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Reminds me of the guy I used to work with in the cubicle next to me. Smelled like dog hair and mothballs. Said he slept with his dog. Not sure about the mothballs.
1) Ask supervisor to address issue (I find it difficult to believe supervisor would not be aware unless supervisor is mostly remote and in another work place altogether for most of time)
2) Ask HR to address the olfactory assault in workplace. From my experience in corporate world they don't have enough active things to do so put a charge in someone in HR to address in the 'proper way' haha. There are cases with people being sick from excessive perfume / cologne etc...
3) Anonymous email direct and succinct with consideration (don't know the situation but as someone working adjacent I would assume you do) to any potential cultural differences
4) For temporary relief (joking) get real close every day and breath it in deeply to fill your olfactory senses, and then you will be like said offender, and not smell it anymore.
The employee is homeless possibly? No culture takes lack of hygiene to the extremes like you describe. There also could be depression or substance abuse possible. The manager needs to address this issue, Its part of his job.
Trust me there is. Back when I was working in a grocery store in my teen years, we had an indian girl that worked one of the cash registers. Beautiful girl, but she smelled horrible and people talked. She did not wear deordorant and it was definitely noticeable.
The employee is homeless possibly? No culture takes lack of hygiene to the extremes like you describe. There also could be depression or substance abuse possible. The manager needs to address this issue, Its part of his job.
You can have good hygiene and still stink to high heaven.
Some cultures don't wear deodorant. There are various reasons why...it's expensive, they consider it a luxury, they're used to people stinking like people (it's normal to stink), etc. In those cultures, not wearing deodorant and having BO is not a big deal because everybody does it. They may bathe every day, but you'll start to stink pretty fast if you're not wearing deodorant...particularly if your clothes have that baked-in BO smell and haven't been washed in a while. People in developing countries don't wear clothes once then wash them. That's something rich Westerners do.
It doesn't mean they're dirty. It just means that they have a normal human animal smell that we're not used to smelling because we scrub and perfume everything to an extreme.
A manager should take this person aside gently and explain to them that in this culture, we find that odor unpleasant and offensive. That's really all it should take.
There is this guy with really bad breath at the store that I work. I have complained but the managers don't seem to want to deal with it (they feel bad because of his age and financial situation) If I wanted to press it further I'd have to deal with HR I guess.
Had a maintenance worker at my job on LBK who would not wear deodorant (foreigner), would get talked to every year about his "smell" by my manager. He would adhere for awhile and then revert to stink. My boss hated to fire him as he was the only worker who never used a sick day. Finally, he was fired by the BOD. You can't imagine being around someone in 96 degree heat with B.O.
At my last job, again, another co-worker with B.O., filthy clothes, dandruff...the whole nine yards. Management was told, not sure if anything was ever done. An airfreshner was placed on the wall outside his door. He also used to cough at the lunch table & not cover his mouth.
You can have good hygiene and still stink to high heaven.
Some cultures don't wear deodorant. There are various reasons why...it's expensive, they consider it a luxury, they're used to people stinking like people (it's normal to stink), etc. In those cultures, not wearing deodorant and having BO is not a big deal because everybody does it. They may bathe every day, but you'll start to stink pretty fast if you're not wearing deodorant...particularly if your clothes have that baked-in BO smell and haven't been washed in a while. People in developing countries don't wear clothes once then wash them. That's something rich Westerners do.
It doesn't mean they're dirty. It just means that they have a normal human animal smell that we're not used to smelling because we scrub and perfume everything to an extreme.
A manager should take this person aside gently and explain to them that in this culture, we find that odor unpleasant and offensive. That's really all it should take.
This is a great post. I agree totally.
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