The imbecilic gigglebitch who sits on the other side of a low divider from me used to shpritz herself liberally with a hideous cologne. It was so gag-inducing that the attorneys of the department complained and she was promptly shut down. I snuck a look at the product in question when she was away from her desk - it was Calgon brand Tropical Heave or some shit like that.
So now, not to be denied her stink ration, she has switched to some godawful scented hand lotion. She’s technically evading the “no perfume shpritzing” law, but the result is the same for me. I sit within about five feet of her, so I get the full blast of this new cack. It’s called “Christmas Cranberry” lotion. I had to walk to another department for awhile to get some fresh air. When I started walking back to my department ten minutes later, I could start smelling Cranberry Cack a good 100 feet away.
God, I don’t want to the fight this battle. So many people who use this crap think they smell like heaven on earth, or that they only use “a little bit”. If I start complaining, I’ll have to deal with her hissy fits and I don’t have the strength.
Shoot me your office manager’s email address, along with the name and cubicle location of the offending party. I’ll be happy to email in a complaint that the smell is bothering me all the way down in Southern California.
Any chance that she has a medically-related bodily odor problem that she’s trying to mask? Or, less charitably, is there any chance that she has a substance abuse issue that she’s trying to cover up?
I do feel your pain…the new temp worker likes to marinate in some cheap crap that smells a lot like something you might use to clean a nasty shower. It’s quite powerful, as it has managed to completely cover the smell of the musty books in the room where she works.
I removed the smelly hand lotion from the bottle in the ladies room and refilled with a scentless version. Can you just add a small amount of unscented lotion each day. She’ll think it’s the bottle that lasts forever and each day you’ll be closer to a scent free workplace.
I took my cats to a new veterinarian recently. Apparently, the guy bathes in some horrific Polo-esque abomination. Now, three days later, my cats still reek of the shit.
Our manager sent out an email to our new contractors today, asking them not wear (marinate in) perfume, because our air cleaner isn’t able to keep up with the stench, I mean scent. I had an asthma attack just walking by one of them today. What’s weird is that they didn’t stink last week, when we were all working in a conference room together. I think I’d rather smell BO.
My boss once got a little sample of some horrible lotion. I think it was “Midnight Pomegranate” from Bath & Bodyworks. On first sniff it was nice, but you actually used it it stank like none other. Normally lotion smell fades after a little while- this stuff did not. My boss washed her hands several times but the scent still followed her. I think she got some Clorox before she got it out.
I only use weak smelling lotions. My favorite is “green clover and aloe” as you can only smell it if it is close to your face. It fades away pretty fast, too. I couldn’t imagine using something strong, it’s make me gag.
Our office building has little air-freshener spritzers in each of the lifts (aka elevators). At random times during the day, they spritz a little God-awful stink into the confined space of the lift. It’s very important, when you walk into the lift, to choose a location not directly in the line of fire, otherwise you get to spend the rest of the day smelling like cheap whore!
This makes me laugh reminding me of when I THOUGHT (honestly, I did) that I was doing a co-worker a favor by telling her that the lotion she was using was the exact same scent as scented pads. I mean, every time she used it I thought “Man, she’s on the rag again??” then finally grabbed the bottle and smelled it. She was offended. I still think I did her a favor, because mad as she was, she at least stopped reeking of eau de period cover up for a while.
I get seizures, and my trigger is strong smells and/or stenches. So before I was on meds, someone with really strong cologne would trigger one.
(Not the huge, black out, bite your tongue one. More the little, confused, brain spinning, nonsense thoughts, weird smells and panic attacks, that only lasts a few seconds, but really really suck)
If I were you, I’d start coughing and blowing your nose, and then go complain to your boss that apparently you’re allergic to all this perfumed shit that IB is slathering herself in, and could she please be ordered not to wear scented anything (except deodorant!). Because otherwise you’ll have to go out on disability until they can resolve the problem.
Who knows, it might work.
Mama Tiger, who also has had 911-worthy asthma attacks from cheap perfume
I remember my little sister once just had to wear a particular sweatshirt to school one morning. Unfortunately for us all, she had worn that particular sweatshirt to the barn the previous afternoon and had apparently used it to dry a sweaty horse. I’m exaggerating, but only slightly. So she covered it up with perfume, put the sweatshirt in her bag, and got in the car to go to school.
We ended up making the sweatshirt ride outside the car, hanging from the window, in December with rain flooding in the window in a desperate attempt to escape the stink. Yuck!
