Working in a cubicle is a daily reality for millions of people across the U.S., and much of the time, the luck of the draw determines which co-worker will sit on the other side of the divider. That person may have distracting idiosyncrasies, but with a little communication, patience and sound-canceling headphones, peaceful coexistence is possible.

As anyone who's worked in an open-plan office can tell you, it doesn't always work out that way. Many such workplaces are plagued by larger-than-life personalities whose quirks and habits are difficult to work around and impossible to ignore.

CNBC.com asked people from all over the professional world if they had ever had cubicle neighbors fitting this description, and they spat back a hornet's nest. It would seem that when it comes to cubicle neighbors with unbearable behavior, the supply far exceeds the demand.

Here are some cubicle dwellers you hope you'll never have to sit next to.

—By CNBC's Daniel Bukszpan
Posted 11 March. 2014

The Profit, a reality series with multimillionaire Marcus Lemonis turning around struggling companies, Tuesdays at 10 p.m ET/PT.

"It's hard to believe some people have managed to work their way up the corporate ladder without a basic knowledge of how to restart a computer or load printer paper," said Mindy Hung, a writer from New York City. She said that once you teach this individual how to right-click, you will suffer eternal damnation as the cubicle neighbor's personal IT department.

"You basically have to help them because they just sort of whine and whine and whine about it until someone helps," she said. "In fact, that's how the epic flailer survives—by mooching skills."

Some people put a lot of thought into what they say, finely crafting their utterances with the care and delicacy of an experienced neurosurgeon. Then, you have people who babble vague, scatterbrained gibberish all day, such as the person who sat in the cubicle next to Eric Bonetti.

"The worst I ever had was a woman who spent the entire day loudly sharing her stream of consciousness with no one in particular," the Virginia real estate agent said. "'It's raining outside. I said ... it's raining outside ... did you know it's raining outside?'"

He tried a white noise machine, noise-canceling headphones and background music, but none of it was enough to drown her out, so finally he spoke up, but to no avail.

"If you said something, she had no idea what you were talking about," he said. "Or so she said."

Do you hear that steady stream of clicking sounds from the other side of your cubicle divider? That's someone who publicly clips his fingernails, and he performs this highly personal task at the desk right next to yours.

"How can you take a client call while fearing that a rogue piece of discarded human nail will fly onto your desk?" asked Jennifer Tully, a freelance account supervisor from New York City. "You deserve to be fired for even thinking this is appropriate."

Open-plan offices don't provide much privacy, and for cubicle neighbors who simply must know all your business, this is a feature, not a flaw. David Bakke, a writer for the financial website Money Crashers, recalled one who made the weekday a more anxiety-provoking scenario than it would otherwise have been.

"The worst type of cubicle neighbor to have is the nosey one who is constantly trying to see what you're working on," he said. "I've dealt with a few of these snoopers over the years. One even went so far as to inform my supervisor that I was surfing the Internet instead of working. Another one I later came to find out was looking over my shoulder to try to steal my work ideas."

"When we get big media interested in what we are pitching, it is really exciting," said Maryam Ghaffari, a media specialist in Columbus, Ohio. However, when her cubicle neighbor gets excited about it, watch out.

"If she gets a radio hit she screams, and it is so loud that it makes me jump about 50 feet out of my chair," she said. "This goes on daily, and my nerves are done. I cannot handle the screaming anymore. We are a successful PR firm, so the screaming never ends."

From the moment you step into the office until the moment you go home, the personally intrusive neighbor is impossible to ignore. Marzenna Tomczak, a licensing administrator from Chicago, has such a cubicle neighbor, making the workplace a 40-hour-a-week purgatory.

"It starts with several bags of potato chips at 8 a.m., usually followed by a lengthy smoke break," she said. "The smoke breaks are often followed by violently loud coughing and gagging fits. This is only broken up by some sobbing phone calls." She also said that the neighbor will not always confine her repertoire to the cubicle.

"Whenever possible, this person will corner you alone to rant and very often sob about all the health issues they're dealing with," she said.

Paul Cram is a full-time actor from Minneapolis. He's had to take day jobs from time to time, such as at a photo supply center where he shared space with a woman who spoke in a high-pitched squeak when she needed help.

"The woman in the cubicle alongside mine would put on a pout face and speak in a little girl voice," he said. "Things like 'I just don't know how to do this, it's so hard, I sure wish someone knew how to do this.'" Though the behavior enraged him, he said that it probably got results.

"I can't help but think there are men in the world that have savior complexes, and that this woman must have been tapping into this," he said.

Tiffani Murray, a human resources technology consultant, has encountered her share of bad cubicle mates over the years, but she spoke at length about those who are constantly on the phone. 

"This is one of the worst cubicle neighbors because it can have an extreme impact on your ability to be productive," she said. "It can also result in the transfer of negative energy from that person to you or make you resent that person for getting away with spending two-thirds of their day on the phone."

During an eight-hour workday, we all need a few minutes to decompress. The easiest way is to engage in some light conversation with a co-worker, but while you and your friend may only want to talk fantasy football, the conversation hijacker lies in wait in the adjacent cubicle, ready to derail you.

"Want to talk about the game last night that went into overtime? Well, the hijacker has decided that is a great opportunity to talk about how Big Oil runs the world," said Jimmy Fax, a product manager in New York City. While he recognizes this individual's constitutional right to free speech, he doesn't necessarily want to put up with it.

"This is America," he said. "But sometimes I just want to talk about Slayer albums or hobo fights or however else I spend my time away from work."

When Marcus Lemonis isn't running his multibillion dollar company, Camping World, he goes on the hunt for struggling businesses that are desperate for cash and ripe for a deal. In the past 10 years, he's successfully turned around over 100 companies. Now he's bringing those skills to CNBC Prime and doing something no one has ever done on TV before … he's putting over $2 million of his own money on the line. In each episode, Lemonis makes an offer that's impossible to refuse; his cash for a piece of the business and a percentage of the profits. And once inside these companies, he'll do almost anything to save the business and make himself a profit; even if it means firing the president, promoting the secretary or doing the work himself.