Smelly Colleague

[AllTheseCups]

HELP! A new colleague has joined our very small office and their body odour is eye watering.

I reported the issue to my manager and I believe I am not the only one who has done so. Still, there has been no change.

I am finding it hard to focus, have taken to eating lunch in my car and find myself looking for any reason to go out for some fresh air.

WWYD? I am genuinely at a loss here.

Your manager should address this so you don’t have to. Do you have an HR person? If so tell them.
If nothing changes, can you escalate ?
Don’t say anything yourself.

Talk to your manager again, they can't just ignore this however much they may want to.

Well done for reporting. I had to do this at my yoga class and things seem to have improved. Can you work from home or say you will until the problem is sorted? It's not ok to have to suffer this in a workplace; anywhere else you can just leave.

Your manager is being cowardly. They need to address this.

This made me laugh as something similar happened. I went out and got air fresheners and put one on my desk to help mask the smell of this person. Obviously, if you're not sitting at an office desk, then its going to be more tricky to stick an air fresher near them.

Isn’t this directly copied from a post on Ask a Manager’s blog?

Do you have HR?

It’s unclear to me whether my manager has addressed the issue with my colleague, I plan to follow up next week.

My big worry is that even if it’s addressed, nothing changes. What happens next, can you be fired for smelling?!

re the air freshener, I have already bought TWO that are making very little difference and giving me a headache 😅.

@LittleYellowCloth I have no idea what Ask A Managers blog is, believe me I really wish this situation was a joke!

This is not an HR situation this is a line manager situation with guidance from HR on how to have a difficult conversation.

But a desk fan. Direct it at the smelly person so their smell doesn’t reach you

I think you need to go back to the line manager first. Maybe they addressed it already, possibly they waited til a Friday afternoon and did it last thing. That's what I did when I had to address the same issue. I did it on a Friday as the guy had the weekend to sort out washing, plan a new routine of showering and get over the embarrassment. Luckily for everyone that worked out ok and it wasn't a problem any more. Good luck - because it is awful!

Yes, they could be let go for poor personal hygiene. But hopefully it won't come to that.

If your manager won't do anything, go to HR. They will have encountered this before as it's a common issue.

Follow up with your manager and ask what has been done, and follow up your meeting in writing so there’s a paper trail if required to show you’re raised it and they can’t deny it.

It’s a difficult conversation for them to have, but that’s part of being a manager sometimes.

I wonder if this is the same person I once worked with. It's awful and some managers don't want to deal with issues like this (mine didn't). And you don't want to be accused of bullying if you push the issue.

Try with your line manager first, if they won't deal with it I assume it's a HR issue?

Your manager must deal with this. There are diplomatic ways. Body odour is horrid and the person involved is probably immune to their problem...it is either due to hygiene or illness but must be sorted.

It’s really not an HR issue.

I had a manager who stunk. He obviously only washed on a Sunday as it got worse during the week. Colleagues would put half days holidays to get away from it on bad days. It was a sign of his laziness and clearly had few clothes too.
His boss would do nothing about it. Told us we had to put up with it as jr was caused by a condition that he wasn’t bothering to manage at all.
Hideous.

Thank you all. I will follow up with my manager next week and escalate to HR if necessary.

I’m reassured to hear your stories as I have started to wonder if I am being over the top, but I know I amn’t, it’s bloody awful.

Fingers crossed but who knows, it’s beyond me to think anyone could be so ‘nose blind’!

I once had a very smelly colleague who had that fish odour syndrome. He absolutely stank. And 100% couldn't help it. He used to change his clothes and shower at work during the day etc, still stank. Manager pulled him up on it, still stank because he couldn't help it.

Not saying your colleague can't help it, but there might be a bigger picture you'll never be aware of.

I’ve had to have this conversation in the past. I was quite direct (but hopefully kind) and said something along the lines of ‘look this is a bit awkward but if it was me I’d want someone to say. I’ve noticed that sometimes[it was all the time tbh] you can have quite strong body odour.’ This was enough and it was much better after that!!!

You could try a fab of Vicks vapo rub under the nostrils, I believe health workers use that when dealing with very smelly patients.

Or, the OP's manager can do his/her job and tackle it properly.