Stinky Problem

ravenhead

Ok guys,

I have a bit of a problem ... I work in an airconditioned office - which is great most of the time. But there is a guy that started working here & his desk is right next to mine... & well .... he stinks .... I mean really really bad!! It's like he changes his clothes everything 2 or 3 days but forgets to wash while he's doing it.
All the office has notices this. We've tried dropping little hints ... but he seems to be clueless!!!

Any idea's on how to handle to situation cause besides that he's an ok guy & no one wants to say something that will hurt him.......

Need advise here ........

SheroN

I don't think there's a way to break it to him without hurting his feelings at least some little bit.

Dr. Loon

Get a can of air freshener and blatantly sray it around every now and then. We had to do this in our office before. It didn't work, but it's worth a try!

ravenhead

Originally posted by SheroN
I don't think there's a way to break it to him without hurting his feelings at least some little bit.

But would you tell him or just try to learn to live with it???

ravenhead

Originally posted by Dr. Loon
Get a can of air freshener and blatantly sray it around every now and then. We had to do this in our office before. It didn't work, but it's worth a try!

We've tried this - we even have an airfreshner stuck underneath his desk - & I have airfreshners all along the side of mine - he just thinks I'm girlie & like smelly things!!!!

[CrimsonGhost]

People aren't generally aware of their own BO. Tell him, or draw straws and get someone else to tell him. You'll be doing him a favour and yourselves. Failing that have someone drop him a pointer to this thread saying its about him.

ferdi

i think you should just leave a note on his desk saying that he stinks. say that nobody else has noticed but they will.



if you leave it go on for too long he will be ostracised.

SheroN

If it's that bad, take him aside and tell him.

Wolff

Why dont you set up a hotmail account and email him and tell him the message is from his underpants and that we need changing

woolymammoth

get some of those air freshners that stick to the wall, then walk up to him, say 'Hi john',
or whatever his name is, stick the air freshner to his desk, and walk off. if everybody
does it on the same day he'll soon get the picture. unless he's really thick. and lets
be honest, there's no shortage of thick people in this country!

ravenhead

I really don't think that it will work - he is kind of a bit of a messer & we are always slagging each other - He mnight just think I'm kidding again!

ravenhead

Originally posted by Wolff
Why dont you set up a hotmail account and email him and tell him the message is from his underpants and that we need changing

Excellant Idea!!!!!!!!

Sleipnir

pin some air fresheners to the armpits of his coat when he's not around.
he'll soon get the message.

Sleepy

Originally posted by Wolff
Why dont you set up a hotmail account and email him and tell him the message is from his underpants and that we need changing

My office now think I'm a weirdo.

Seriously though, the only way of doing this reasonably is to draw straws for who gets to tell him.

Red Alert

Why don't u just ask him if he smells anything?

topdeco

Can you tell someone in your personnel department? Otherwise, perhaps who ever is the most senior person in your department could be asked to send an office-wide e-mail about personal hygiene/professional appearance standards. In one of my previous jobs, the company's standards about things like breaks/keeping desks tidy/signing in and out/personal appearance were all in the contract. Imagine how bad things must have been for them to put that in the contract in the first place!


I don't envy you, good god, nothing is as bad as BO. And you said he only changes his clothes every 2 or 3 days? That's rotten.

mad m

if its that bad,im sure someone has told him before now...maybe he is one of those people who has an over active gland or something....some people ive seen have got Botox injections into there armpits, cause this one bloke on Tv one night who had a problem with just sweating too much so he had to get these injections to atleast stop him sweating for awhile.but only in the USA hey!!!

its a very tricky situation,id dread having to tell someone what ur enduring.maybe ask the boss to have a word with him,and seeing as its coming from the boss you are all off the hook.

Is he young? like early 20's or before or older if he is older just tell him....but thread carefully,were i work in Dublin City Council u cant as much as sneeze at someone these days and u might be a bully etc......goodluck either way

P.s...used to give a young fella a lift to work one time and he stank!!! so after awhile i put it down to his shoes and i said it too him too,said that if he didnt change his runners in time he will have to get them removed by a doctor.so next day he got in car with new shoes but still same smell,it was from his clothes,so in long run it was his parents washing machine,there was something wrong with the thing or it was so old it was smelling up clothes but they didnt notice it in house because they used to smell by now.....YUK i feel sick now after going back to that hehe......

DrummerBoy

I've had this happen in two places I've worked in. What we did was get the boss, manager etc to have a word.
In the other place one of the staff took it upon herself to say something to the guy when no one else was around and in both cases it worked.

minority

We had this in a place i worked in too. We were all great mates but you just couldnt stay near the guy. it was worse in the sumer when he got a fan and pointed it at himself to cool down.
He was a really nice guy so We decided it was the managers responsibilty, so a few of us went to his office and told him to move the guy or tell him to wash,
They guy was moved to the far corner of the office. We could still smell him though not as bad.
He couldnt understand why he was bieng moved.
Do these peoples Girlfriends no notice the smell or something? Could they not have a word with them.

Dr. Loon

Originally posted by minority

Do these peoples Girlfriends no notice the smell or something? Could they not have a word with them.

Probably don't have girlfriends/boyfriends.

I reckon manager/HR is the best way to go about it.

ravenhead

Originally posted by Dr. Loon
Probably don't have girlfriends/boyfriends.

I reckon manager/HR is the best way to go about it.

This guy does & she's quite goodlooking!!!! I can't understand it!!

Nala

I know a girl who has SERIOUS hygiene issues. She worked in a bar as a waitress and customers used to complain to the manager about how bad she smelled. Even the amount of smoke in the bar didn't hide it. She'd come round to your house for a few minutes and leave a smell. It was horrible.

MisterAnarchy

Had a chap like this in my office too.
He was a senior manager.
The smell in the summer months was completely unbearable .
This guy must have fallen into the bog of eternal stench as he was rancid even in the morning just after a shower !
I tried to stay away from my desk as much as was possible.
One of the staff put air fresheners all over his desk and kept spraying deodorant whenever he could.
He wrote a poem about the guy called 'Youve got your Daddys feet' and sometimes would sing it in the office.
The stinky guy didnt take any notice and helped to eventually sack the funny guy.

Nala

Sometimes I nearly considered telling my friend that she'd look way cool with an air freshener hung around her neck. The epitome of bling! :P

soma

ok aside from the fairly useless suggestions so far...

.. We had this problem in a company of about 40 people. The solution was simple enough and worked.

HR simply sent a company-wide email saying something along the lines of...

"We have had complaints about certain members of staff as regards body/odour hygiene. We would prefer not to make this an issue for the people involved,so would all employees please examine their current hygiene habits & ensure that blah blah.."

You get the idea.

][cEMAN**

Best thing to do is go to your manager and tell them. It's not a bad thing, but they're trained to deal with tactful situations like this (if they're not then they're not much good at being a manager).

They can take him to one side and mention his "problem". If there's nothing he can do about it then your manager would have to relocate him to an area where he wouldn't be noticed so much, or if it's due to his own lack of hygiene, he can be told to get it sorted or it could end up in a verbal warning, or some other disciplinary matter.

Sleepy

Originally posted by soma
ok aside from the fairly useless suggestions so far...

.. We had this problem in a company of about 40 people. The solution was simple enough and worked.

HR simply sent a company-wide email saying something along the lines of...

"We have had complaints about certain members of staff as regards body/odour hygiene. We would prefer not to make this an issue for the people involved,so would all employees please examine their current hygiene habits & ensure that blah blah.."

You get the idea.

Now there's a good suggestion.

][cEMAN**

Yeah that could work. Or they could say that if it's aimed towards them, the mail sent around was done so in a manner which informed the rest of the work place of their problem, hence causing them to be the brunt of ridicule/embarrassment.

If they could prove it was sent about them they could take them up.....probably

tk123

I work in a call centre with 100's of people and was only talking to a team leader the other day who had this prob with one of the guys on her team...anyhoo she brought it up in a meeting and her manager said he would say something to the guy because people were complaining....Personally I would prefer one of my friends to tell me if I was a bit stinky - I have a dodgy thyroid and i'm v paranoid and have deo spray AND wipes in work - just in case..I would be mortified if I was humming and nobody told me!!! Would you not send him an email saying that some of the people in the office had noticed a smell and that you thought you'd mention it to him instead of a manager - that way you look like the good guy!!!;)

Flashling

Never works. there is no way to be tactful about this. Although, in an sphe class, our teacher recommeded telling our form teacher and matron that a person in question smelled so we could all sit down and talk about their noticible hygiene problem.
A more useful answer is to go running with the guy, and after you can tell them they smell, and they wont get offended, cos they've just been running, or you could say how bad you smell, and how you just have to have a shower every day, and get him paranoid about his hygiene. The possibiltitys are endless!

MoosemaN

We had the same problem in the office.

Went to HR and they sorted it out.

LoneGunM@n

I remember one guy I used to work with in Maccers .... The guy used to smell unbelievably bad! The managers had a chat with him & he swore blind that he showered twice a day [before & after work] & always wore a fresh clean uniform to work everyday, so they put it down to a glandular thingy?

In the office I work in now, there's 2 guys who seem to have a constant war of the BO going on!! .... I swear they don't change their clothes from 1 end of the week to the other .... In the warm weather of the summer [which I'm dreading @ the mo], it becomes sickeningly bad at times!

I don't have a personal hygiene problem [or at least I've never been told that I have one], but I'm so paranoid about my hygiene, that even if I imagine that I smell, I'm straight into the shower [if at home] or down to the toilet for a good wash [in work]!! .... I'd rather be obsessive compulsive about my personal hygiene than smell!!

ravenhead

Originally posted by LoneGunM@n
I remember one guy I used to work with in Maccers .... The guy used to smell unbelievably bad! The managers had a chat with him & he swore blind that he showered twice a day [before & after work] & always wore a fresh clean uniform to work everyday, so they put it down to a glandular thingy?

In the office I work in now, there's 2 guys who seem to have a constant war of the BO going on!! .... I swear they don't change their clothes from 1 end of the week to the other .... In the warm weather of the summer [which I'm dreading @ the mo], it becomes sickeningly bad at times!

I don't have a personal hygiene problem [or at least I've never been told that I have one], but I'm so paranoid about my hygiene, that even if I imagine that I smell, I'm straight into the shower [if at home] or down to the toilet for a good wash [in work]!! .... I'd rather be obsessive compulsive about my personal hygiene than smell!!

tell me about it - I shower twice a day to make sure people don't think it's me cause I sit next to him, -- he came into work today & looked really clean for a change - that was of course until he sat down - & PPPPHHHEEWWW - he had just washed his hair during the weekend!!!!! I'm going MAD i tell you MAD!!!!

LoneGunM@n

ravenhead -> I definately [sp?] think you should have a word with your superiors!! For me, there's little worse than trying to work whilst my stomach is heaving from the pungent aromas coming from the other side of the room :mad: :eek: