Posted on 07/21/2004 9:16:51 AM PDT by BluegrassScholar
Larry Isaacson's nose is so sensitive to perfume that he gets woozy, loses his appetite and can develop an itchy rash that blooms behind his ears when he is exposed to it.
So when a colleague recently slathered on perfume that emanated well beyond her personal space, Mr. Isaacson found himself employing his usual tactics. They include avoidance, which means standing several feet away from the cloud and holding his breath until it passes. If trapped in close proximity for an extended time, he breathes through his mouth. And his most passive tactic, which sometimes works best: waiting for someone else to go through the embarrassment of notifying the offender.
This time he also held an impromptu meeting in the kitchen with several sympathetic colleagues and tried to brainstorm some smell strategies for the future, including screening smelly people during the interview process.
"It should be treated like smoking," he argues. "There should be signs."
Perfume isn't the only second-hand smell that harms indoor air quality. Any body odors strong enough to spread beyond their perpetrators' cubicles are bound to upset colleagues. Unfortunately, options for dealing with them are awkward. It isn't simply that no one wants to hurt a colleague's feelings. It's also the knowledge that you will see the offender -- and he or she will see you -- forever, and neither of you will be able to forget the torturous conversation. As a result, many people just frown and bear the discomfort, forced into one of the office's countless endurance tests.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Many years ago, I was quite young, and ignorant. I went to work with perfume on. The cook at the restaurant who was the store manager starts screaming, "What is that stench?" I was uninformed about his allergy, and found out the hard way.
I was very hurt, and embarassed. It has kind or cured me from wearing much of any scent. From that point on, I would just shower with soaps or gels of little scent, and threw out all my perfumes.
It has been a long time, and I have never forgotten this. I am very careful not to offend, but you can't please everyone, so I have learned in my years of experience.
True story:
I once had a temporary employee working at a client of ours. The client called me and told me that they didn't want her back due to her "offensive odor". They didn't offer much more by way of details, so I gathered what I could, and prepared to counsel the employee.
She came into my office the next day to be counseled on the loss of her job. I approached the subject in a round-about way, tip-toeing around the issue. I couldn't just come out and say, "They think you stink! Take a bath!".
But, I asked her, "You know...sometimes someone's 'personal scent' can put other people off. Were you wearing a heavy perfume or something that day that might have affected someone?"
She thinks about it for a minute, leans in, then says, "Oooh, you know what it might have been Joe...I think I forgot to change my pad that day.."
**end retch alert**
Well, these people must be raised in a barn. What ever happened to common sense and courtesy?
Like the one poster above: a woman decided to do her nails on a PLANE? How asinine is that!
It wasn't you unless you have a Ph.D in geophysics from the University of California at Riverside. But thanks for the warning in case we ever meet in a building with elevators.:)
I used to work for my cities electric company. Part of the office consisted of a drive-thru area set up just like a bank would have. The room was maybe 5'7' and only had room for two small desks, a chair and small bookcase. One of our cashiers must have had a phobia of soap,water and toothpaste. One of our other cashiers was forced to sit in this small, locked room with him for hours at a time.
I'm in S. Florida so this gives you an idea of how hot we get and how much sweat is possible.
There were times I'd go into the drive-thru and literally gag at the smell. Finally, I'd had enough, and the other cashier was about to leave if something wasn't done about her co-workers order. I went to the director and supervisor about the problem and neither would do a thing about it, let alone just ask this particular employee to PLEASE shower and brush his teeth.
Not long after that, I left working there (amid other severe problems that went on). The other cashier stayed after finding out her co-worker was being transfered to another department.
You beat me to it; we're turning into a nation of chronic complainers who nonetheless can't bring ourselves to confront our problems, so we want "a law"!!
"Girly-men" indeed...
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ewwww, gross!
That is nasty
How were you supposed to know he had an allergy. I'll bet money he didn't. You were his scape goat for the day.
There is nothing wrong with perfume as long as you don't bathe in it. It certainly is better than having BO.
There was a girl on our hall my freshman year of college who had a serious foot odor problem. Her roommate tried to endure it, but finally had to have a serious talk with her. Fortunately, the "stinker" took it graciously and took all possible steps to ameliorate the problem.
I knew I misspelled it the second I hit "enter." Oh well. You know what I mean. :)
That phrase then became a running joke in our office.
"Mike's out sick today."
"Why? Did he forget to change his pad?"
*insert riotous laughter here*
I left there about 2 years ago, but I still keep in touch with one of my former co-workers. He says the phrase is still used to this day!
Now, these boys come from a culture that does not value daily showers or deodorant, and to make it worse they would go out on their lunch hour and play soccer very hard for an hour before coming back to their desks. And they would eat a lot of curry. The effect was bad enough to knock you down. Then they would wonder why the American girls didn't like them, even though they were tall, blond, gorgeous, and had six-figure incomes. They were all nice as pie, too. But they were lonely and becoming increasingly depressed by their near-continual rejection.
I had to explain to them, lovingly, that no American woman would look at them unless they started showering EVERY day and using deodorant. They thought this was very effeminate. Clearly clean American men were not as manly as they were, since everyone knows stink is masculine!
Wouldn't you know it, one of them--the geekiest of them--found a gorgeous, angelic American girl who thought his stink was nice. (They got married after a few months together and have been happily married for fifteen years.) Their relationship immediately persuaded all the other Dutchmen that it wasn't really, really necessary to go through all that nonsense about showering in order to get a pretty American girl, so they went back to stinking.
I'll tell you, being in an elevator with a bunch of smoking, reeking Dutchmen is enough to make you pass out. I love the Dutch, and the women are dainty and smell just fine, but some of the men just do not get it.
Perfume allergies are more common than we realize, I think. In our church choir, the director always reminds us not to wear perfume because being close together and singing really affects one of the members - and it isn't me because I never said anything.
I have always had a bad reaction to perfume. Usually I get a horrid headache within minutes if it is pretty strong, or close by. Sometimes I get nauseated. If it is added to soaps, shampoo, detergents, I will break out in a rash. So do a few of our kids. My mother always used to get mad at me when I was young because of it. But it isn't exactly something I could help.
Age has tamed it down somewhat, but I am still fairly sensitive to it and other chemical smells too.
My only bad experience with a co-worker was at my first job in radio. He was nice enough, but was about 5'3" and weighed well over 300lbs. There was not one DJ at either the AM or FM station that wanted to man the booth after this guy finished his shift.cans of Lysol and deodorant left in the studios were met by him with oblivion - he had no clue. And no one had the cojones to say anything to his face about it.
He got a clue shortly after he started helping out in the news department when we were a person short. One day he complained to the other newsperson about the ashtray in there and actually brought in a portable smoke eater. I had no problem with the thing because it actually removed much of the stench of his BO from the room, but was a bit torqued about the fact he only complained about smoking in the news room and not any of the other studios.
One day he made a serious mistake - he demanded I stop smoking in the newsroom. I let him have it with both barrels about what everyone else in the entire place was putting up with him and his poor hygiene. He truly had no clue why there was always Lysol, Air Freshener and deodorant cans in all the studios. I became a hero at the station because his hygiene improved immensely following that altercation.........and I continued to smoke in the news room!!!
What was really and truly sad, was that his wife and 7 kids all had equally poor hygiene. At the time he was studying to become a minister and left the radio station about 6 months later.....I always prayed that his congregation would not have to suffer what we did at the radio station.
I vote with you, except in the cases of co-workers that deliberately wait to pass gas until the elevator doors shut.
Ha! It seems that I often get on an empty elevator just after the "phantom farter" has departed. I'm on the top floor, so as the elevator goes down and someone else gets on and wrinkles their nose, I want to shout, "but I didn't do it! I didn't do it!"
We have a friend whose wife told me he cannot tolerate perfume and even make-up with fragrances, so out of courtesy I avoid perfume when we get together with them. I think being in closer proximity to people/industrial things has made many more people MORE sensitive now.....where in the past we had the wide open spaces.....and less perfumed fragrances also.
I must disagree. I developed a terrible allergy/migraine trigger to scent.
I used to wear perfume when I was younger, and I do miss it a lot. I have to use scent-free dryer sheets, laundry soap, etc. Otherwise ,I get terribly congested and am left with a headache to die for, which can go on for more than a day.
Mind you, I can handle gasoline smells, car exhaust, and cigarette smoke with no problems.
It ia terribly difficult to bring up people, but I manage to do so. I've never had anyone get upset with me.
And I too have learned the art of not breathing when stuck in an elevator.
BTW - the amount someone is wearing isn't indicative of anything. At one client, I was getting bad headaches every time I talked with this one woman who never wore perfume. I mentioned it to her one day, she pulled out some scented handlotion I could barely smell, and my headache kicked in. The next few days, she didn't put any on, and there was no headache. So, it's the molecules in the air that enter your bloodstream, not necessarily what you can smell. I have to say that as I get older, I am starting to be able to tolerate some scents, but it is slow going.
I'm still searching for a link, but I'm pretty sure someone set up an electronic B.O. notification site. You just provide the recipient's email address and they get a nice message that says, to the effect, "a good friend of yours wanted to pass along the information that you are emitting some pretty bad body odor; you may want to take steps to eliminate it."
It's a great idea. You could also print this thread out and leave it on the offender's desk, if necessary.
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