YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
Dear Mary. . .
Q. I spend much of my business week in a crowded office in the Midlands. The office is 'open plan' with adjoining double desks crammed together. A lovely young lady, who is new to the office and unknown to me, sits opposite. Regrettably, due to the hot weather, she has developed the habit of removing her shoes whilst working. There is no air-conditioning, so whenever the wind changes a rather pungent odour wafts under my side of the desk. Needless to say, I have no wish to embarrass the poor girl but I am at a loss for deft means of dissua- sion. Mary, can you help?
C.P., London SE1 A. Arrive at the office before your workmate and drench the carpet around the area of her feet with Odour Eater spray. You may even get an opportunity, if you are vigilant enough, to spray the shoes themselves at a moment when she has moved away from her desk or is otherwise distracted.
Q. During a weekend visit by old friends, the husband broke a wineglass. I accepted his apology and regarded the incident as one of life's small accidents, although I was sorry as the glass was one that had given me pleasure over many years, being one of a set of handmade lead crystal given by my parents. Naturally I said nothing of this to our guests, and so far as I was concerned the matter was over and done with. A few days later my husband stayed the night with these friends and was given by the wife a glass to give me as a replacement for the one broken by her husband. Its shape is vaguely like the broken one, but that is the limit of any similarity: the new glass looks and feels `cheap and nasty' and still has the label of an off-licence chain shop stuck to it. I have subsequently found at our local branch that it probably cost £1.99. To me her action seems at best tactless, at worst insulting, or am I being over-sensitive?
T.M.S., Malvern, Worcs A. Perhaps drunkenness distorted your friend's vision of the quality of the glass during the breaking incident. Next time she comes to your house hand her back the £1.99 glass, saying sweetly, `It's awfully kind of you but I have already ordered a replace- ment. Yes, I've actually been in touch with the Waterford lead-crystal glass people and they say they will be doing a small repro- duction run of that particular model later in the year, so that was good news, wasn't it!' Perhaps she will offer to pay for the replacement model.
Q. I recently bumped into an old friend who has been forced to `downshife from top management consultant to labourer, while he was working on a building site. What is the proper etiquette for avoiding any possible embarrassment on such an occasion?
Name withheld, London SW3 A. You should say, 'Oh good, I'm glad to see this is happening in England now. Of course on the Continent they've had work- ers in the boardroom and managers on the shop floor for years now.'
Previous page
