Social Gaffes...What's OK to Say?

Just curious. Can you tell someone they have spinach in their front tooth? How about a booger in the nose? Zipper down? Pantyhose tucked in the underwear? Bra strap showing? How about if the thong strap is showing? I know you can tell your friends these things. But what about a business colleague? What about a client?

If you get an email with embarassing typos from your boss, and you know he sent it to a client or media person, do you speak up? I guess if you think he's an ass, you let it go...but will he get mad later when he realizes it and knows you didn't tell him?

Then there's the more delicate situations...what if someone who works with you has a horrible squeeky voice? Or an annoying habit of saying "like" every third word? Or has putrefying body odor? Or breath that smells like a newly opened crypt?

These aren't uncommon circumstances; I have encountered each and every one of these scenarios. So, for the record, here's how I handled:

Spinach--yes to friend, no to client

Booger--nope

Zipper-nope

Pantyhose-yes to both friend and client

Bra strap-no

Thong strap-yes, but only to person who reported to me

Email-yes (because I am known as a good proofreader and he'd know I saw it and chose to say nothing)

Squeeky voice-yes, only to the person who worked for me; got them speaker training (it didn't work, BTW)

Like-yes, colleague (again, to no avail...this person is over 40 but speaks like a teenage valley girl)

Body odor-lobbed that one over to HR (hey, that's what they're there for)

Breath-nope

A Silver Lining in this Economic Meltdown

Read in the NY Times that more men are being laid off during these tough times. Not that it translates into any more housework being done by those laid-off slackers, but there might be a silver lining in this jettisoning of the MAWGs (my nickname for middle-aged white guys).

Let's face it...women haven't made the same salaries as men in...let's see...FOREVER. This article from 2007 indicates it will take 47 years to achieve pay parity between men and women...but that was written before the country plummeted into a recession. I'm thinking we can move that 47-year timeline up. You want to get rid of your higher paid workers but leave staff in place who do the same thing? You're going to dump the men.

And in the long run, this might mean that when this economy turns around, companies might fix that anal/cranial inversion and realize that you don't need to pay men more. Don't pay them less--I'm not advocating that--but more pay for the same job just might not fly in the near future.

Jobless rates of 8 plus percent (11 percent in Michigan, where I'm from) are a painful way to get to pay parity.