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

I've got genetic lung problems. Strong smells, chemicals, dust, smoke all make it worse. In the workplace, I think it should be minimised. The one I have a real problem with is those poo disguising sprays. They are eye wateringly strong. I have to use the disabled toilet as I can't breathe it in.

Excessive fragrance, especially one that isn't very nice to begin with, can be overwhelming. I once was sitting on a bus behind a woman whom I guess had been bathing in Eau de Garbage that morning. It was that strong I felt very sick. Luckily she got off the bus before me but the pong lingered for a while.

Everything I don't like should be banned, and other stories.

I have a friend like this — not just perfumes. He once had to live elsewhere for several weeks when there was a pipe issue in his new house causing a smell that was barely detectable to me and which my husband couldn’t smell at all, but which gave him a violent migraine within minutes.

We were once going to a gig together and picked up another friend who’d forgotten and was wearing spray deodorant. The friend scrubbed himself with bottled water and wipes, but the scent-averse friend was pretty much incapacitated within ten minutes in the car, was throwing up in a lay-by, and had to let us go on without him. He has his own company, and there’s a total scent ban in the office.

I’d welcome perfume right now as my office smells of fart. Not from me might I add.

and people that think it's fine to spray their unwashed armpits with deodorant in the middle of the office.

I wear my Chanel number 5 every day.

I have an allergy to Cats and Dogs, they affect my breathing … but I can’t ban people in the office from owning one, in case they come in with hairs on them, which will set me off

I really struggle with strong smells (I have chronic headaches and it makes them worse). I also seem to have an annoyingly sensitive sense of smell. I had to ask my brother not to use his aftershave when he moved in for a few weeks. I'd never dare do that in the office though! 😂

I actually find the kind of stale perfume smell from coats and things the worst sometimes. They're probably pretty faint to everyone else.

Because you have a choice with cafes. You have no choice about sitting in work for 8 hours.

I work with woman, who I can always tell where she has been just by the smell of her perfume. Meeting rooms, corridors, in the lift, etc.
If you are wearing so much perfume that someone can tell where you have been, even when there is no sign of you anymore, then that is just far too much. Likewise if you can smell someone from across the room, too much!! Perfume should be something you only smell if you are close to someone, sitting right next to them or hugging them.

That being said there is also a dude who must have issues doing his laundry as he leaves a dreadful musty aroma wherever he goes, which is gross. Again it lingers long after he has vacated the area. Probably on balance this is worse than the strong perfume, but only marginally!

Thankfully all the people who I share an office with don't give off any aroma, either gross or perfume-y.

Personally that's what I am looking for in a colleague, no obvious smell either way.

I wear it so I can smell it on myself, to mask other dodgy smells around me. Hopefully it's not overpowering - I don't aim for that. Sans perfume I probably smell of cats and cigarettes.

So people think if you have unclean clothes or dont wash yourself covering it up with perfume is a great idea?

Same as people who want to cover bad smelling rooms trying to cover it up with air freshener instead of opening a window

I douse myself with the chemical H2O everyday the whole world is made of chemical elements. We even drink chemicals and eat them.

@Swiftie1878 @Aninabertsi

Oh, but you do have to look at them, like in a meeting, for instance. Whereas your issue can be solved with a clothes peg or a bulldog clip requisitioned from Stationery.

I think you're being quite unreasonable about the orange clothes thing. Show some empathy - @Swiftie1878 is suffering too.

Her point is that if it is that strong, they are imposing it on everyone else!

😂😂😂😂

I work in close proximity to people in an enclosed environment and i would much rather smell strong perfume ( even if it was one I don’t particularly like) than bodily odours.

@Aninabertsi in the same way it’s office etiquette to not eat stinky foods in an enclosed space it should be the same for perfumes. Too frequently they give me headaches 😑

Aye, but it shouldn’t have squatters rights for the rest of the day!

I used to work in the same two person office as my (then) manager, who'd 'disguise' (it really didn't) his BO with copious amounts of Lynx Africa 🤢. He'd sit there and spray it while I was in our shared office. I thought Lynx Africa was a teenage boy thing - this was a professional in his 40s!

Still traumatised by the BO/Lynx stench 🤣 sympathies OP.

Furious hypersensitivity to perfume is one of those things I’ve only ever actually encountered on Mumsnet and never in real life. See also: getting angry at the mere sight of a dog in a cafe, ending marriages because their husband once looked at porn, refusing to give children fruit because it’s ’full of sugar’, enforcing screen time limits for 16-17-year-olds and refusing to allow people to sit on a bed in their ‘outside clothes’.

What did she tell you about jacket sleeve length??

Oh you'd love King's Day in Holland!

Sorry, photo didn't post. Imagine this times several thousand 🤣

Just walking through the perfume section in John Lewis or Debenhams is enough to make me feel sick. I avoid them like the plague. And don’t get me started on Lush…