How to appropriately address...
msimplyfree
4 Posts
feminine hygiene issues. I have a staff person that all her co-workers literally run when they see her coming because she smells so bad. How do I address the problem without being offensive?
Comments
That being said, I have found that the best way to address these things is to kind of cheat a little and give the employee an "out." (1) Make sure the meeting is held in a private, non-threatening setting, (2) gently tell the employee that there have been some complaints regarding some unidentified odor, and (3) suggest some benign reasons for a possible cause that the EE may not be aware of, i.e. changes in medication, changes in personal care products, washing machine problems, etc. This puts the pressure off the EE and gives you the opportunity to say, "you may want to see if any of these things may be happening in your life and try to correct them...if the problem persists, we will have to find another way to solve this problem." or something like that. Hopefully the EE will choose to correct the problem. However, if they are unaware of the odor, be prepared for some battles if they challenge you. If you are a subscriber, there are a few articles in the newsletters on this site about those battles - just do a search in the state newsletters for "hygiene issues."
This is perhaps the touchiest subject to have to deal with - good luck!!!
That seems to take care of it.