Stinky people at work

[PigletsPal2]

Years ago, I worked at the local community college as secretary to the
Director of Admissions, who was also the Foreign Student Advisor. This was well before the U.S. had strained relations with most of the Middle Eastern countries, and we had many students from that part of the world. I don't know if things have changed, but at that time these students did not share our standards of personal hygiene! The standing rule was no more than two students at a time in the Director's office, the door had to be left open, and air freshener was sprayed as soon as the students were out of sight!

At the State Department, one of the secretaries in the Consulate where I worked had a terrible body odor, but no one (including me!) had the guts to speak to her about it. I finally agreed to leave some personal hygiene supplies at her work station (out of sight of the rest of the office to save her embarrassment - she really was a lovely person), but I came back after office hours to place the basket so it wasn't there when I left work but it was there before I came in the next morning; I didn't want her to connect it to me! I admit it I'm a coward who doesn't like confrontation. But the good thing is that it worked!

Queen Colleen

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I have an incredibly sensitive nose. It's actually quite ridiculous. My husband jokes that my ancestors must have evolved from bloodhounds at one point. Anyway, back when I was teaching my fifth and sixth graders, I had to put air fresheners all over my room. I loved my students but many of them would come to me after PE and it was so nauseating. Some of the guys would realize that they smelled bad but since they didn't have time to shower, they decided the next best solution was to cover themselves in cologne. That's when I discovered that the headache from too much cologne was preferred to the nauseated feeling I got from BO.

 

[MsLeFever]

I teach college students and have been forced to have "the talk" with several students. They move into a dorm and stop showering or doing laundry. I just pull them aside and tell them they have to.shower before class or rehearsal. BUT I did once have a student say "Why? Does someone say I smell?" Um. Yes. Super awkward.

 

[JennaDeeDooDah]

I really believe that they are just so used to it that they don't notice. We had a patient that came to our hospital frequently and within minutes of her arrival, usually with her dad, the whole room smelled heavily of their BO. It was nauseating! And they always turned the air down to keep it really warm in there and that made it even worse.

As for co-workers, there is one man who delivers our supplies that absolutely reeks of cat urine. And of course, he likes to stand as close as physically possible to you when he needs to ask you to sign his delivery form. The worst is going into the supply room to get something while he is in there doing inventory. I have come close to passing out from trying to get in, get what I need and get out without taking a breath. It's horrible!

Not to skeeve you out, but I have been told that many people who are running meth labs smell like cat urine as they give off similar odors. I went to high school with a girl who was arrested for manufacturing meth and a mutual friend said that he had no idea that's what she was doing and just assumed she had a lot of cats, but that she did smell like cat urine. Blech.

 

[khertz]

Not to skeeve you out, but I have been told that many people who are running meth labs smell like cat urine as they give off similar odors. I went to high school with a girl who was arrested for manufacturing meth and a mutual friend said that he had no idea that's what she was doing and just assumed she had a lot of cats, but that she did smell like cat urine. Blech.

That's scary! He doesn't seem the meth lab type, but then they rarely do, do they?