness the laughter is good and makes the uncomfortable a little easier to deal with.

Grandson suggested (besides the large can of disinfectant spray he got me for Grandparents Day) I get another desk size box of tissues and put a sticky note

on it that says "Do you know how to make a tissue dance?"....................
.. then on a second sticky note write ..
..............."Put a little boogie in it!...........Yours please!" He said he'd even print it out for me so no one would know where it came from. LOL What a kid, always willing to help gramma.

I do know the other cubicles facing the same way can see the picking and flicking because they have mentioned how gross the new person is. I kept my mouth shut hoping another would say something to the new person or the
supervisor. Anon note hopefully worked and I won't have to deal with the situation. This really was the bad point of my whole vacation.

If worse comes to worse and the flicking continues I guess I'll be the person to talk to the flicker and hope it is taken well with a nice box of soft touch tissue. If it
continues after that I have a video camera and good options

1. Take pic print it off and put it on pick-n-flicks desk.

If the flicking continues

2. Take proof to HR and/or the VP.
This must be a man thing DH and DGS both said "Boogers never go away, they just dry up and get hard." eeewwwee but yes I have purple gloves and scraper if they want samples to go with pic.

3. Grandson knows how to post to U-tube.
4. Close circuit it to the big TVs in the break area.

LIL

Something tells me that the supervisor won't talk to the employee. It's one thing for a supervisor to bring up, say, lateness with a worker who has a problem being punctual. But boogers and BO? Way too "yuck"--it's a very personal assault (well, going your way, too!) and the supervisor will probably have problems looking the person in the eye and telling him/her the situation must stop.

But your DGS's gift of the disinfectant spray brings up an alternative--start spraying the area when that co-worker is doing the booger flick. He/she will get the message when the fumes/scent hits the nose!

No good advice here.
It just reminded me about a man in DD's Sunday School class who took out his clippers and began cutting his nails. Besides the click, click noise, one dirty nail clipping landed right in her Bible on the scripture they were studying.

How about some lines of yellow duct tape in the "danger zone"? Kind of a warning to others to be careful and hurry past. lol I think if you went in early, wore gloves and ditched the roll somewhere so it couldn't be pinned on you, you could get away with it. You don't have security cameras there, do you?

Obviously this person has no shame, so you might have to go "over the top" to drive the point home.

Or put a note on his/her desk- "I don't appreciate seeing you picking your nose and I am horrified that you think it's OK to then dispose of your bodily excretions by flicking them into the hall area and other people's cubicles, it's disgusting and well-known by others. Have some respect for your co-workers, if not for yourself. Please STOP doing this at work."

I have to deal with booger flickers in my line of work, but then again I drive a school bus with Kindergartens on it. LOL
Sorry you have to deal with it. I would get several co workers together that know whats going on and confront the person as a group.

i would go to my direct supervisor, explain the problem and ask for a move to a new location. If that doesn't work, go higher up. Or do you have a Union? Maybe they can help?

What if you weren't afraid? What if you could make it funny? I am convinced that some people pick and flick unconsciously - you'd be doing her a favor to get her to be more self aware.

Few things are more exhilarating to me than to deal with a difficult issue head on - I have to really work myself up to it, but when I do, I really feel as if I have given myself a big hug and took care of myself in a positive way.

You don't have to be rude - it's not about you. I guarantee there is NO ONE on the planet, not even her, that would think this is not a problem. You have an obligation to yourself to set a booger boundary. :)

It reminded me of this 1968 Movie. I'm sorry to laugh. That person is so disgusting.

Send him this Video in a Email and put a box of keenex on his desk.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Slime Clip

If I saw that happen, I would simply say, "that's disgusting and unhygienic, please don't do that here!"

Get a string, hang it over the entry to your cubicle, hang a whole box of tissues on it, stuck to one another, wall to wall and top to floor, maybe?

I think that I'd quietly speak to the person about it, in a non-confrontational manner, telling the miscreant that it really bothers you when they/he flick(s) them into your area (that, if he were a dog, maybe you'd install a post near your cubicle that he could use when he needed to dispose of another kind of bodily excretion) ... and that it really isn't appropriate to zing them into the passageway ... or even in his/her own space, for that matter.

Can you think of a rather humourous way to approach the issue ... sometimes some humour helps to defuse an issue that otherwise could become troublesome.

I don't think that I'd bring along a more-or-less accusatory message like a box of tissues ... just make a quiet request.

I think that I'd start there - the next step would be to talk to the supervisor about it. I agree with Heather that it seems to me wise to try to resolve issues between employees one to one, when possible: at least, give that a try.

Or ... how about walking into his/her cubicle, just after s/he's done one, especially if into the passageway, suggesting that you haven't tried fishing out a booger in years ... but that the next time that s/he does that, you're considering going fishing for one, to flick back at her/him. Or, maybe you'll keep one that you've collected earlier, handy somewhere on or near your desk: it's always a good idea to have ammunition on hand prior ro need!

ole joyful