The cuffs absolutely did smell like patchouli but I had gone nose blind to it. Office politics are a tricky business. They figure X wasnt so hard, so X+1 shouldnt be a big deal either. Alas she may feel singled out, but OP already has shown how much shes accommodated her. She was here before me, and Ive been here three years. In the end she still has the same title as seven years ago and I (and another co-worker she bullied) have moved on to bigger organizations, titles, pay and mindsets. Has your boyfriend gone to an ENT? My friend actually did his dissertation on this topic. And if the smell is in your bath towel or sheets, traces of it could be getting on you without you realizing it. I remember wanting to scoop my eyeballs out in classes or long, multi-hour exams with chronic snifflers, even though I have a chronic low-grade sinus infection Ive struggled to treat my entire life. LOL I do admit Ive had that urge. Maybe you should get your nose checked out!) or tell her to cut it out (X, I stopped wearing that when you originally asked me to. I am only saying this in the hopes that getting to the bottom of the issue will make it easier to figure out a solution. Its not like we banned cilantro-flavored food. Its Bully 101 to push and push and push until the victim explodes, and then so and so blew up at me for NO REASONoh, poor me. As someone who is also sensitive to strong smells and doesnt often up about it for fear of pushback, your reaction is exactly the kind Id appreciate. BLOW YOUR NOSE! Im not giving these things as excuses or to say its more important than somebodys life, just giving more variables as to why guaranteeing a scent-free environment is pretty much impossible past a certain point. It's a little passive aggressive but can't hurt. And Im certainly not going to be a jerk about it. Weve worked together on this project for about six months, and been in the same office for about three years? yeah, Ive always associated with stoner culture more than hippies or POC to be honest. Good idea! Another thought that just occurred to me is a cloth car seat, so maybe while the clothing items were washed, perhaps its being transferred from other places. I actually had a coworker use this as a bullying tactic about 7 years ago. Ugh, this. Theres a lot of people here with many suggestions on how to work with your co-worker to stamp out any lingering smells. Its possible something else has changed with the co-worker and thats why the scent all of a sudden became a problem in the last month. Im not trying to like, lecture you, but I really think more people should be made aware of just HOW BAD Febreeze is. Time. Your box of tissues has become your closest companion (and admit it your sleeve has been called in to pinch hit on a couple of terrible occasions). I have coworkers who occasionally wear scents, but we work in different areas, and I only have to endure the smell during the elevator ride, etc. There's no need for you to take it any further. Snarky or not, it does highlight that the problem is the co-workers to solve, not the OPs. . Yesterday your breath smelled and that's going to hinder talking to customers. Your nose is a faucet, and theres no way to turn it off. But never together in a million years. I totally read this as coworker just being a power-tripping, Mean Girls style jerk. This co-worker is handling things very immaturely, but patchouli is a big red flag. Guess what? Sniffle. Certainly the OP cant be the only person who, although she has made Herculean efforts to go scent-free, has some sort of body-wash/laundry/dryer sheet scents lingering. They Don't Like You Yes Tom Ford has a fragrance called White Patchouli that I refer to as my rich hippie perfume. I was going to say this. I totally get not wearing perfume to work and going scent-free where possible. I think coworker, at this point, enjoys seeing OP fly into a panic about stinking so shes keeping up the Ooh, you stink! commentary. OP, is there a possibility of moving your (or her) physical location? Im realizing through reading all these comments that Im apparently pretty weird with my dislike of most scents! Concerns are shared. Detergents, bath soaps for the kids (I still use my cheap stuff for myself though). It sounds like you have misophonia. (And even if she werent, the co-worker is clearly going about this the wrong way!). My coworker walks in after 8:00 a.m. every single day. What else can be done? If not, there you are. I saw Gordon Ramsay once tell a team member of a struggling restaurant that he had bad breath. Thank you, Ill suggest that to my manager! Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. And it smelled basically like light body sweat. Sigh. I have very short (pixie-length) bleached and dyed hair, and the schedule I have works really well for both the color and the texture of my hair. My coworker is constantly coughing and blowing her nose My coworker who I share an office with has been sick for the past month and a half. Oh, thats a really good observation. right now, but Ive had this schedule for about 10 years now, so my hair is used to it, and I have a whole network of people I trust to tell me if its time to wash again. I know were not supposed to criticize OPs, but come on. Allow your puppy little sniff breaks along the walk to decompress from walking alongside you in Heel and get their fill of scents. (For instance: my uncles aftershave lingers when hes been in my car, so it probably sticks to me when he visits.) The sense of smell is one of our strongest senses & it can cause strong emotions. 8 Tips on How to Deal With Difficult People at Work. Stop using the lemon-scented body wash for a few days and see if she keeps making the comments. Maybe its made a home in her subcutaneous fat. From what Ive read, it seems that if this happened to me I would have to spend several hundred dollars replacing every toiletry and all laundering supplies in my home, wash everything I own multiple times and most likely get all coats and heavy fabrics dry cleaned, and even THEN the coworker may still not be happy with my potential scent. Boss talked to her, and she insisted she hadnt sprayed anything.but I had 2 witnesses who said she did. Maybe that really is whats going on here. Although her coworker would probably be like your smock smells bad., I, for one, welcome my new sterilization chamber overlords. Its almost impossible to smell like nothing at all throughout the day. You have a meeting. >>She's super nice and friendly and it kills me that I hate her. I think at this point, management needs to be involved. I dont know if its the food they eat (not curry or garlic) or what, but they smell like Home Country when they visit America. :). For about a week, it was great! My sister worked a local deli/crab cake place in high school and smelled of Old Bay to the point that shed walk in the door and strip off her shoes and clothes and not take them to her room. This is my biggest hurdle. Meanwhile I agree that its time to tell Coworker to stop. OP has done a lot already and coworker is just being snarky. I'm a 54 yr old female. But youre not alone and I for one believe youre probably not the problem. 10% off Management Today's Leadership Learning programme. Toxic coworkers are, first and foremost, predominantly selfish individuals. For the most part, he leaves juuuust late enough 4 days out of 5 that it happens either as everyone else is about to leave or has already left, so no one has ever said anything to him about how unpleasant it is. I strongly suspect the scent isnt the problem, its that the OP has become the co-workers BEC for some reason. I have awful memories of the time my luggage was lost by an airline. On that tip, OP, I find oils to be *awful* not only do they stick to fabricate around you, but the scents they carry are so concentrated. My mother loves her strong old lady perfume. I couldnt smell any cinnamon candy for years after. For a while I just wore grapefruit scented essential oil on my wrists and neck instead of perfume, but it would fade away so fast I eventually just stopped. Or, you could treat it like other medical accommodations, and look to HR for guidance on how to make things work. I like the idea to get a blunt friend to do the sniff test, but basically I think the ideas about limiting physical contact are the best way to go at this point; Im a little afraid of sending the OP down a rabbit hole of onerous scent minimization that may not solve the problem. It sounds like your coworker is a drama llama and shes in the wrong. Sounds like this is a common bullying tactic. Dont spray too much if you do go looking for it! I believe it also has been done with similar results for people of color. +10000 the phrase is reasonable accomodation and op has gone above and beyond. Never in my life did I think I'd see Gordon Ramsay quoted positively in an etiquette forum, but there it is, and he did well. Men also use this gesture to stake their territory or to show other men that they're not afraid. We have placed a box of tissues on her desk, they are unused. Amazing. the people who are secretly working multiple full-time jobs from home, future manager is a bigoted jerk, boss hasnt paid me back, and more, weekend open thread February 18-19, 2023. If Im being charitable to the coworker, I think this may be happening; shes having a real reaction to a non-existent smell because she assumes its there. Because she is acting like a jerk. I dont like patchouli. My wife gave up chewing gum around me years ago, before I realized I was the one with the problem. I really hope thats not it. Natural stuff and the high end perfumes dont seem to cause the same reactions, unless Im already in the middle of a reaction chain. But Coworker is being a jerk about it, either way. That all said, if someone really has to try hard to smell things, then I fail to see how those scents could be so potent as to warrant the need to remove them. However, nothing I could do would fix the problem. If your coworker has Aspergers or some kind of sensory processing disorder, they could go through a doctor to have HR find them accommodations away from other people. I wonder if you can narrow it down to a certain article of clothing that really has held onto the smell. As soon as you have something unprovable that isnt supposed to be questioned, bullies and jerks will latch onto it. This is a good point. 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