Touchy subject - Unclean Employee

agency123

We have a situation where we have an employee who doesn't have good hygiene. There is an "unclean odor". It will start out with a light smell then get worse as days go by. Other employees and customers have noticed. This employee does work in a "shared" workspace with others. There have been several complaints by co-workers that it is unbearable.

The supervisor did have a talk with the employee and stressed how important hygiene was and the result was the employee bringing in a doctors note stating there was a medical condition causing the odor. Can we request the doctor give a note on the actual condition? We want to help correct the probem but don't know where to start.

THanks for any instruction on how to handle this.

ACU Frank

Welcome to the Forum... You went right for the tough stuff on your first post!

I would have a sitdown with the employee, 1-on-1. Let the employee know you understand that there may be an underlying medical condition, but you want to offer your help in keeping the issue from being a distraction or affecting the perception others may have of this employee.

Remind the employee that many people associate body odor with negative personality traits, hygiene or habits - regardless of the reason. Your goal would be to make sure the employee is aware of the potential perception issue. If there truly is an underlying medical condition, then it is probably the employee's decision whether that perception is important. And it may very well be that the employee has tried everything, with no success. Keep in mind, if that's the case, it isn't a hygiene issue at all.

Irie

Welcome to the Forum. May I suggest that in the future you search the Forum for answers to your questions. This subject has been discussed numerous times and some very good responses have been given. We discuss many topics here.

agency123

I am sorry. I guess I just did not look far enough. I did look through the forum and did not find anything the same as this subject. Next time I will take more time to search.

Dasher

A possible hygiene problem has been addressed and ruled out as the employee has provided you with a medical note. Now you have to see if there is anything else the company can do as an accommodation for this "condition" so other employees will not suffer -- if indeed that is the complaint. Requesting the specific medical reason is not appropriate. It may be that an environmental adjustment can be made (air purifier, spray, or something like that).

You seem to want to insist that it is a cleanliness issue, when you have been provided with substantiation that that is not the case.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Yes, hygiene issues have been a frequent (and interesting) topic here but this poster's question is a bit different from most of the ones I have seen.

The question isnt "how to talk with Mr. Stinky" but what to do now that Mr. Stinky has presented a doctor's note that indicates the personal odor is related to a medical condition.

Thats different from what we usually see here. I agree with Dasher. There is no need to get into what the particular medical condition is. Move on to how you can mitigate the situation as much as possible and take care to avoid any remedy that appears to be retaliatory.

davids

I have dealt with a similar situation where an employee's medical condition was causing an offensive odor. We sent the employee back to the doctor to work on alleviating the odor. The doctor tried changing the employee's medication and was successful to a large extent. The employee still had an odor, but it was not quite as offensive as originally.

We decided that the employee's condition did not fall under ADA as it did not limit her ability to do the job or engage in other life activities. We reminded her to bathe often and launder her clothes often. The whole situation was embarassing for the employee, so she eventually quit.