A notorious close talker at my work called to say he’d be in late today because he was up all night sick. The announcement was met by a collective office groan with the certainty that anyone he close-range talked to/breathed on would end up getting sick too.

The biggest problem with close talkers is that they don’t know they do it. Or maybe they do and they don’t realize it’s bad.

Announcement: It’s bad.

The first step is admitting you have a problem. Everyone knows that. I think that makes it our duty to society to inform offenders when they invade our personal space, so that they’ll realize it’s an issue and ultimately stop doing it.

Please do your part. Determine whether or not you are a close talker. If you are, stop. If you are not, then please inform those who are of their offense.

You’ll be doing the rest of the world a favor.