Body Odor Problem
Our offices are being re-done and seating assignments have changed. Our assistant (nice girl) now sits in the adjacent cubicle. The problem is she smells like fish (not kidding). Advice or thoughts on how to handle this diplomatically.
Thanks.
Put an air freshener in your own cubicle. That should solve the problem, no?
Start leaving dead fish in her desk drawers. She'll get the picture.
I thought about putting a fabreeze airfreshner under her desk but think it might send to strong a signal. Also, she might perceive it as offensive. What do you guys/gals think about sending her an anonymous e-mail? Do you think I'd be suspect given that she moved her seat next to mine? Am I being too big a pussy here? should I just tell her.
Don't do the anonymous email. It will be obvious it's you.
Also, you can't really just tell her, as it's quite an awkward topic and she likely can't do anything about it. Your best bet is an air freshener in your cube (maybe on top of the border between your cubes?)
Invite her to grab a drink or two after work and tell her then in a half-serious but joking way
aren't female sweat glands (or pituitary?) glands half the size of men. If she's a female stinking she must REALLY have bad hygiene.
All good suggestions. I think I'm going to try placing an airfreshner at the corner of my desk and tell her that the carpet is producing a musty smell (no pun intended)
That is really hilarious. Your intended course of action seems best.
You're obviously whiter than rice.
Are you from Wisconsin or something?
Suck it up buttercup. Not everyone can smell like an arrogant arse.
She probably has Trimethylaminuria (TMAU), or fish malodor syndrome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimethylaminuria
If that's the case, I pity the poor girl. Her life is going to be shitty because of something she's born with.
But I think normally the odor from TMAU is really strong, spreading over an entire room. May be she has it under control already, or her case is mild.
good idea, put an air freshener and pretend that the fish smell is coming from the carpet, this way she won't be offended but will get the message.
my thoughts exactly...LucasKhan
Be nice and direct about it. DO NOT BE PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE! She will figure out what you mean if you start doing the air freshener thing and will hate you.
Tell her to use a douche. Seriously, it isn't that hard.
Are you SURE it's her? You do know that carpets themselves smell and hey, it could even be YOU. Let me tell you something, you do something passive aggressive and she's going to kill you. Just get one of those febreeze scented glass things and put it on your desk. No one notices them. DON'T put anything UNDER her desk (??), because obv she doesn't know and she's going to know that something is going on and could complain about you, but put something on YOUR desk. BE cool, BE diplomatic.
********"Babies don't cost money, they MAKE money." - Jerri Blank********
if she is hot pretend to hit on her and buy her some perfume. She will have to wear it then.
I once knew a girl who smelled like fish, so as I began sniffing around, I realized it was her leather bag that had the fish odor. Does she have a leather bag?
I know I will need sensitivity training after this comment but here goes: In school, during informational rounds of interviews, and even at previous jobs I have noticed that the Indian kids seem to really smell bad. Is this girl Indian?
Anyone have any advice on how to tell the Indian kids that it is unacceptable to not shower?
It's not because they don't shower. I know an indian kid who told me they shower with curry powder and other special indian spices and that's why they smell a little different.
tell her to wash out her snatch
------
"its the running joke now, we now have fair trade with china so they send us poisoned sea food and we send them fraudulent securities."
McMo, how would she figure it out? That makes no sense.
Question for the OP: Is she Czech?
ask your co-workers if they smell it too, and if they do, join together to buy her an appreciation gift (perfume) for secretary's day or some shit
Funny :-)
I remember one time the admins ganged up on a temp because the temp wore this obnoxious perfume. Someone complained to HR that the overdose of perfume was distracting and giving people headaches. HR took the temp aside and spoke to her. So maybe you should do the same. This is critical stuff. Drop a note to HR and suggest that there's a body odor issue :-)
Bear in mind... perhaps it's a seasonal thing. Some women wear heavy boots to work in the winter with/without socks and then change into office shoes. Your feet sweating inside heavy fur boots causes foot odor. Even I probably have smelly feet right now. Thank god no one's complained yet! LOL
haha. not all indian kids smell bad. some care a lot and use classy perfumes and all but some just don't.
Shower with curry powder and spices? Odd. This can't be true. What's wrong with a bar of soap?
Someone somewhere one time, can't remember who, said the reason Indians or pakistani folks have such strong BO is because they eat a lot of lamb and garlic?!? Whatever.
Just bathe people!
"they shower with curry powder and other special indian spices"
HAHAHAHA
Verno, the fact that you think hygiene is a white thing cracks me up. And above that that everyone from Wisconsin smells good. If you ever do make it over to the states, please wear some deodorant. Cheers stinky!
Talk to HR. I've seen it happen before and then HR will handle it diplomatically.
Also, everyone: I'm pretty certain the person saying that indian people shower with curry powder, was joking. Use a little common sense.
BSD mocks me for pointing out the ignorance of this group, then he goes out of his way to confirm that Indian people don't shower with curry. I ain't Indian and I'm still offended by the stupidity of the people on here sometimes.
I don't think hygience is a white thing. I think ignorance is. Breathe deep, it's free, baby.
White people smell like wet dog I'm told.
I noticed dark Indians smell bad. The fair-skinned ones smell nice since they actually use cologne/perfume/are more affluent
Indians smell like fucking shit. End of story.
ThreadClosed
Smelly Guy at Work (Originally Posted: 06/14/2012)
So lately, a couple people around me have started to stop using deodorant. I dont know if they forget, or if they just dont care. Do people not know how bad they smell? It's almost like you gotta shove tampons up your nose when you go to talk to them so you don't gag.
Question is: is there a polite way to tell someone they smell like New Delhi during rush hour in the heat of the summer without being a total prick?
Dean think of it like the locker room, man up!
Place a cologne at their desk with a post-it attached saying "anonymous". that should be do!
Back in high school we gave this kid a "gift basket" full of soap, deoderant, shampoo and cologne. Probably hurt the kids feelings but it got the point across.
Dude, just tell Coach Bombay to stop hitting the Jack Daniels and put some Old Spice on.
If he didnt hit the Jack Daniels, he never would've been my coach...Catch 22 there brah
But if you take them aside and you're nice about it they'll probably appreciate it. I would want to know if I smelled like shit so I could fix it. You can't fix a problem you don't know about.
but thats the point...do people not realize they smell like shit?
Whenever you're near them just say "Ugh what's that smell!?" over and over without telling them directly that they smell...they'll get the message!
Make like the situation in which someone's breath smells--take a piece of mint/gum and offer it to them, as well.
That is, spritz some cologne/apply some deodorant, and then offer it to your colleague.
Just dangle some cologne in front of that bender.
Do you work in Dubai? If so you're going to have to accept it as a fact of life and move on......
No Goulet..I dont live in Dubai
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