Issues with smelly colleague

[HealthConcerns24]

We work in a fairly small office, there are between 3 and 5 of us in each day depending on sickness and holiday.

We have one particular colleague who works most days and she smells really bad. I feel terrible saying it but she does.

To me, it smells like a combination of mildewy laundry that’s not dried properly, wet dog and used period pads that have been left in warm weather all mixed up.

You can smell her the other side of the office and if you have to sit next to her it’s eye watering at times. It’s bad now in the winter but 10 times worse in the summer.
The smell just gets into your nostrils and stays there.

If she leaves her things in the staff room the smell lingers there too, even if she is not in the room.

Is there anything I could do, kindly and diplomatically about this? We don’t have a HR team so it would be a case of speaking to our manager but that seems like I’m over stepping the mark a bit.

I keep telling myself maybe shes got a medical condition / can’t afford to wash as much / can’t afford run the washing machine much etc etc but it’s becoming unbearable at work 😔

What would you do in this situation?

I'd speak to my manager. There's nothing else you can do.

You can’t be the only person that has noticed. It sounds like poor hygiene to me. Your manager will have to raise this with her.
One place I worked, a girl had terrible BO, like you could smell it all over the store. Our manager had to take this up with her and actually gave her some personal hygiene products. I would definitely report it though, it sounds horrendous

I don’t know if it has been raised before as it’s not exactly something I can openly ask about incase I’m accused of workplace bullying but I know other colleagues have noticed, they are often opening a window and saying things like “phew, what’s that smell?” or asking if anyone has trod in dog mess etc.

Perhaps you could speak with your manager and say that you and others have noticed a smell in the workplace, without mentioning who you suspect it to be.

I have had this issue at work. It has been raised with senior management and it is up to them to raise it. That is what they're paid for.

Talk to your manager - explain that it's impacting your wellbeing and ability to work. Do you have visitors or clients coming on site? That would be another thing to point out (brand/image risk). Ideally persuade a couple of colleagues to do the same so your manager can't just dismiss it as a 'you' problem. It's part of the job as a manager to handle issues like this, and yes there's probably other stuff going on for this person but that doesn't mean you should have to tolerate or work around the problem.

That’s a good idea actually! Thanks for the suggestion

Speak to your manager they get paid to deal with these sort of issues.

There was a lengthy thread on this last year, with a lot of discussion about what constitutes bullying and discrimination
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/work/5260403-my-boss-reprimanded-me-and-some-of-my-other-coworkers-for-avoiding-a-smelly-coworker?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

this is one of the more bs,synced posts from that thread

If it's that bad there's no way others don't notice. And it's actually offensive to come to work reeking. It isn't fair on you or the others.

You would not be accused of bullying for raising it with manager. It's their job to make sure all staff are pleasant to be around and if they're struggling, offer support. She wouldn't be disciplined, but they would say they need an improvement.

Make it clear to your manager though that you aren't speaking on anyone else's behalf (unless you actually are).

Thanks for this link. It’s quite a mixed bag of responses there 😣. None of us in the office where I am have moved seats away from this colleague and we will still eat lunch in the staff room when she is there so at least we can’t be accused of excluding her. And we haven’t openly talked about her or the smell either so I don’t think we could be accused of bullying.

its such a difficult and sensitive subject to approach. I really wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings as she is genuinely a nice person but its really impacting the comfort of the rest of us in the office

Talk to a manager. You can’t work like this. I’m use to dealing with foul smells at work (HCW) but the stale lingering smell of the unwashed is far worse imo.

… and sorry, I meant balanced rather than whatever it was that ended up in my post 🤦‍♀️. I posted somewhere on that thread that it’s best to take the approach that it’s kind to be clear and unkind to be unclear- with thanks to Kim Scott author of Radical Candor and the fabulous Brene Brown.

it’s a managers job to tackle this kind of thing, it’s why they are paid more and it’s as much a part of performance and team management as any other, your team cannot function at its optimum when things are not addressed.

if you were her friend, do you think she would want to hear it, sensitively and privately ( eg at the end of the working day, away from others,)? With some actual steps needing to be taken, and due sensitivity to any intervening factors such as lack of access to washing facilities, hot water, and medical conditions

Delicate situation, sending sympathies. I have a strong sense of smell, and what you describe would make me gag. I would need it addressed or else I would be completely unproductive in that work space. These sorts of things are externalities that affect other people and they do need to be addressed. We don't allow people to smoke in offices, eat smelly foods, or have loud personal conversations - all of those are externalities that will affect the work environment and co-workers. This is no different.

We had a lady who smelt just like that.
She had been using a clothes airer to dry her stuff but no heating .
Anyway after talking about sanitary products she told us that she used the same sanitary towel but changed it once a day in the morning.
Once we had realised this we told her that it should be every couple of hours and to put her heating on , the office smelt as fresh as a daisy.