Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Hi. You smell so bad it makes me want to hurl.

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Hi. You smell so bad it makes me want to hurl.

    We're actually looking for a way NOT to say this, but it has to be brought up. This is the same coworker of "always has a headache" and "too needy" fame, but we all still have to work with her. I thought maybe I just had a sensitive nose, but today a coworker was whispering to me quietly about how do you tell someone they need a bath without hurting their feelings. The person in question is very. . .large, to put it nicely, and this isn't normal rancid BO. It's an almost fishy/cat urine kind of smell, and it's overwhelming if you're close to her. Today other coworker said she's afraid she's going to gag from it. Is thete a tactful way to do this or should we try bringing it up to the boss? If we notice, he has to, too, I know he does. If nothing is done at least two of us may end up tossing our cookies right there in the Pharmacy.
    The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

  • #2
    Your best bet it to have your boss deal with it. If you approach the employee, it could come back to bite you as harassment.
    Life is too short to not eat popcorn.
    Save the Ales!
    Toys for Tots at Rooster's Cafe

    Comment


    • #3
      This is a management issue.

      ^-.-^
      Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

      Comment


      • #4
        Ah, thanks. I guess maybe I can talk it over with the coworker from today and the two people who work with us on the weekend in a few days. The person having the odor issues really is a sweet person at heart, but her life is such a mess right now and it's starting to spill over into her work life in a bad way. Just today, I'm pretty certain she asked one of the pharmacists if she could borrow $500 from him

        The poor life choices and stupidity and attention whoring we can ignore, but the smell lingers. On the rare occasion I work late and give this person a ride home from work, it's all I can do to not breathe through my nose, and that's with the windows down and the a/c on full blast.
        The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

        Comment


        • #5
          Based on your description of her size and of the smell, she may well have intertrigo. Since you work in a pharmacy, the solution is right there.

          Intertrigo is an infection of the skin in skin folds. It can happen to anyone - armpits are one common location. But overweight people have more, and larger, skin folds so they can get more extensive intertrigo.

          She should see a doctor and have it confirmed, and have the infection treated.

          The preventative medication? Barrier cream. Simple, ordinary nappy-rash (diaper-rash) cream will do just fine. And since you're a pharmacy, you have it right on your shelves. If normal barrier cream doesn't do it, the pharmacist can check his catalogues for more intensive stuff.

          If it is intertrigo, the smell won't go away until the infection is cleared up; but it will improve as it gets cleared up. And she'll be a LOT more comfortable once it's cured.


          So yeah... management should have a quiet word to her, but what she most needs is a visit to the doctor and a couple of tubes of medicated cream.



          Edit to add: when I have intertrigo, I can stink immediately after a bath. I literally can't help it - prevention is the only way I know of to avoid it. Mid treatment, I smell of intertrigo and anti-fungal cream. Wheee.
          So I usually smell of 'baby-powder' smell, because the barrier cream I use has whatever that fragrance is in it. Oh well, at least it's a neutralish smell.
          Last edited by Seshat; 05-04-2012, 08:18 AM.
          Seshat's self-help guide:
          1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
          2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
          3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
          4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

          "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

          Comment


          • #6
            If it's what I think it is, that smell is nasty. Not in an unwashed or rotting sort of way, but it's own special brand of foul and disgusting.

            ^-.-^
            Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

            Comment


            • #7
              I'm fairly certain it is related to the extra folds and rolls that come with being heavy, but I'm not certain it's a condition, because today when she came in, there was no smell for a change. I take that to mean it washes off in the shower, as this used to be an end of the day kind of smell that I didn't notice until the two of us were leaving at night. Also, well, she gets her prescriptions here, and I've never seen any creams come through in her name. I don't care if someone is self-admittedly lazy, but not being arsed to even shower before work is going a little too far. If it is something that needs medical attention, she probably will balk at going to the doctor, since she's been in and out of doctors offices on almost a weekly basis for years now and has been in debt to the hospital, so unless it's life-threatening, she's not going to pony up the cash for the Dr and scripts.

              I've mentioned in conversation (before the smell ever became an issue) how it drives me nuts to have greasy looking hair and that I have to wash it before I go out anyplace if I think it looks a little funky, and her response was "Meh." She thought I was being silly and a little vain. She doesn't see anything wrong with going out or even to work looking like you've rubbed a greasy chicken carcass over your head.

              One of the three pharmacists we work with used to have kind of a 'ripe' smell about him. Given his heritage, I assumed the smell was from the foods he ate and just learned to shrug it off, even though I found it amusing that I could tell if he was at work just by the smell. The Cranky Pharmacist™ eventually couldn't take it anymore and asked the manager to say something to the ripe guy, and . . . I haven't smelled him since. All this time I thought I was smelling curry and I guess it really did turn out to be BO. I'm thinking we could do the same with this person, though I'm sure she'll take it personally and not just shower a little more and keep quiet about it like the pharmacist did. But I'd take the armpit smell over the stale fish/cat piss/stale smoke smell any day.
              Last edited by ShinyGreenApple; 05-05-2012, 12:37 AM.
              The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

              Comment


              • #8
                Ah, okay.

                Intertrigo (and possibly related conditions), as I said, the smell is noticeable (at least to me) immediately after a bath. Admittedly, intertrigo-plus-treatment-ointments doesn't seem to smell as bad, for some reason.
                Seshat's self-help guide:
                1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

                Comment


                • #9
                  It's still possible she has some other medical condition causing the smell, or that some medication she's on is causing it. Also, if she's that casual about clean hair, etc., maybe it's related to her clothes not being clean. In fact, based on your description of the smell, I wonder if she has a continence issue? Not that you would know, but this, combined with unwashed clothes, could account for it.

                  The manager should still speak to her, privately, if this continues to be an issue.
                  When you start at zero, everything's progress.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    If she does have a continence issue, there are both cloth and disposable continence panties. Cloth panties can be washed with the same stuff cloth nappies/diapers are washed with, and come out clean. Admittedly, most of them look like 'granny panties', but they look like ordinary granny panties - without close inspection, there's no way to tell. And they have no more 'panty line' than ordinary panties do either.
                    Seshat's self-help guide:
                    1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                    2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                    3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                    4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                    "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I kind of think a lot of it has to do with how she keeps her apartment. When she was in her old house (got taken by the bank), she didn't smoke in it and the cat and dog had their own room. That particular room stank to high heavens but it didn't permeate the whole house. At the new apartment, she smokes in it a lot and the 'kids' are in the laundry room, which isn't ventilated that well, and it's only a very small, one bedroom apartment. I don't visit her or stay overnights anymore, not only because of other issues, but I can't take the smell. You walk in and it's like cat box hell. Her husband apparently is expected to change it before he leaves for work at night, but most of the time he doesn't, and she doesn't change or clean it when she comes home at night, either. I think between that and the smoke it's just soaked into her clothes and everything else. I don't even want to think about what is causing the fishy smell.
                      The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Ewwwwww. Definitely talk to your boss, I would think that as a pharmacy your workplace has a policy on hygiene and/or appearance that basically says you have to present yourself as being clean and she doesn't seem to be meeting basic personal hygiene standards.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          I think boss may be getting pissed off for reasons from the other thread in COC. She called in again on Wednesday, claiming she had food poisoning. But the day before, she was being audibly gloomy about the fact that her husband would probably still be home when she got home because they don't have enough money to put gas in the truck and get him to work. No one went digging in their wallets for her this time, either. Also she waited until 20 minutes before shift started to ask both me and another coworker for a ride to work, knowing that both of us live at least 20 minutes away ourselves, even though she knew the day before that all three of us had the same shift. I flat out said no and other coworker didn't even answer the phone because she didn't hear it ringing.

                          Wednesday night both me and the one tech who got stuck working by himself were there with the pharmacy manager, who was the pharmacist on duty for that shift, and he was on the phone with the manager from another store, making sure she knew that he'd been given the go-ahead from the wellness manager to take one of her technicians and transfer her permanently to this store. This particular tech has floated with us before and is pretty nice. With Student tech also back for the summer, we'll have LOTS of help and hopefully the call ins won't hurt us as much now. But I've never seen boss take this kind of initiative hiring or transferring someone before since he drags his feet about everything, usually. He may have finally taken the proverbial straw on the camel's back.
                          The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

                          Comment

                          Working...
                          X