A woman claimed her chewing sounds drove a co-worker to leave the office in a viral TikTok video, and viewers are divided on whether to side with her or her co-worker.
The video shows @shandizzy13 at her desk drinking a beverage. Her co-worker who is seated behind her gets up and starts to walk away.
“My coworker said she’s leaving the office because I keep smacking during lunch,” text overlay on the video reads.
@shandizzy13 Baby im eating oxtails i gotta 😛 the bones lol ! #jamaicantiktok🇯🇲viral #thankgod #fyp #annoyingcoworkers #oxtails #lunchbreakatwork #jokes #jamaicanfood #4thofjuly ♬ original sound – Jamdung876
It’s unclear if the video is staged as the TikToker captioned it with “#jokes” and indicated the two are friends in a comment. Most viewers took the clip, which has been viewed over 700,000 times, at face value.
Some who commented on the video said they, too, would leave if they heard someone smacking while eating.
“The moment you burped I would’ve already been out,” one commenter wrote. “The sound of burping just bothers me.”
“I literally can’t listen to people eat lol,” another commenter wrote.
“Smacking causes anger for me on another level I wouldn’t be able to either,” a third said.
Others joked that they “would have walked straight to HR” to complain about the worker. The TikToker seemingly joked in a follow-up that her co-worker did just that.
While some may simply be bothered by the sound, a small portion of the population may have misophonia, a strong dislike for some sounds made by others, such as chewing, smacking, sniffing, or even keyboard typing. Those with misophonia may react very strongly and negatively to sounds they do not like, beyond the usual reactions of a typical person, according to Slate.
However, one commenter wrote that hearing people eat simply makes them more interested in the meal.
“I’m the complete opposite I hear people smacking I automatically get hungry… ‘whatchu eating?'” one commenter questioned.
In this case, the TikToker revealed she was eating oxtails in the video’s caption.
Others shared that they felt some people go too far with what qualifies as a sound that would bother others, as everyone makes some sort of eating sounds.
“No but they go too far with it,” one commenter wrote. “Sometimes they accuse you of it even if you’re not smacking. That’s when I get annoyed.”
“I feel like everyone either smacks a lil or a lot,” another commenter wrote. “It’s not as much room to throw stones like people think.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to @shandizzy13 via TikTok comment.
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