Stinky Smoking Colleague

[SniffsAndSneezes]

I work in an office and share a desk with a colleague who smokes. About 3 times an hour he'll go outside for 5 minutes, have a cigarette and when he comes in he absolutely stinks to high heaven, to the point where I'm almost gagging. I'm just so aware of breathing it in, and of that smell going on my clothes and in my hair. And when I go out for lunch he'll be there, 2 feet from the building entrance puffing away, forcing everyone coming in or going out to walk through a cloud of smoke. It makes me so angry!

WIBU to speak to him about it? I unfortunately can't switch desks and sit somewhere else.

"The hypothetical Colleague C who hates colleague B's air freshener smell more than colleage A's smoke smell throws a spanner in the works though!"

I encountered a similar situation at one place I worked. It was a shared office space and not too roomy. Unfortunately it was originally designed to be a storage facility and in summer it got very hot. Opening windows didn't help much with the heat, which meant that the people who had worked in there the longest had made a decision to use a/c instead. However, 2 or 3 of the people in the room had noticeable BO. I think it was a combination of poor diet, sweat, bad breath, poor personal hygiene. Whatever, it stank and the a/c just circulated the bad air and having it on meant no opening windows.

So someone had the bright idea of bringing in a plug in air freshener but didn't bother to ask if this was OK. Artificial scents like that give me headaches, meaning putting up with strong BO, an overlay of sickly sweet artificial "air freshener" and a headache.

I left the place. It was one relatively small part of a much bigger problem. Our manager simply didn't manage and never mentioned that it was literally and figuratively a noxious environment, let alone doing something to tackle it.

I don't think bad smells are something you should just put up with. Had I tackled the bad smells, a whole lot of other issues about the lack of control of the working environment and how unpleasant it was would have been aired (pun intended) a lot earlier.

You're just another hysterical anti smoker! It's now getting boring, mustard gas or agent orange and I might be on your side but FFS give it a rest. My generation should have died out, everybody bloody smoked and we are still here, find yourself something more important to stress about!

It might be convenient to dismiss it as hysteria and it might make you feel better, Happfeet but it doesn't stop the fact that cigarette smoke is carcinogenic. I've watched various family members die from its effects. It's bad for your circulation - I know smokers who can barely walk for this reason. Oh, and it stinks. The stink is handy, it's your body's way of telling you to avoid cigarette smoke.

It's quite reasonable not to want to be exposed to cigarette smoke. Dismissing this as "hysterical" is a weak argument at best.

Dead men don't tell tales - ever heard that one Hap? Do your research and find out how many smokers have died before their time over the years before you come up with that guff.

As for 'hysterical - Puh-lease, change the record, it's boring.

yanbu.

The smell of smoke on people sets my lungs off and my sinuses get all stuffed up and then by bed time I am blowing my nose and blood comes out.

I am so sensitive to the smell of it and it is getting worse. It's really hard cos some of my friends smoke and it makes visiting very hard cos I can smell it even if they have sprayed perfume etc it is still there - it is more the chemicals affecting me than the SMELL.

that many a day is bonkers! He is "lucky" he works somewhere that allows that

It isn't the anti smokers who are being hysterical. It is the anti anti-smokers who are telling them to suck it up. It is totally unreasonable to expect a work colleague to have to put up with the revolting smell and side effects of second hand smoke/smoking. It proves the point that smokers sense of smell isn't as strong as non smokers because they don't understand just how disgusting they smell to non smokers.

Sorry smokers, but you have had it your own way for far too long and the anti smoking laws have finally made the workplace a much nicer place to be now.

I think it really comes down to smoke if you like, but please don't inflict it or its effects on other people as that's just very inconsiderate.

Same with massive wafts of hairspray/perfume I suppose though that's not quite so toxic and is probably well intended, ie, the user thinks other people will like them better for it, not worse.

I am fine with people smoking. I am not fine at all with having to be around the smoke or the smell of someone who has been smoking.

I try my best not to smell of anything personally. I worry about it. I am sure there are people who smoke who also worry about it, I feel rather sorry for them, but those who maintain that it's everyone else's problem are unpleasant people.

So if the op should sit spraying air freshener at her colleague and glaring, does that mean I can do the same to the bO/unwashed hair smelling guy at work? Surely that would be classed as mean.

I didn't say she should do that, but yes, it would be mean to do it to someone who possibly has no idea he smells and also possibly can't help it

I used to have a colleague who regularly went out to smoke and when she came back to talk to me she had horrible smoky breath, so I do sympathise. I don't know what you can do about it though, as he is allowed to smoke outside - but maybe he could be asked to not smoke so near the building.

I think we turning a corner with smoking and it's gradually becoming truly anti social.
If you think about it- smokers smoke. That's what they do. They have regular cigarettes. Their employer can't police whether they smoke during the working day (although it's not common to allow smoking breaks anymore) the public can't decide they smell bad and must stop their smoking. They just do it.

However they are getting heckled and bullied into such a small corner now that I wouldn't be surprised if the precious "what about me and my nose" brigade gained enough power and support in society to see off smokers. There is almost nowhere they can smoke now

However they are getting heckled and bullied into such a small corner now that I wouldn't be surprised if the precious "what about me and my nose" brigade gained enough power and support in society to see off smokers. There is almost nowhere they can smoke now

GOOD

are you a smoker, but don't want to be 'heckled and bullied'?

get your arse to a doctor and ask for FREE help to kick your stinking addiction. There is NO excuse.

most of us don't like drunks or druggies either. But the one doesn't make us stink and the other is illegal so there is some defence.

That's a nasty post SS and quite unnecessary.

I can understand if people want to smoke because it helps them feel better. Sometimes we can't be perfect - for example my diet is not great, but I don't have the energy or wherewithall to do much about it at the moment.

You could call me selfish too. All of us impact on other people in some way. Just sometimes it isn't such a direct way, and it is good if we can all try and be better.

My chocolate habit isn't great but no one vilifies me for it, which I consider fortunate, but then, it is less directly offensive than smoking.

I feel sorry for those who rely on cigarettes. I really do and I was lucky enough not to grow up in a smoking household or I imagine I might be a smoker now too. You can get free help to stop most bad habits so that's beside the point.

I would be massively happy if smoking wasn't allowed anywhere public, near to me or my baby or children. It would be lovely, for me, for them. But I can see the other POV as well, even though smokers had the right to ruin my health and comfort for a very very long time before 2008.

and actually after as the ban came in on the day we moved into our last home - right next door to an NHS residential facility, which promptly relegated all of its smokers to the brand new smoking shelter, which they had erected right outside our front door!!!

[screams]

It took me about 2-3 years of polite complaining and several different managers at the unit in order for them finally to pull the fucking thing down.

One person's ban is another person's house full of smoke, it seems.

Oh he knows he stinks (he's been spoken to as customers complained) and could have a shower before work and wash his clothes and apply deodorant etc. It's disgusting, I wish he stank of cigarettes it's much better than his lazy lack of washing. yet if I sat squirting him and glaring it would be mean but it's fine for people to febreeze smokers

The legislation banning smoking states a distance from the entrance you must be, check up on it.

Maybe someone could have a word with him and ask him to wear a coat outside or something.

Christ knows how you so precious ones would have coped in the 70s or so then.

Precious generations raised ., Get over yourselves. ffs

It's true the government's never going to ban it though. They make money from smokers when they're alive and paying taxes and save it on them when they die early. Look at that Philip Morris study for the Czech Government that came down to "This is how much money we'll save you by killing your people off".

From that perspective - people hooked on an expensive, addictive drug that messes with their brain, destroys their bodies, takes years off their lives and makes them pay for the privilege - we should be feeling sorry for smokers. It's the drug pushing tobacco companies that are the evil bastards.

How did previous generations cope?

Well, quite a large number of people "coped" by dying of smoking related diseases due to passive smoking, estimated at over 11,000 deaths per year in 2005, and exposure at work was thought to account for a fifth of those deaths.

Why do you think workplace smoking bans were brought in?

Rschel - I was around in the 70s, and was a stinking time for non-smokers. Do your research for smoking related deaths and hush your 'hysterical' nonsense - it's a poor argument and one you lost ages ago when they brought in the lovely smoking ban.

Christ knows how you so precious ones would have coped in the 70s or so then. Precious generations raised ., Get over yourselves. ffs

I coped. I hated it but I coped. I worked where people could smoke and I lived in a house where my mother smoked.
Until she died from emphysema.

Still getting over it.

"Christ knows how you so precious ones would have coped in the 70s or so then."

We endured it unwillingly. I remember when smoking as allowed on public transport, in cinemas and all public places. It was horrible.

Precious generations raised ., Get over yourselves. ffs"

You really don't get how unpleasant it is for non/ex smokers do you? Either you are a smoker or have no sense of smell and no empathy

Like NannyOgg my mother died a slow, horrible death from emphysema. I wouldn't wish it on anyone.