To tell or not to tell?

When I first started this job, I was filled with passion but now my passion is half-drained. Not only does the work sucks, the management sucks, even your partner plays a very important role.

There was a time, when I kept partnering this guy. He was short but had a firm handshake and gave off a good first impression. But as he settles down, I caught sight of an object which sent shivers down my spine, even till this very day.

It was brown and swayed with every breath he took.

It was a flap of wafer-thin booger stuck to a clump of nose hair. And it was hanging onto the hair in a rather precarious manner. By a hair, so to speak.

It turned out to be one of the worst partners I have ever had. I could not concentrate on the job, I was totally distraught.

The whole time I was willing the booger to hang on.

I can never understand why men don't trim their nose hair. Having it stick out is an unforgivable sin.

What's the point of turning up in an expensive suit and nice shoes, when you're going to turn up looking like you have a spider crawling up your nose?

Do men realise that the hair in their noses grows? And that it requires religious trimming?

Do they think it completes their look? Or are they trying for a moustache?

Do they even look at themselves in the mirror before they leave their homes?

I can't understand how the wife could bother so much about her cuticles and not about his overactive nose follicles, especially when they're waving their own little flag.

As for Mr Nose Hair, I had to partner him recetly - a few days later after I had recovered from my trauma - to re-partner him. IT'S not just nose hair.

There's also body odour and bad breath.

Once had a friend with lethally foul breath.

She seemed oblivious to it until one day, when a group of us were in the canteen having a meal and another friend told her point-blank that her breath stank.

The group of us were shocked. You could have heard a fishball drop.

The funny thing was we couldn't tell which was the greater sin. The friend for having deadly breath or the other friend for telling her.

The point is since we were young, we've been conditioned to be tolerant and to never confront somebody about his flaws.

If you have to, you drop subtle hints.

Someone has bad breath? You dispense mints. To the whole group, of course.

Body odour? A Body Shop hamper for Christmas should do the trick. Christmas after Christmas until the problem goes away.

Friends have told me that they would rather suffer in silence than risk offending the person.

You don't expect mere colleagues to put their working relationship in jeopardy by telling each other they stink.

That's fair enough. It is a delicate situation. If someone says that you stink, it's easy to misconstrue it as a personal insult.

That's why it should be the job of the person dearest to you. Your spouse, Significant Other, Mum, Dad, and so on.

Of course if this argument holds true, then you would expect the only sufferers of these social ailments to be the destitute.

Unfortunately, it's a lot more widespread than that.

A happily married colleague had bad breath, but no one dared to tell her. We could only hold our breath each time she talked to us.

In our opinion, her husband, while admirably tolerant, had failed in his duty by not buying her Listerine.

I also know of a girl who married her boyfriend even though he had terrible body odour.

Maybe love is blind. Maybe love is olfactorily challenged.

Or do couples grow so used to each other that they don't notice each other's flaws any more?

Don't they care about what others think of their loved ones?

What about the rest of us - co-workers, friends, fellow commuters - who do not love them as much? Why should we be made to suffer as well?

As we all know, love comes with responsibilities.

So please, if you don't want your husband or boyfriend to be known as Mr BO or Mr Nose Hair, you should bite the bullet and tell him the truth.

May the world be at peace, one day...