Stinky boss

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the 9 people I supervise has pretty bad (but not godawful) B.O. (Not a customer-facing position.). Also the only male of color on our whole team.

There's no way in heck I'm ever saying anything.

Racist

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. Hate to ask, but what is the smell and from where is it emanating? BO? Bad breath? Dirty clothes? Generally poor personal hygiene? Overweight? As in bacteria in folds smell?

Any chance it is diet related? Health related?

I'll try to help based on your answer.

BO

Ok, then. I'm PP who promised to answer. Is there an HR department? If so, I'd leave a note for the HR rep (anon) and express your concerns or set up confidential meeting.

The boss will be mortified, but my hope is that the HR professional would address this privately and delicately, under the auspices of creating an inoffensive and pleasant work environment. Boss needs to be told pragmatically and truthfully that there is an unpleasant odor and that there's been a complaint received. Together, they can suss out what that might be...I had to say something similar to male employee who was dousing himself in vile cologne that was making everyone nearby I'll with headaches and even his work papers picked up the scent. We made our workplace fragrance-free and were able to address hygiene issues, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. Hate to ask, but what is the smell and from where is it emanating? BO? Bad breath? Dirty clothes? Generally poor personal hygiene? Overweight? As in bacteria in folds smell?

Any chance it is diet related? Health related?

I'll try to help based on your answer.

BO

Ok, then. I'm PP who promised to answer. Is there an HR department? If so, I'd leave a note for the HR rep (anon) and express your concerns or set up confidential meeting.

The boss will be mortified, but my hope is that the HR professional would address this privately and delicately, under the auspices of creating an inoffensive and pleasant work environment. Boss needs to be told pragmatically and truthfully that there is an unpleasant odor and that there's been a complaint received. Together, they can suss out what that might be...I had to say something similar to male employee who was dousing himself in vile cologne that was making everyone nearby I'll with headaches and even his work papers picked up the scent. We made our workplace fragrance-free and were able to address hygiene issues, too.

I wish. No HR. We had a stinky cologne guy too. He suddenly stopped so I'm guessing he was told.

[Anonymous]

If he's farting you can get chair pads that absorb the stink.

[Anonymous]

We used to get a lot of interns from different countries. They didn't wear deodorant or brush teeth. I handed out a lot of mints....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:13:54 back to say that it drives me crazy when younger students get a cursory talk about hygiene at school. It's always the same, "shower daily" and maybe, there's a mention of deodorant. That's insufficient.

You can't shower the night before and then get dressed and roll into work. Sorry, most adults can't and shouldn't. Shower and hair washed in a.m., use deodorant and wear head-to-toe clean clothes. At the very least with dry clean only clothes, air out and make sure they haven't held odors.

You can if you wash up in the morning. However you might as well hit the shower in the time it takes to wash up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I shower 2x a day but by the time I walk the 10 minutes to work, I stink. I do what I can and I want to move north because I hate the summer so much, but what can I do? We don't have showers at work. I also just sweat a lot so if I have an important meeting, I sweat and then stink. It's the WORST.

It's a problem with diet. You can take supplements or change your diet so your sweat isn't as offensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. Hate to ask, but what is the smell and from where is it emanating? BO? Bad breath? Dirty clothes? Generally poor personal hygiene? Overweight? As in bacteria in folds smell?

Any chance it is diet related? Health related?

I'll try to help based on your answer.

BO

Mine does too. He wears tons of perfume to cover it up but it doesn't work.

[Anonymous]

I've got a stinky boss, too! She doesn't wear any deod (doesn't "believe in it") and it is BAD in this heat.

[Anonymous]

You can't do anything. You just have to put up with it. Just bet thankful you're not sleeping with it.