Body Odor

Kymm

Hope I can get some suggestions here on how to handle this unpleasant situation.
I have been receiving numerous complaints from employees regarding a certain indivual (female) who apparently has extremely bad body odor as well as bad breath. Even though I am just hearing about it (I'm located in another facility) this has been the case for some time and people are starting to really get agitated over it. Would like some suggestions on how to handle it - what to say? At first I felt the manager should be the one to speak to her, however that is a "male" and I wonder if she would feel more comfortable if a "woman" spoke to her?? And I then was hesitant to get HR involved right from the start, because if she is spoken to and it doesn't help, then HR has already been involved and what would the "next step" be? Help!!

Don D

I flipped a coin for you and came up with this. I think its best for you (assuming you are female) to find an appropriate way and time to approach this person with a private conversation with frank honesty. I don't see a need to tiptoe around issues here or spend undue amounts of time analyzing a best approach, when something unpleasant can be found with each and every possible approach. Some might suggest a discreet and anonymous wicker basket of soaps and fragrances wrapped in celophane. But, I opt for the personal meeting with her just in case she does not follow your stated expectations. More than likely, she will not at all be surprised by your meeting with her. A few years ago I was a government office manager and one female employee wore ungodly, unpleasant amounts of some awful wretched fragrance every day. There is no way (or reason here) to adequately describe the nasal havoc it wreaked throughout the office. Everybody came to me for resolution. I agonized over it for awhile and finally wrote her a brief, confidential, kind note asking her to limit the fragrance. She was not embarassed by my note (that I know of), there was nothing confrontational, and she later thanked me. Your current assignment, should you accept it, is to sit down and look her squarely in the eye and tell her what the problem is and that you'll expect her to correct it. Afterwards, have absolutely NO conversations with those lurking about to see how you handled it. Take care of business, pick up your umbrella and head back across town to your office.

Margaret Morford

I might also add this. You need to tell her at the end of the day because all she will want to do is go home and hide. Don is right that you need to be straight forward, but humane. This converstaion should take no more than ten minutes. Managers draw it out trying to make the employee feel better when actually they are making it ten times more embarassing. The employee just wants to run away ASAP after being told. She will probably avoid you for about a month after that because she's embarassed. Accept that and let her work through her embarassment. Don't try to seek her out to smooth it over.

Also, you will need to let the supervisor know that you've spoken with her, but no details. Tell the supervisor that only the three of you know you've spoken to her and that it should not be shared with the other employees. She clearly will not share it, you won't, so if it gets out in the company, you are going to be looking at him as the culprit. If an employee talks to him about the situation, he should just say, "We're dealing with it." If the problem persists, you sit down with her again and tell her that whatever she's doing is not working. Suggest she may have a body chemistry problem that she needs to see her doctor about. The second talk makes it plain she needs to fix the problem because your are still getting complaints. If I have to have a third conversation with her (Thank goodness only once in my 25 year career), I tell her that I'm going to be forced to issue her corrective action for personal hygiene. I actually had to do this. We discovered the employee was sleeping in his car and wearing the same clothes for days at a time. Isn't this a great way to earn a living!

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Rockie

These are all really touchy issues. The perfume one is easier to deal with and MOST people are not aware that their perfume is so strong. The body odor is another matter. As you guys have already said, it's best to just go ahead and approach it frankly and (good point!) at the end of the day.

Some people do have medical problems that cause odors, but mainly, it's poor hygiene or lack of funds to buy soap, deodorant, etc.

I've only had to deal with this once myself, but the employee did take offense and drug out all her deodorants, etc. that she carried around in her purse with her. All I could say was this is well and good, but it's still not working. Try something else!

Yes, I agree, this is a great way to earn a living!

ritaanz

I can tell you what NOT to do. When I was confronted with complaints about a female employee's body odor, I asked the department supervisor to send her to my office. The woman also had a sister who worked in the same department. Later that day when the employee came to see me,I asked her to sit down and then proceeded to explain to her the reason I asked to see her. It took less rhan 5 minutes and I felt that it had gone well.

Wouldn't you know it, an hour later another female employee comes to see me and tells me her supervisor told her that I wanted to see her. You cannot imagine how I felt when I realized I had "counseled" the wrong employee. The first female, the sister, had come to see me because she had an address change and after she left my office went home in tears.

Don D

Wow! Ritaanz! I thought it was bad when the surgeon amputated the wrong leg! I never had an experience of calling in the wrong employee and going through a counseling session with him or her. I still have two concerns about the employee with the odor problem. First, the writer indicated it not only was body odor, but also bad breath. This doesn't point to a medical problem, or at least I would not wander in that direction. If, during counseling it turns out to be medical, fine. But, it seems to be a hygiene issue, and, therefore, my second (3-part) question....How did this person get through the interview process, who interviewed her and have you analyzed whether or not she appeared (and smelled) "satisfactory" during the interview(s)?

AnneLa

I have had to deal with this issue a few times in my career, both for body oder and for extreme fragrance. I agree that it's important to be direct but brief. The last situation delt with a female employe who smoked heavily and the odor was "on her and in her area" all day, every day. I simply called her into my office told her that there had been several employee complaints about the odor and she immediatley wanted to know "who" had complained. I told her that it did not matter who complained, that right now, I could smell the odor, that I was telling her. She was glad that it was me who told her and later thanked me for approaching an unpleasant topic in such a gentle way. She never smelled of smoke again