Perfume in the office

[Aninabertsi]

Why???!! Why do people think I would want to smell them from 30 feet away!? Or have the same taste as them? If you must use perfume, why not just use a small amount so only if I stand directly next to you I can smell it not all the way across the office (open plan office at that)...I can't think or concentrate on what I'm doing because all I can think off is this effing smell. Sorry for the rant but I think it should be banned

But it won't kill you, an Asthma attack can. So a useless comparison.

It’s perfume. Not mustard gas.

A no perfume rule can't be enforced. People would have to change all of the following to unscented options which would be virtually impossible: washing powder, fabric conditioner, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, anti-perspirant, moisturisers and other skin treatments, lip balm, makeup, hairspray and other hair products. Not to mention all the cleaning products used in your workplace.

What you don't like is just certain smells but we live in a very scented world and I bet you don't exclusively use unscented products.

Also, everything is made of chemicals and things that are 'natural' can be some of the most dangerous chemicals, think of alcohol (a byproduct of yeast), nicotine or cocaine (produced in leaves of plants), not to mention the various toxins and venoms produced by animals. People inject botox into their faces then worry that their food contains ascorbate, it's ridiculous.

MN is so bloody weird 😂

😂 😂 😂

I really love perfume. I spend too much on samples - especially of uncommon ones made by some bearded, bespectacled person wearing a sackcloth in a glass lab, and I read Reddit threads discussing things like ‘how to smell like a lunar eclipse as experienced in the Tucson hills’ etc… but I do think people working in close proximity or a closed environment together need to lay off the fabric softeners and other fragrances (and make sure they’re actually showered/clean!).

Worked with this awful woman - one of her habits was spraying herself and the entire office in cheap body spray every morning... I hated her.

So you think it’s fine for colleagues to choose to wear perfumes etc that can give everyone else a headache?

Why?

What about a small desk fan, OP, angle it to send the pong back at Miss Perfumery?

I work with the general public… sadly some of them absolutely honk (stale drink, stale fags or vapes and stale body odour🤢). Sometimes, I’d be grateful for a spray of scent!!

When I was 16, aeons ago, I read in whatever magazine was all the go that your perfume should precede you into a room, and remain after you have left.

Chlorine in swimming pools can cause asthma attacks but removing it would cause more harm.

No, perfume should only be smelt in close proximity, like a hug or a kiss (so not colleagues). It certainly shouldn't be announcing you to the whole room before you enter.

And neither should the er, scent of colleagues who have yet to learn the successful use of soap and deodorant... but I must return to that environment.

Even worse when they are doing it to cover up the smell of cigarettes. It doesn’t work, love! Now you just smell like floral fags. 🤮

What about enclosed shops, cafés, restaurants, hotels and the myriad of other public places an asthma sufferer could come into contact with someone wearing perfume? Why just ban it in the workplace? I think the asthma argument is to make it look like a legitimate reason to ban something a few mnetters don't like!
FWIW I use scented washing powder/conditioner, scented body wash,scented shampoo and hair products and scented deodorant/perfume. I have no intention of stopping using any of them.

Right....

The Completely Reasonable Office Bans List

Perfume
Orange clothing
Egg sandwiches
Jokey tea mugs
Pictures of your dog
Anything drawn by a person under 21
Motivational books
Motivational posters, esp those featuring sunrises
Trolls, dolls, any sort of humanoid toy figure
Football stuff indicating your club allegiance
Certificates awarded by management, even if deserved
Anything purchased on holiday abroad
A pebble from a British beach, indicating that you don't 'do abroad'

.....feel free to add more. They must be as reasonable as these, all of which, I think we can agree, are completely uncontendable.

I’d much rather smell someone’s perfume than BO or sour, damp clothes! But this is Mumsnet where a mere hint of a whiff anything scented will have you blue lighted to hospital.

I don’t mind smelling others peoples perfume; like as in when it wafts off of them.

but when it’s seeping off of their body it gives me such a headache.

smelling like a whores handbags doesn’t even make you more attractive idk why they do it

To be fair to the OP, I hate perfume in the office too, mainly because most of them are too strong and musky or sickly smelling to me. I’d like it banned too 😀
But I wouldn’t dare say anything!!

In the summer I'd rather smell perfume rather than smelly bare feet in sandals.

People seem to forget that you have to wash your feet it seems

I'm with you.

How is it remotely the same? You don't have to look at someone, but you have no escape if the whole room smells like a cheap drug store.

I do get that and BO is not nice either. I think both aren't good, BUT perfume over BO is the worst

I feel you - I get really bad migraines and certain smells (especially certain perfumes) set them off. I don’t want to be that person but why are you wasting your fancy perfume on us in the office anyway 😂

I love to smell other people's perfume, some people smell really lovely as they go past

I certainly prefer it to the smell of BO.