Too much personal info

[snoopygirl]

I have a coworker at work and while she is really nice she has this bad habit of sharing very personal info. Personal info that makes me feel akward. She will see I am reading at lunch sit down and start talking about all her personal problems. ( these include illnesses I would not tell a coworker I had) How do I tell her that makes me feel akward.

[Sirius]

I think I'd tell her something along these lines:  "You know, Jane, when you tell me all these things it makes me very uncomfortable.  I wish you wouldn't." 

[Yarnspinner]

Yikes!  I have known people like that.  (With very, very close friends, I have BEEN people like that.)  But I would never, ever share TMI with casual acquaintances at work.  Ick.  There's nothing like trying to have lunch while some poor soul feels compelled to describe, in all it's glory, the problem she is having with her irritable bowel.  

I've been known to put a hand up and say "I think I'd like to remember you as you are now and not in the position you describe."  One of my friends says things like "Oh, thank you so much.  I will now have to spend tonight trying to clean that image out of my head."  Another says "Thanks SO much for sharing" followed by a cheery smile and a hasty retreat.

Don't know if any of those are helpful to you, but you have my deepest sympathy.  Hang on, Snoopygirl!

[Suze]

When the girls and I get a little overboard on the subjects we talk about one of the guys will stick his hand over his ears and exclaim "guy table - guy table"

He is a quiet guy - sometimes we kinda forget he is there.

[Pixie]

I have been known to say, "I really didn't want to know that."    Sometimes it works.   

[Slartibartfast]

Ooh, yes, I'll never forget the staff training manager telling me all about how her daughter found her and her husband's collection of sex toys and the ensuing conversation, and how she wants to go on the pill but can't because she's a smoker, etc.  I didn't know her well enough to tell her it was really TMI - so why did she think she knew me well enough to share?

[Reika]

I worked in a call center for a health insurance company for 6 years. There was always at least one call that was TMI and it wasn't just the patients! Much good luck with your co-worker and hope you don't have to hear any more ickiness.

[freakyfemme]

Two words:  Eat out.  Seriously.....I'm terrible at confrontations of any kind, probably because my mom has raised me with the idea that having any kind of boundaries, or not talking to just anyone (when I'd really prefer silence), is "rude."  I know now that that's not true, but for a while, it made me a bit of a doormat........I still am, in a way.  If you don't have the money or time to eat out every day, then maybe you could bring your iPod or Discman or whatever to work, and when your TMI co-worker starts up, you could always just say you can't hear her over the music......but that this is your favourite song, and you want to hear it.  Then start singing or humming along to it, and drown her out even more.....bonus points if you're tone-deaf, lol.  But seriously, this way, you won't look like you're being rude, you'll just appear to be distracted.

[ganjin]

My Dear Late Southern Mammaw had a sentence for all such occasions:

"You coulda talked all daaaay and not said THA-yet."

I don't have quite the inflection, but have used it to good effect on occasion.

[LadyDyani]

I have a coworker at work and while she is really nice she has this bad habit of sharing very personal info. Personal info that makes me feel akward. She will see I am reading at lunch sit down and start talking about all her personal problems. ( these include illnesses I would not tell a coworker I had) How do I tell her that makes me feel akward.

Grawr.  I get irritated when people interrupt my book time to talk about something mundane, much less TMI.  The only time I have to read is at lunch time.  Again, grawr.

Maybe a confused look to go with "Um.  Why are you telling me this?"

Or just start describing the stages of gonorrhea.  If she asks you if you have it, just say "No.  I thought we were just talking about gross things."

Sometimes I'm immersed in my book and don't hear them.  Honestly.

[snowball's chance]

I have a coworker at work and while she is really nice she has this bad habit of sharing very personal info. Personal info that makes me feel akward. She will see I am reading at lunch sit down and start talking about all her personal problems. ( these include illnesses I would not tell a coworker I had) How do I tell her that makes me feel akward.

You can use the book as an excuse  . . . "Sorry, Jane, I'm really into the book I'm reading, I'd rather not talk right now."

[LadyJaneinMD]

Get a set of ear buds and put them into your ears.  You don't even have to have the mp3 player attached, just have the wires going into a pocket or something.  Then, if she starts talking to you, look up blankly at her, then go back to your book as if you hadn't hear a thing.
Maybe she'll get the idea.

There have been times when I've wanted to put an 'Out To Lunch' sign on my office.  I like to eat in my office, but people seem to think that I'm here to work all the time. Nope, I just don't like going out for lunch and I hate the cafeteria.

[kathrynne]

Get a set of ear buds and put them into your ears.  You don't even have to have the mp3 player attached, just have the wires going into a pocket or something.  Then, if she starts talking to you, look up blankly at her, then go back to your book as if you hadn't hear a thing.
Maybe she'll get the idea.

There have been times when I've wanted to put an 'Out To Lunch' sign on my office.  I like to eat in my office, but people seem to think that I'm here to work all the time. Nope, I just don't like going out for lunch and I hate the cafeteria.

When I was putting in 100+-hour weeks at the ad agency I'd try to "power nap" at my desk occasionally during lunch, because there just wasn't anywhere else to do it, but people kept tapping me on the shoulder and asking if I was okay. I finally resorted to typesetting a fancy sign to hang on my back that said, "I'm fine. Trying to relax. Please don't disturb me unless it's after 12:45, in which case I'm really asleep!"

Sometimes an "open office" setup can be a pain.