Hi all,

I have a coworker who is really awfully stinky. He is so smelly that I could smell him 3 meters away. (I could see him wearing the same pants/shirts for the whole month, and even wearing his long john on the hot summer days) And now it's winter and we keep the windows closed most of the time and the smell in the office is really unbearable.

Does anyone here have the similar situation? How do you guys think I should send a signals to him? My colleague told him before nicely to wash himself, but after a month, the smell returned. It's really awful and disgusting!

James

Take him some soap and shampoo on monday morning and maybe some deodorant as well. Don't say anything. Just stare.

An Anonymous note maybe ? Or a batch file (i.e. runs when he first boots up) in his computer with a reminder?

While standing near him say out loud what is that smell? Then start with smelling yourself before following the smell with your sniffing nose, leading up to him naturally...

Direct approach possibly and lastly speaking with the Personel dept. collectively.

IMHO

hi JamesWtc, my sympathies on the olfactory challenge. You must tell him, there is no other way around it. However, I wouldn't do it as Pekka suggests, just because someone who is asked to clean up once but then forgets to keep doing it won't get that kind of hint either. Instead, take him aside and politely explain that the smell is obvious and disturbing to you/others. Ask him to please shower or bath, and change his clothes (hopefully the new ones will be clean). I would stick to the fact that it bothers you, you have trouble concentrating because of the smell or whatever you're feel as your tack, instead of making your disgust of his issue apparent in any way.

The reason is that apparently there are people who just don't care much about personal hygiene and aren't great about laundry either. One of my friends used to work with a person like this, and the rest of the team basically took turns reminding her to please bath or shower again (she kept forgetting, like I suspect your colleague does). Keep us updated on whether it turns out your colleague has to be regularly reminded too.

Take a part time job or a holiday on a farm. You'll be much healthier, and after getting used to the whiffy environment, you'll find it easier to concentrate in the office. Stop whingeing, get natural.

Alternatively, you could outdo the competition. It's easier to concentrate in an atmosphere of your own creation...... http://www.drivl.com/posts/view/763

You've got to build up the courage and just tell him straight off that his smell is offending your olfactory senses and making it difficult to work. The direct approach usually wakes people up.

If all else fails, you could invite the person to one of the wonderful thermal baths in Baden!

Get someone to throw shower gel at him. Then run up with a fire extinguisher and shout 'I'll clean it off!' while giving the soapdodger a good hosing. Either that or invite him to the next Anarchist demo - the police will give him a good fire-hosing or at least he'll come back smelling of tear gas. A change is as good as a rest, eh?

We had the same case in the office and one of my colleagues talked to HR, who took actions discussing the situation with our smelly friend. It worked... for about 8 months. After that, he went back to the old habit and few weeks later the guy was let go, because performance and professional presence reasons.

If you have a HR department, I'd suggest you consider to escalate to them, so they deal with a problem affecting the area.

Hope this help

Hi all...

Haha... that was funny! I was just complaining here, and now I can laugh about it. I always deliberately cover my nose and breath through my shirts when he walks pass me, but he seems still don't get the message!

The thing is, he is much older, in his 40s, close to 50 I guess (unmarried). In my culture, it is not appropriate to talk about that to older men. It is rude. And it is difficult to to tell some one about these matters too . We still have to see each other everyday. We don't have HR department. There are only 5 of us working in local office.

In my opinion, he is old enough to take care of himself. We noticed that the only time we can smell the shampoo scent out of him was the time he visited his mother in Finland! I can see him wearing the same pants for months (I remember it is the same pair he was wearing when I first got here 10 months ago!!). I can tell that from the stains on his pants.



James

p/s: I really hope he is reading this thread!!!

Some people are oblivious to higyene, but not only that. The problem is they don't perceive the stink. As they carry it on all day long, this becomes the normal smell to them and doesn't bother them.

I am maybe excesive with my hygiene, I am a bit of a germophobe so I allways keep my hands clean and If I don't take a shower in the morning I feel dirty and stinky all day long and I can't stand it, nor even wear the same shirt twice.

On warmer days I even take 2 showers per day because at 7pm when I arrive home I feel sweaty and dirty and take a second shower before going out, even If I know for sure that I'll go dancing on an smoky and sweaty place where maybe no one would notice that I didn't. But I do it for myself first and as a way to show respect for the ladies second.

But some guys in the office you see them wearing the same pair of trousers and shirt all week long, even some guys and girls I see on the partys, come with the same clothes on the same week.

Same thing could be told about smokers. Sorry to them, but they stink. I can smell their tobaco stink from a distance, but they simply don't notice the stink as they live their lives inside a cloud of smoke.

That will pollute the whole pool!

That should be the least of your worries, at least for the next four weeks or so.

Aaa! He's Finnish! He probably speaks the language as well?

Let me think about this. I'll try to figure out a way to express this matter in a Finnish way.

Cheers,
Pekka

LOL, I once had a friend that had the same problem( we were teenagers at the time).

I Said: Dude, you stink.
He replied: I don't stink, I smell like a man.

I agree... smokers stink -ten times worse in winter!! The worst thing is sitting in a tram stuck with puffers ... its SO hard to breathe!!

James, my sympathies... please do NOT take him to the thermal baths. In stead invite him to the gym...sweat will make him smell more, and it won't be long before some Swiss chap tells him off...

Please, please tell me that by pants you are referring to the American word for trousers and not the English word for undergarments?

oh yeah... He speaks the language too. It was difficult for me to grasp what he was saying in the beginning.

What is it with the Finnish, btw?

ha ha ha ha ha .........

try depositing samplers from shower gel, shampoo etc on his desk when he is not there ... could do the trick . Has nobody else in the office complained ?

A quick guide to Finnish: think of the word you want, then find a word that is nothing to do with that word in any other European language. Then spell it by doubling every letter in the word with the exception of the first. Then add umlauts to every vowel.