My colleague has a BO problem. How do I tell him?

Question

I have a colleague who has a bad BO (body odour) problem, but for some reason he does not seem to notice this. Some of my other colleagues laugh about him behind his back, but someone needs to tell him tactfully. How should I approach this? I work with him everyday so I dont want to cause unnecessary offence or a bad atmosphere.

Answer 1

You can't do anything about it unless you are blunt. I would suggest that you infer its a recent problem as he would be totally gutted if he knew that people thought of him as stinky. Humour is by far the best way of going about this. Making a joke of it eases the tension!

Answer 2

This is absolutely disgusting. I have the same problem with a colleague at work. Why cant people wash and use deodrant. I dont think there is much you can do. This person must be lower class as ive never came across this with middle class people (who know how to wash)

Answer 3

Very carefully - he may have an illness or not realise. My mum worked with a girl with a BO problem - she took in some deodorant samples and had a 'try this' session and gradually the 'atmosphere' did improve.
hope you can resolve the problem nicely
all the best

Answer 4

I knew a guy who asked someone how would they tell someone who had BO. He said he would just tell them. So the guy said "You smell".

Find out how they would like to be told and do it.

There's a medical problem where some people after a shower and deodourant can still smell, so go easy !!

Answer 5

You need to buy some 'Sure' - as this is a good product and slip it in his bag when he'd not looking.

Dont say anything, but you could stick a post-it note on the can saying "didnt want to offend you, but its been noticed you have an unpleasant smell - am only trying to help"

Answer 6

My dad had a colleague like this and everyone was being nasty to him behind his back but my dad went and told him outright.
The next day he came in really clean brand new clothes hair cut everything and people stared at him i won't tell you the exact words that he said but it was along the lines of tell me i smell to my face next time you *************** at least one person could come and tell me.

He will probably be grateful to you.

Answer 7

just spit it out in a very normal and understanding way. with a very friendly tone , and helpful. u could also ask him if he is aware of the fact that he smells, or if he has any disease or something that makes him smell so bad, and if is there something he could do... just tell him without any further hesitation , he might feel bad and will get mad at you but sooner or later he will realize that u did him a big favor.

Answer 8

I would advise you to be as professional as possible. Don't tell him in a taunting way. Just say something like, "Wow!! have you guys heard of that new soap...it works really well." or "Lord knows I love taking showers EVERYday...do you?" or even "We need to talk. You are my collegue and a friend and I have to tell you that...." Damn! that is a hard one!!!

Answer 9

take him to one side and explain to him the problem. i had a case like this when i was a manager and thats how i delt with it. it can either come out 2 ways, he can get very offensive but the smell will soon go as he will be paronoid, or he will upset but glad you told him.

Answer 10

to a house help it is easy just buy her anti-perspirant but not my immediate superior so when we had a chance we requested our manager to send him a seminar of sorts on good grooming. Our company has 1 day seminars on improving writing, speech class we requested for man and woman's good grooming so when it was approved he was sent and he was the first participant for our division.
After that we are all happy of his change i mean smell.