Domestic Problems Number Six : A smelly work colleague

[sifi]

Inspired by the Smelly Scottish person thread, and kinda fits in with my continuing effort to have efestivals answer the more mundane questions of the day.

I've had to deal with this kind of thing in the past in HR, writing letters to individuals askinig them to buck their ideas up, and that has tended to work. But it's the sort of thing that people really should sort out themselves. A friend of mine used to leave a can of Sure on his smelly colleague's desk, but the smelly colleague simply asked my buddy if the can was his, and gave it back to him.

Presumambly if you live and work in Glasgow or Liverpool, you get told not to be so clean as to make everyone else look bad?

[jump]

In a old job we had temp that f**king reeked and he was just odd too Mr Bean was his hero, couldn't add basic numbers and processed an order of 1,000 as 1,000,000 which ultimately got rid of him and one of the people in the office kept putting bars of soap in draw every day but it never worked and he kept on reeking.

Edited October 19, 2010 by jump

[Steve P]

I'd try going into work having smeared yourself in dog poo. This will cause said smelly person to approach you to tell you that you smell. You can then accept this and head off and get clean. This will then open up a new bond between you that should allow you to point out that they smell the following day.

[benc]

Many years ago, a fellow shelf stacker stunk. My course of action was to ask my other collegue very loundly 'can you smell that? it stinks' hoping the smelly bugger would take the hint, but he never did.

I realise now this was not the best way to go about it. I should have approach my line manager at the time.

[Rachie]

Hmm tough one.

Someone sitting near me in college had a BO problem, but i couldnt ever bring myself to say anything (plus i think its more difficult if your the opposite of sex lol). My friends made a promise to eachother tho that if any of us ever smelled we'd let eachother know. We agreed we'd definitely would want to know!

[rachbon]

i've worked with a few smelly people and haven't said anything about it. it's always been people i've hated anyway so i'd rather just let them smell than do them a favour and tell them.

[MrZigster]

Had this with a fellow (and admittedly, well liked) student years ago. It was so bad something had to be said.

Turns out they knew but didn't know what to do about it.

They went to see their GP and got it sorted. Medical thing it would seem.

Their room still bloody stunk though.

[philipsteak]

We had this problem with a guest in a hostel I used to work in. dorms can be pretty rank places, but this girl was so bad that a dorm mate came to complain. I took the executive and cowardly decision that as it was a girl it would be easier coming from another girl so i sent my colleague. fair play to her she did it but said it was the most awkward thing she'd ever done.

[dakyras]

The subtle methods I'd actually consider the most offensive. Get someone else with more responsibility for that kind of thing to deal with it. HR/Line manager.

[rexclark]

Just walk around waving your hands in a fanning motion and hold your nose and point at the person. That should do the trick.