To think that if you smoke, you should try not to make other people's clothes smell too?

[Leah35]

Shared office of four people, one colleague smokes. She comes back in after lunch and hangs her coat up with everybody else's which leaves the smoke smell on other people's clothing. I understand that the smell is going to be in the room because she comes back in immediately after smoking but hanging her coat up and making everyone else's coats stink is a bit much imo.

Any advice on how to handle this? Colleague is difficult at the best of times (has had to be disciplined a couple of times for standard of work and work ethic) so may not take kindly to anything being said to her about this.

(have nc'd as not sure if colleagues are on here)

Is there somewhere else she can hang her coat? If so I would just lift it and hang it there saying. “Just moving this so the rest of the coats don’t smell” if she complains don’t engage just speak to management about finding an appropriate place for her coat to hang.

So you're saying that her hanging her coat next to yours is making yours stink of smoke, yes? Does she ever wash her coat? Like ever? I love MN smoking threads.

Is her coat absolutely saturated in stale fag smoke?

YANBU. Could you hang your coat on the the back of your chair maybe?

I love MN smoking threads 😂
Have you suggested she come in in a vaccum pack so nothing at all can escape into your preacious air space?

Urgh that's rank.

Have you suggested she come in in a vaccum pack so nothing at all can escape into your preacious air space?

It's just amazing to me, MN smoking threads always contain such unusual claims. A thread a while back saw one poster claim that if her father, who smokes, comes to visit and sits on her sofa she can still smell the smoke TWO DAYS later. Keep in mind the guy wasn't actually smoking in her house, he'd just have a puff on the way there. TWO. FUCKING. DAYS.

Only on MN do claims like this exist.

It does stink, I agree, but I don't see that there's anything you can do. Smoking isn't illegal - as long as she goes off site to do it, nobody in work can stop her.

Coats do smell, when I have visitors I certainly wouldn’t want put their coat over mine or on my sofa/blanket. Maybe you Don’t have a strong sense of smell? It would certainly be very annoying to me

I don't see how anyone could say you are being unreasonable. I would suggest putting coats somewhere else, is the back of your chairs an option?

I love how people claim that it's ridiculous to find the smell unappealing or to complain that it lingers, if you do not smoke then you are more aware of the smell and I can always tell when a colleague (who smokes) has been in my husbands car even if its days later the smell is still noticeable.

I have interviewed people to work for me and ovrr the years a few have come in reeking of smoke - interview lasted as short a time as possible and have never employed a smoker and never will for this reason

I don't smoke but used to.
Your colleague won't realise how much it stinks, I certainly didn't until I quit.

However I feel this is your issue and if you're that uncomfortable you should hang your coat somewhere else

I love how people claim that it's ridiculous to find the smell unappealing or to complain that it lingers

Nobody is and nobody is likely to claim that.

Cigarette smoke smells, no denying it.
The jacket of a person who has been smoking in it will smell of cigarette smoke - no denying that either.

What seems absurd is the claim that this odour is somehow transferred from one jacket to another, to a significant extent simply by being in contact with it. Perhaps if the smokers jacket was soaking wet and placed on top of the non smokers jacket? Maybe...
But just in an average every day event like sharing a coat rack - nah. I'm not buying it.

I'm not buying the "I can smell smoke in the car for days if a smoker has been in it" either. Perhaps shortly after, maybe even a few hours later if your hooter is so finely tuned. But DAYS? No. I don't believe it.

Fuck it I'm going to put this to the test, a non smoking friend of mine will be visiting later today and I'm going to ask her if we can try this out. She will likely agree. From the minute she arrives until the minute she leaves I'm going to make sure my coat (and I'll make a point of chain smoking in it so it's nice and whiffy) is in super direct contact with hers on the coat hook and I'm going to see if she says it honks when she leaves. She's never had a puff in her life so her sniffer should be up to the same standard as yours.

Akire
Misread and thought you said goat!!!

Mn smoking threads always amaze me too. Only on mn are there so many people with such a poor sense of smell that they can't smell it off a smoker's clothes.

My ds was going to a tutor last year. It was a class of 15. He always smelt of smoke in the car afterwards. I initially suspected he was smoking but soon realised it was only after the class. The tutor only smoked before the class and during the break and always outside yet the smell still transferred to the kids' clothes.

Rhubarb.

I said this on the last smoking thread; I smoke, I've worked in the same office for 5 years, until last year (when I was spotted stood outside smoking) nobody knew I smoked. Yet according to MN people can smell me for miles around. How bizarre!

Thanks for responses. Yes, I am saying that the smell transfers onto other coats. It's the same way with perfume, smells linger and the smoke isn't nice. She absolutely has a right to smoke as much as she wants but I don't think we are wrong to not want that smell on our clothes as non-smokers.

I have been moving my coat as have colleagues, it's just annoying having it on the back of my chair as it's trails on the ground.

My mum and most of her colleagues used to smoke in the office in the 80,s and now people are complaining about smoke smells on coats I'm a none smoking but smoking isnt illegal .

I’m one of those weird people that can smell smoke a mile off. I really, really, really hate the smell of it and if a smoker comes in my house I literally have to clean the room afterwards and open all the windows for ages as I can’t stand the smell! I grew up in the 1980s when it was okay to smoke inside and around kids and my mum, Dad and Gran (who lived with us) were all chain smokers who smoked literally 50 a day. I dread to think what we all must have smelt like! I have never smoked and I think I just have a deep dislike of it from my childhood really.

I’m not sure what you can do about the coat thing though- without being either really blunt (your coat is making mine smell of smoke, can you move it?) or passive aggressive (spraying febreeze everywhere and coughing loudly every time she comes in)!

Smokers don't really realize how the smell can irritate none smokers more so transfer to clothes. Smokers inside a room won't be able to figure if someone has just smoked because of immunity to the smell whereas non smokers will immediately notice it.

smell it off a smoker's clothes

The key word there being smoker's
If you read what I wrote you'll see that I clearly acknowledge this. No doubt at all my work jacket smells of fags. You're arguing against something nobody has said.

I absoloutly despise the smell of smoke. It litrally makes me gag. I can sniff a smoker out easy- can 100% smell it in cars and 110% would not hang my coat on that rack. You are delusional to think it cars/fabrics/rooms dont stink to high heaven for days and it drives me mad i am exposed to the stench through no choice of my own.

maybe some smokers on MN need to accept that alot of non-smokers are hypersensitive to the smell of 100s of burning chemicals. it isnt THAT absurd.

its a fucking disgusting, pointless, cancer-causing activity. any argument about smoking, made by any smoker, is automatically null due to the fact they choose to smoke.

@RubMyRhubarb - ok, I was exaggerating slightly. However, smelly clothes or material will, if placed in close proximity to other clothes or material, transfer the smell. This can then be smelt for quite a while afterwards by most people who are not immune to the smell.

Theymademejoin - serious question, how long does this take to accomplish? For how long need one garment be in close proximity to another to not only transfer the smell but do so to such an extent that it's readily noticeable?

hypersensitive to the smell of 100s of burning chemicals. it isnt THAT absurd

Yes, it is absurd because you're doing what always happens on threads like this - you're talking about another scenario rather than the one actually being offered. This thread isn't about smokey whiffs being absorbed into the fabric of the clothes a smoker is wearing - it's about how readily these aromas are transferred to other fabrics.