How to deal with smelly staff

How to deal with smelly staff

Didn't find your answer?

A friend employs a woman in his shop who has bad breath and BO. She is a very good employee, but he is aware that it reflects badly on him and his business. What can he do?

He knows he needs to deal with this - but how?

I've searched for other Q&As on this site, but the only similar one stated that the cause of the bad breath and BO was diabetes, and my friend isn't aware of any medical reasons for this. The employee is foreign, and it could just be a cultural thing...?

I think that the first thing he should do is approach the subject with her sensitively, and hope that something changes. If it doesn't, can it be a disciplinary matter? To draw an analogy - if she was rude to customers, then he could make it disciplinary - if she offends customers in other ways (such as being smelly), can this be treated the same?

Thanks in advance for any comments.
Anna

Replies (5)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By AnonymousUser
10th Sep 2006 22:52

the best way to deal with this is to be subtle
first, you offer the person a lot of mint flavour sweets, chewing gum etc.,
second, you leave breath freshener and body odour sprays lying around,
thirdly, you start discussions about the dentist and hygienest, remarking that it is a good idea to see these people fairly regularly,
fourthly, you mention about the great bargains to be had in the local supermarket for dental products.

if all these subtle hints fail to work, I am afraid you are going to have to be blunt and say to the person:
did you know you stink badly of BO and your breath stinks to high heaven. Would you mind doing something about it please.
Or you could say: I am willing to bet that your shower is broken. I know plumbers can be expensive but you are going to have to get one round to get it sorted.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By User deleted
10th Sep 2006 13:10

Forgot to say...
...I am aware that this is not an accountancy question, but thought that someone may have come across this problem before and have some idea of how to (or how not to!) deal with it.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By AnonymousUser
11th Sep 2006 09:35

Feature
AccountingWEB's sister site HR Zone has covered this issue, which you may find useful:

What happened next? Dealing with smelly staff

I hope this helps to answer your query.

Kind regards,
Sarah Fletcher, Staff Writer, HR Zone and TrainingZONE

Thanks (0)
avatar
By AnonymousUser
11th Sep 2006 14:11

Smelly!
Im not sure I agree with the "leaving subtle hints" approach.
It might take a while for this approach to make an impact on the employee, and I know I would be more embarassed if after a few days/ weeks I realised this was directed at me, rather than if someone took me to one side and had a gentle word.

People often can't smell their own smells, so being direct but kind is the best approach, I think.

Thanks (0)
avatar
By User deleted
11th Sep 2006 16:31

I have had to deal with this
Some years ago I was FD of a company that had a credit control department of 6 people. All female.

The manager in charge of credit control was very good with her staff and she had a young deputy who was progressing well.

When the manager was in the first week of a two week holiday her deputy came to see me and told me that she had had complaints from the other staff that a new member of the team smelt. She was concerned that the others might take the matter into their own hands if nothing was done.

While I would have loved to leave the problem for the manager to deal with on her return, I realised I had to support the deputy and deal with it.

We saw her at 4:55pm to talk about her progress so far. When I raised the smell problem she was silent and just listened to what I said. If anything that made it more difficult for me.

To cut a long story short, when she left the meeting the rest of the office had cleared so she had some privacy. She went home and she came back the next day.

One side effect of dealing with the matter rather than letting it run was that my standing in the eyes of the credit control manager and her deputy was sky high.

Like making someone redundant, or dismissing them, you feel alot better afterwards because you have transferred the problem to them.

Thanks (0)