The company is a microcosm of very different individuals with whom you sometimes have to learn to deal. With increasingly confined shared workspaces, it is sometimes difficult to accept the promiscuity of collaborators with poor hygiene. One of your colleagues gives off a rather unpleasant odor and this prevents you from working to the maximum of your possibilities. Depending on your level of understanding with this person, most often it is better not to hesitate to speak frankly about it, but it is better to choose your moment. In any case, avoid displaying your colleague in front of everyone or pointing out their smell in a tone of open mockery:prefer a neutral place, outside the company. Why not go have a coffee after work and talk to him in confidence? Even if the subject is not easy to bring up, make it clear to him that it is for his own good and that this is how he (she) can relate to others in the club without risking unwelcome taunts. /P>
Obviously, if you feel rather close to the person, it is easier to tackle this kind of problem without too much awkwardness. On the other hand, if the colleague in question is not part of his close circle of acquaintances, it is difficult to attack this subject head-on. If you don't feel like talking to him directly, don't hesitate to use some roundabout means to direct his thoughts or the conversation towards this problem of bad body odor. If it's too strong a scent for your taste, direct the conversation to your favorite scents and manage to know his and make him understand that you only appreciate it moderately. If it's a hygiene problem, point out the bad smell in the room and ask yourself where it can come from. Giving him deodorant for his birthday may lack subtlety, but sometimes you have to do what you need. If he (or she) really does not understand, you only have the superior's solution.
No law in the Labor Code allows an employer to sanction an employee for the smell he gives off. On the other hand, nothing prevents employees from reporting the problem to their line manager under the guise of a real inconvenience which can prevent them from working peacefully. Thanks to his position of authority, an executive or a manager may very well summon your colleague in question to his office and, in the privacy of this closed room, open the dialogue on the subject. A superior can allow himself this kind of discussion without risking being pushed back, his observations tinged with professionalism more than with disdain. It is up to him to know how to approach the subject without rushing the employee, to understand why and above all to help him find solutions to remedy it.
