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About Your Colleague’s Body Odor… To Tell or Not?

Teddy, your colleague, just informed you he had completed your share of a joint task. Yippee, you reached out for a friendly hug but his body odour overwhelmed your intention.

Another day, you are set to leave the office but got traffic report your route is congested. The other alternative is Teddy’s route, and he wants to ride with you!

The moment he settled in your car, the atmosphere changed. Your air freshener became powerless. Your car AC is bad and the heavy rain won’t let you roll down the window.

Congrats, you just got stuck!

Gentleman that you are, you feel diffident about telling him to do something about his unpleasant smell. Neither do you want to hurt his feelings. “Perhaps he was born with it”, you convinced yourself.

You have drifted to a tight fix: To tell or not to tell? Unless you plan to be the undisputed King of Tolerance (and endure indefinitely), telling is the way to go.

“But how?” you ask.

There are two ways: You can use the standard method i.e. talk to him directly about it in a calm and non-insulting manner. For instance, go like: “Teddy, I have noticed you have a bit (?) of body odour and I’m concerned that it is having an impact on your ability to interact with other co-workers.”

Or try a safer alternate method.  You can buy two very nice bottles of deodorant spray or perfume and bring them to work. Tell him you got a “buy one get one free offer” from a store, and you want him to keep the extra bottle.

Whichever approach you take, you are likely to breathe a sigh of relief afterwards.

P.S: And if by any chance you happen to be ‘Teddy’, well, take your colleague’s advice as just that: a piece of advice. And don’t just accept the perfume with gratitude, use it. Cheers!

Adeola Adewunmi is a Senior Content Executive at Mediacraft. A whiz at creating innovative designs, he channels his creativity by listening to his wide and varied taste in music.

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