To worry about being 'that employee;'?

[howdroll]

Two years ago I admit I had poor personal hygiene in work. This was down to psychological issues caused by me being obese. I've lost all the weight and am now down to 8 stone and a size 8 after years of not being able to do it.
In work there was a general speech about the importance of keeping good personal hygiene and everyone knew it was directed towards me. Some of the vile cunts in work loved to make snide remarks

I agree with @LellyMcKelly, very badly handled. I have had to deal with a problem of personal hygiene in the workplace in my role and a 1-to-1 was had, NOT a conversation with the whole office - how awful!
How great that you’ve got yourself into a place where you feel happier with yourself though. That’s fantastic, you’re the winner in this, not those dicks.
If you move on at any point I’d have a word with the person writing your reference and ask that it’s not mentioned as you’ve taken steps to improve a situation that was highlighted to you indirectly.

Oh my goodness poor you. What a horrible experience. No advice but well done on your weight loss.

References won’t refer to poor personal hygiene.

If this talk was in the past, try and move on. You were going through a difficult time but it can’t have been easy for those working with you and it sounds like your manager was trying to support everyone: raising it generally so you didn’t feel singled out. Ham fisted but not necessarily malicious

There's a woman in my work who used to smell, and now she doesn't. I don't think anyone really remembers any more tbh.

I used to essentially be a coke addict and boozer. Would go to work straight from benders. I'm 90% sure I stank.

I work in a very small industry and have had no trouble finding a job.

Thanks everyone again for your reassuring posts.

AintOverUntilTheCatLadySings - the last sentence of your post is particularly reassuring.

While it’s playing on your mind - am sure it’s ancient history to your coworkers.
Will never be mentioned on a reference.
Also - while I think the general meeting was a terrible idea - I can see how this came about. Some idiot didn’t want to have an awkward chat so decided to not “single anyone out”. Terrible approach in this instance, but something that is often fine in others.

I also used to work in HR, two different companies, both of which I remember multiple hygiene conversations either being had by HR or advised up by HR. It’s really not that unusual.

It shouldn’t matter that you’ve lost weight, but in all honesty the fact you’ve had a dramatic loss means that anyone at your company who does give it a moment’s thought now (and few will) will consign it to “in the past when she was overweight...”

A past issue like this would NEVER be on a reference. You’re in a newer team now - try to let it go.

Enormous well done to you for making such a fantastic change OP, you're incredible.

I had someone in my wider team about 6 years ago who was very overweight, often had greasy hair, had stained clothes etc and always looked unclean.

I'm sure she had issues that none of us were privy to because it was a big team and we didn't know each other well, but she started to get into fitness, lost a tonne of weight and became practically a different person.

She's still that way now - I have nothing but huge respect for her, and nobody at all sees her as anything other than capable, professional and confident (because she is).

Thanks so much for sharing your stories - EinsteinaGogo - that's very inspiring

Concentrate on who you are now, OP.

Many of us wouldn't want our past selves to draw too much focus, for many reasons!!!!

You are not the same person, OP.

They would be talking about a different person if they raised it now. They will be aware of that. You maybe not so much, because as someone said, these things stay with us a long time due to the hurt they cause.

Well done on your changes. Fantastic stuff. Xx

If you have gone from being obese to being a size 8 then many people will not even realise that you are the same person.

About 10 years ago I used to work quite closely with a man who was morbidly obese. He then moved teams and lost a huge amount of weight. (Now runs marathons.) I pass him sometimes in the office. He says hello and my first thought is always “who is that”? In my head they are two different people as they just look so different and I didn’t work with him when he had his transformation.

That's very true Sereneda - thanks for saying I won't be the same person - I'm trying to reinvent myself.!!

Mumoftwoyoungkids - thank you for your positive comments and your inspiring story of the man you worked with.

I don't think obesity is an excuse for poor hygiene actually.

I work with a number of overweight people and there are certainly no hygiene issues.

If you smelled sufficiently bad that it was noticeable to customers, or unpleasant for coworkers, then they were right to address it. I daresay they thought that the 'general chat' was kinder than singling you out. If your colleagues were cruel about it, then there's no excuse for that of course.

But I imagine that your dramatic weight loss will have erased all of that history. You might have been 'the colleague who smells' at one time, but you are now 'the colleague who looks amazing after massive weight loss.'

It's a huge achievement. You must be very proud. Personally, I'd stick it out to prove myself better than the rest of them. But I think a fresh start somewhere else would be understandable too and, no, that level of personal detail - a health issue since addressed - can't feature in a reference.

rawlikesushi - Hi thank you for your supportive comments. Just to clarify, I was obese in 2003 but I didn't have personal hygiene issues at all. I only had personal hygiene issues last year as I had psychological problems associated with not being able to lose weight.

Well done OP to overcome your issues and achieve such an amazing turnaround. These are attributes that would be beneficial to future employment not detrimental. There is no way that personal hygiene issues from 2 years ago would be mentioned on a reference, any employer doing that could have legal advice taken against them.