"Can offensive body odors in the workplace make people physically and emotionally ill?"?

Question

"Offensive body odors in the workplace"

Answer 1

Well, it's never happened to me personally, but i have had the misfortune of having a manager of mine stink like a man who had'nt showered in weeks.! He also was a smoker and had really bad breath. Yeah you got it..yellow teeth..oily hair, dirty looking fingernails He reeked no matter where he went. He would walk out of an office and leave his stench in the there after he was gone!..Reeeely bad! Everyone talked about him behind his back..I however, since he was my manager and was the person who approved my raises and such, did not have the balls to tell him the truth. I know, I just felt i did'nt know him well enough to come out and say it..ya know?..I never got physically ill over it but then again i did'nt have to kiss, sleep, or actually work right beside him or anything Thank God!..luckily he ended up transferring to another company. We all still wonder to this day how people there handled it.
I think back now, and if i could do it differently?..I would write a polite letter letting him know in kind words how bad he needed to take better care of his hygeine..it would have at least been an attempt to help our situation. He was actually a nice man that did'nt have a clue as to how horrible his smell affected everyone.

Answer 2

i believe so i had a customer who actually had an allergic reaction to a man who had an offensive odor and tryed covering it with a very strong Cologne... i know eeeehhhh but yea she got 2 weeks of sick time just because a co- worker didn't have good hygiene

Answer 3

Yes, it can. There are numerous cases of co-workers having to file grievences with their co-workers due to foul odor.

Good luck!!!

Answer 4

i totally believe it can...i'm so sensitive to odors that i get sick to my stomach...despite the fact i can handle all sorts of visually challenging scenes..patients bleeding, having skin abscesses...but once i get a whif of something nasty, it's over!
perhaps you can keep a small air wick or one of them deodorizers on your work desk...and keep handy a small vial of perfume that you can apply to your wrists and to the collar of your shirts....hope that helps!