Dear Bob ...Here's one that may be a bit out of your league, but I thought I'd float it past you nevertheless, since you've been talking about ill- mannered coworkers.I work at a DC-based non-profit organization that has employees (both short and long term) from all over the world. The other day, I was troubleshooting a laptop problem for one of our international employees, a very polite and deferential yo Dear Bob …Here’s one that may be a bit out of your league, but I thought I’d float it past you nevertheless, since you’ve been talking about ill- mannered coworkers.I work at a DC-based non-profit organization that has employees (both short and long term) from all over the world. The other day, I was troubleshooting a laptop problem for one of our international employees, a very polite and deferential young man (the type who still refer to you as “sir”, which no one does anymore, of course). As we were working on the problem together, he blithely said, “Sir, I’ve been wondering. Have you tried any medications or treatments for your hair loss?” Needless to say, I was pretty startled and didn’t know how to respond; coming from an American, this kind of inquiry would be unspeakably rude, of course, but I can only assume (considering how he otherwise behaves) that societal standards for this kind of thing are different in Eastern European/Middle Eastern countries, although I don’t know for sure.My tolerance for cultural differences only extends so far, and questions like that are *way* past my limit. On the other hand, I don’t want to hurt the poor kid’s feelings, either… he’s all of about 20 years old and, likely as not, this is his first experience traveling any significant distance from his homeland (as is usually the case for foreign interns here).– Gleamer Dear Gleamer …I don’t know what you decided to say. I’d have said something like this:“Since my hair loss was caused by my two teen-aged daughters, the only medication that would help would be tranquilizers and I’m not ready for those just yet. By the way, you probably aren’t aware of this, but a lot of American guys who are hair-challenged are sensitive about it. Your question didn’t bother me, but I figured you’d want to know.” – Bob Technology Industry