My coworker has an annoying cough. She coughs every 2 minutes and she's not sick. How can I make her stop?

Question

It's been going on for about 2 years and she's not even physically sick. I think it's a nervous tic.

Answer 1

jus ask, "do you need a halls?

Answer 2

How do you know she's not sick? Asthma can make one cough. My Mum is on some sort of medication with a side effect of making her cough. Gastric reflux can make someone cough. I've had several lung surgeries and cough as a result.

I know coughing can be irritating, sometimes, but it's probably not her fault. Offer some hard candies to suck on. It helps me, somtimes. That aside, after two years, you'd think it would just blend into the background noise of the office.

Answer 3

I realize this must be distracting at the least and I'm sure it can really get on your nerves. However, she may not be physically sick warranting a cough, but it could be something that she just can't control. An involuntary action, so to speak.

We all have our little quirks about us. Some more bothersome to others. So I think you should find someway to accept this as part of her. Can you play music? or use a headset? This might help to muffle her cough so its not so noticeable.

Good luck :)

Answer 4

She may have Tourettes Syndrome. Some people manifest symptoms later in life. Contrary to popular belief, Tourettes isn't always extreme in regard to vocal outbursts of swearing, etc.; it is sometimes very mild and often goes undiagnosed in these instances. I started working for the company I'm currently at over a year ago and one of the employees I noticed had Tourettes. I recognized it because I had worked previously with someone who had mild Tourettes. I found out shortly after I started working there that he didn't know he had it and was just diagnosed at age 55 and he was surprised to find out that I had already recognized he had that. While it is probably irritating try to understand that it's probably something that is out of her control, and you probably have some irritating habits that you're not aware of too. We all do! Good Luck!

Answer 5

Maybe she has smoker's cough? Does she smoke cigarettes? I can see how that would be annoying. I would hate to be you and have to hear that all day every 2 minutes.

Answer 6

Buy her a gift to help her relax. She may just be stressed. If not, ask her why she's coughing, and if she is sick just offer some lozenges.

Answer 7

Offer her coughdrops. If she turns them down, then tell her if there's anything you can do to help, to just let you know. This way she knows that it's distracting without having to get on her bad side.

Answer 8

2 years? OMG

Get her a nice big bag of cough drops.

Answer 9

You can't make her stop. All you can do is talk to your boss and ask to be moved to a different office/cube further away from her.

Answer 10

She may have a gastric reflux problem and not know it. Coughing is one of the symptoms of reflux.

She needs to see a doctor about this, because untreated reflux can lead to cancer of the esophagus.

Show her this:

http://www.ecureme.com/emyhealth/data/Acid_Reflux_Cough.asp

And urge her to see a doctor ASAP, because if left untreated, gastric reflux puts her at serious risk of some very unpleasant complications-- including cancer.

Answer 11

I will never forget how a co-worker got me to stop biting my nails- I had this habit for YEARS and she would catch me doing it, come up to me, get in my face with her fist in her mouth acting like she was biting her nails! It got so annoying after awhile I would consciously make sure I didn't bite my nails around her and finally it made me STOP doing it!
Make her aware of her coughing each time she does it get next to her and do it yourself, bet ya she will stop doing it!