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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.
As a manager I would not use the word culture it opens you up to potential complaints. You just talk to the employee as one individual to another.
I would talk to your manager and just explain nicely, let them know the OP is a nice guy and good worker, but his odor is affecting the productivity of the team and you specifically. When you put it in $ terms that tends to motivate people
Very good advice! Tried to rep you. I wouldn't be silly about it. If the person is homeless or has a disease or is an addict, it's not a laughing matter.
So I'd nix the fish or anonymous e-mails. Too middle school. And nasty.
I used to work with homeless people. For my own personal sanity, I wore perfum, hairspray, doused my office with Febreeze, had scented oils on my desk, washed my clothes with Surf, added extra Downy. I smelled so clean and fresh, nothing could penetrate the "aroma armor". Now, that may not work for you....
I suggest just telling this guy, "dude, I like you, but you stink". I personally think telling the boss is chicken, and could get the guy fired. Just tell him straight, he is in America now, and he has left the camel farm.
Leave a bottle of mouthwash, tooth paste and brush, bar soap, shampoo, deodorant, and package of clean underwear on his desk with a nice note, ''we care, don't want to hurt you, but you need to use all of these products daily''.
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.
Yes, they do -- but I think we're seeing fewer smelly foreigners because word must have gotten out that we find their odors disgusting. I've noticed that people immigrating now from countries that were notorious for horrendous body odors don't have as much of that.
They really don't notice the bad smell -- it's not doing them any favor to keep them uninformed. It hurts them because no one wants them around and finds them offensive when they reek.
Do you feel better now? Not everyone can understand the odor of ones self. Its just a man though, he probably deserved the humiliation right?
Sometimes it takes person to point it out without sounding like an ass hat, because maybe he didn't understand the full picture of his offence..
How do you wash the stink of yourself now?
Passive aggressive indeed.
If the OP told him nicely it wasn't about humiliation. What's worse is to just leave him ignorant and having everyone shun him.
It's cultural -- Americans tend to be obsessively clean in others' views -- we shower and shampoo daily but when you do that, you get unaccustomed to odors others don't notice. You pass by someone who hasn't showered in the last 24 hours and it's a pretty nasty smell to us.
i think for foreigners it's just a matter of not realizing this issue. Someone has to point it out.
One of the funniest things where I worked was someone trying to leave the hint -- this guy was a professional, intelligent and respected but he smelled bad from not showering often enough. Someone left a big can of deodorant on his desk and he didn't get the hint. Being the honest kind of guy that he was, he tried to find it's owner, he assumed someone accidently left it and actually wandered around trying to find the proper owner of the deodorant, going up to people and explaining it was left on his desk -- did they know whose it was --- absolutely hysterical.
Has anyone had to deal with this before? I like the guy, he's very intelligent, and good to get along with, but for some reason he has horrible hygiene. Sometimes it seems like he hasn't showered for almost a week--dandruff is blatant and he can easily be smelled from almost 20 feet away. Many times his clothes are also disgustingly filthy, like they haven't been washed for 3 weeks. Unfortunately, my desk is right next to this person so I have to constantly smell his musk all day long. Yesterday, another co-worker was at the gym the same time he was and commented at how revolting he was smelling at the gym and how there was a radius of people that would not work out next to him at the gym because of the smell. This person is also foreign, so sometimes I understand that in foreign cultures deodorant and showering may not always be a daily thing. How would you politely tell this person to basically "clean up". He's a very bright individual, but little does he realize, that he's being ostracized behind his back by everyone else and damaging his career simply because of hygiene. First impressions are everything; one can give a wonderful speech and presentation, but if you stink to high heaven, that's all everyone is going to remember and you could ruin a potential employment opportunity for a reason that's easily fixable. What should I do?
Who would hire such a person?
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