Bad Odors in the Workplace

[Gryffindorian]

I work in an office environment where there have been numerous complaints from staff about unpleasant odors. We used to have an employee from another department who would come to our floor in accounting just to use the microwave oven in our kitchen area. He would heat up some kind of dish with a very strong fish odor, much to the dismay of the employees who were near the break room. The staff complained to their supervisor, who sent an e-mail to the guilty person asking him not to do it again, but he continued to do so from time to time. We also posted a sign in the kitchen, recommending to use the other microwave in the lobby for smelly dishes.

Recently, we've had a few employees who complained about excessive fragrances used by other staff. A few of them also have chronic respiratory problems, so their supervisor decided to order an air purifier/ionizer for each of them.

Lately, my next-door cubicle neighbor "Dick" has been having seafood for lunch. He always eats at his desk, and the smell of his Asian food doesn't normally bother me, but sometimes the smell of shrimp or rotten fish is overwhelming! Even our kitchen area is filled with the smell of Dick's lunch. I plan on bringing up this issue to my supervisor, and perhaps he can do something about it. Dick is generally a nice guy, and I didn't want to be confrontational and say anything about his stinky lunch.

How do you feel about unwanted odors in your place of work? I think if someone is eating food with a strong distinctive odor, he/she should go to a common area, like the employee lounge, and eat in there. What say you?

 

[SmoothieX]

Dick is generally a nice guy, and I didn't want to be confrontational and say anything about his stinky lunch.

Always remember to pass on stinky Dick.

 

[RoJoHen]

Our copy room smells like Jagerbombs.

 

[Gryffindorian]

I do admit - I eat breakfast at my desk all the time, but since I have maple brown sugar oatmeal every day, the scent is not objectionable. People actually love the smell of pancakes at my desk.

 

[RoJoHen]

Oh, I eat at my desk all the time, and most people hate me because it makes them hungry. I can usually hear people going, "Ugh, that smells so good" from down the hall.

 

[Kirby]

Fish in the office should be outlawed. We haven't had anyone microwave it here in a long time, but we do have someone that will crack open a can of tuna a couple of times per week, which is nasty. What's worse is the smell in the kitchen at the end of the day when that can has been sitting in the trash for 4 hours.

We used to have someone who would wear way too much perfume, and then would 'reload' during the day. That was horrible.

 

[thestrangequark]

Once one of my 8 year old students got into Daddy's cologne before school. It was terrible and adorable at the same time.

 

[Holdfast]

The worst is when someone has body odour issues and never does anything about it. I mean, they have to know, right? I remember a couple of people like that and it was always slightly frustrating when I had to work with either of them. Fortunately they're both nice people otherwise, so I couldn't feel too bad about it.

Funnily enough, I think someone must have finally had a word with each of them because the last time I saw them, no problems.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

LOL, I work in retail and once, someone cooked either fish or cream of broccoli (the smell was so bad it could've been either) and it not only stunk up the break room, but it stunk up the store so customers could smell it. Needless to say we took that person aside and had a conversation about it. (I was a supervisor, so I could.)

 

[An Officer]

Any small confined space shared by people on a regular basis should require everyone be hosed with hot water and strong soap on the way in - including their food. Homemade soap can be edible.

 

[auntiehill]

This is why mankind invented air-freshener.

My hubby works at a University and one of the professors, an older man originally from Moscow, decided he just wouldn't bathe anymore. No shower, no deodorant, no nothing. And he smoked a pipe every day.

The man smelled so badly that the office manager bought a case of air freshener and handed out a can to everyone in the office, for the sole purpose of spraying it after the professor had come in or walked by.

The department chair forbid anyone from mentioning the B.O. to problem to him, since he was a big-wig and didn't want to upset him. Plus, I think the guy was going through some personal problems, as well. THANK GOD, a fellow Russian, a grad student, convinced him to take up swimming at the University pool, so now, at least twice a week, he gets dipped in chlorinated water.

But, really, in an office setting, if the smell of someone's food really bothers you, ask them to spray some air-freshener afterwards, and put the remains in a separate plastic bag before dropping it in the trash. You can't really complain about what someone chooses to eat, but you can ask that they dispose of it in a manner that will make the odor less noticeable.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Most stores I've worked in designate a certain trash can for all food to go in. And even though I don't think I cook anything offensive, I still tie the remains up in the plastic bag I bought it in. That should be required.

 

[Q2UnME]

Hey Gang. I work at a soybean processing facility. You have no idea what "stink" is until you've experienced rotting wet vegetable matter in the heat of July. Then there's the waste water treatment facility ... if the wind is just right, almost certain instant vomit... The joys of being an engineer...

Q2

 

[Robert Maxwell]

At my job, there were complaints about people microwaving popcorn--the smell would permeate the whole building and some people really don't like it. We also have a couple employees who are from China and often cook things with a high fish content, and thus the fishy smell. So yeah, I get that. We just let it go.

There's also a cafeteria in the building, adjacent to our leased space. Now that is annoying, if only because everything they cook can be smelled throughout our office, and it makes us hungry.

 

[SPOCKED]

I work in a hospital... so... yeaaaaaah

 

[Bob Karo]

I work in a hospital... so... yeaaaaaah

I work on an ambulance. Same problems, smaller space.

"Oh! Someone had the nerve to eat something that smelled strong enough for me to notice!"

STFU and be happy you coworkers don't have a bowel bleed.

 

[Ruaidhri]

My office has a "No Microwaving Fish" policy. It gets broken maybe once every two months now, which isn't so bad. But this happened when the president of the company was in the office one day, his olfactory sense was extremely offended, and he instituted the ban.

I've also had to pull employees aside regarding BO issues, and it's very uncomfortable for the poor employee, who sometimes really has no idea they stink. Old people are prime example of the stink-unaware who sometimes have to be reminded about their personal hygiene.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I work in a supermarket, so I smell food every day. Bad odors? No.

 

[SmoothieX]

My cube was adjacent to the break room for the longest time. I got to smell a pot of cheap coffee being brewed every hour that smelled like someone dropped a deuce in there. That, and whatever people microwaved for lunch.

Also, we have some folks that do hazmat sampling. So every once in a while they bring in soil that smells so strongly of petroleum products it makes me gag.

 

[Kirby]

"Oh! Someone had the nerve to eat something that smelled strong enough for me to notice!"

STFU and be happy you coworkers don't have a bowel bleed.

Ok you win... but you've probably never had a patient burn a bag of popcorn in your ambulance.