# My Employee smells like skunk **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 19, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530 "2014-07-19T13:43:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/101 "2014-07-30T23:24:59Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > If you won’t, or think you won’t, then you have a problem that needs to be addressed by a professional. You probably have an anxiety disorder, and will feel better with an actual prescription medication for anxiety than with weed, and your lungs will thank you, too. That ‘you’ll survive’ is what I said to my college friends back in the day who didn’t want to stop smoking, not couldn’t stop smoking. Don’t get me wrong, you have ::counts on fingers:: about 36 months in college, giving up pot for two of those months isn’t fun (I did it), but sometimes that’s part of life. But for months after that I had people asking me how I ‘beat’ my drug test and I was like “you saw me not getting high with you for the last two months, right? That’s how I beat the drug test. You’re not going to find any pill or supplement or remedy that’s going to work as well as just letting the THC metabolites flush out of your system and getting a legitimately clean test.” ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2014, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/102 "2014-07-30T23:35:26Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Is there actual treatment for pot smoking? showing you a list of employers that don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2014, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/103 "2014-07-31T00:29:21Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Is there actual treatment for pot smoking? Yes. About 1 in 10 pot smokers get addicted - i.e. the smoke pot to the detriment of being able to hold a job, it negatively impacts their relationships, they’d like to quit, and they can’t without help. And there are treatment programs. And, as RivkahChaya said, its also possible you are self medicating for something - anxiety, pain, depression - in which case getting treated for whatever is really the root cause of your use is healthy. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/104 "2014-10-24T00:25:32Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > If I’m right about the smell, then I need to put her on the testing schedule. > > Am I right? Or do I just need to counsel her on a hygiene issue? Any medical issues I should know about which might result in this distinctive odor? > > Thanks! Anyone the least bit curious how **TruCelt** has handled this (not to be asking her to reveal more than she can safely)? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/105 "2014-10-24T05:16:31Z")
How weird. About a week ago I moved the basil inside. The only available place where it gets enough light is the laundry room. Now, basil does not smell like weed, and it does not smell like skunk. (I will admit that weed smells like skunk. Some of it anyway. This new stuff. A bit.) But…my laundry room now smells like skunk. Or, truthfully, more on the weed-smelling end of skunk. Any clothes that hang there smell like that. If I let the basket of clean clothes sit around any length of time, they smell like it, and they seem to retain the scent into the drawers, etc. Really weird, but another possibility for somebody smelling like skunk. Although I do think someone mentioned basil somewhere in the thread. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/106 "2014-10-24T05:35:37Z")
Is a skunk sneaking into your house to eat your basil? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/107 "2014-10-24T05:59:27Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Is a skunk sneaking into your house to eat your basil? I would have thought that, but I’m sure my dog would have barked. Let’s just say, my dog would probably bark if a skunk sneaked into any house in a one-block radius. ETA: One block radius? Maybe there IS pot somewhere in my house. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/108 "2014-10-24T12:39:34Z")
Your dog is smoking pot. Probably with the skunk. Put your dog on a testing schedule. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/109 "2014-10-24T14:52:05Z")
Skunk probably brings the munchies. Has your dog been putting on weight? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/110 "2014-10-24T15:48:18Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > . . . > > Update: I did put her on the testing schedule. There would have been three or more people tested since then. I know that we had one dirty test, but the results are still anonymous, pending follow-up testing. I most likely will not be involved from this point forward, HR takes over from here. Hopefully they’ll get her treatment and re-assign her to a commercial contract. > > All I’ll get is a notification to open a requisition to refill the position. > > Bilge. ☹ So within a couple of weeks I got notified that she was being transferred to the close-out action team (Siberia for folks in my line of business). A few weeks after that 60% of us were dropped by the customer. I can only conclude that her test came back dirty, and some idiot discussed it with the client. Interestingly, she is still earning the same rate at a much easier (though soul-crushingly boring) job, while I am unemployed. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/111 "2014-10-24T16:19:33Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > So within a couple of weeks I got notified that she was being transferred to the close-out action team (Siberia for folks in my line of business). A few weeks after that 60% of us were dropped by the customer. I can only conclude that her test came back dirty, and some idiot discussed it with the client. > > Interestingly, she is still earning the same rate at a much easier (though soul-crushingly boring) job, while I am unemployed. > > ☹ Wait a minute, how can the customer fire you? You aren’t their employee. Did they scale back orders dramatically and you got laid off due to lack of work, or did they write a letter saying “We’re hopping mad and won’t buy anything more from you unless you fire TruCelt, she sucks!”? ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/112 "2014-10-24T16:41:49Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Wait a minute, how can the customer fire you? You aren’t their employee. Did they scale back orders dramatically and you got laid off due to lack of work, or did they write a letter saying “We’re hopping mad and won’t buy anything more from you unless you fire TruCelt, she sucks!”? They de-funded (or declined to fund the next quarter on) our Task Orders. Yes, yes they can. They didn’t say who specifically, but the job descriptions are by TO. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/113 "2014-10-24T17:33:17Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Yes. About 1 in 10 pot smokers get addicted - i.e. the smoke pot to the detriment of being able to hold a job, it negatively impacts their relationships, they’d like to quit, and they can’t without help. And there are treatment programs. 1 in 10 of what? Not all who have ever used cannabis, surely. That would be 10m current/former addicts in the US alone. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/114 "2014-10-24T18:14:35Z")
People who smoke pot don’t smell skunky, but people who grow it might. I remember someone (not me!) setting up a growing station in the basement, causing the whole house to smell remarkably skunky. I don’t remember the people smelling like that, but my sniffer isn’t great, and their density wasn’t very high, not like I’m sure people do today. It was like a dozen or so plants and a few grow lights, nothing really serious, but boy did it stink up the house. I don’t remember pot ready-to-smoke smelling terribly skunky, not like that house. I do remember when I picked up a hitchhiker in HA, and he pulled a bud (of “da kine I been grone”) out of a bag, it smelled like someone sprayed something minty and pungent in the car, but not particularly skunky. My point is simply that the finished product, and moreso, smoking the finished product, smelled very different to me than where it was being grown, and the latter was decidedly skunky. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/115 "2014-10-25T00:13:22Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I am unemployed. > ☹ I’m sorry. Are you coping? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/116 "2014-10-25T04:13:46Z")
> [@scoots](#): > > You mean she smells like a skunk? I don’t believe there is any connection between the smell of the animal and the smell of the strong weed. It’s just a coincidence that they bear the same name. > > If she smells like she’s been in a fight with a skunk then she’s probably been in a fight with a skunk Around here, there is indeed some weed that smells like skunk. Dunno/care if it is what is also referred to as skunk weed. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/117 "2014-10-25T04:15:17Z")
[nm ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/118 "2014-10-25T11:03:06Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > Around here, there is indeed some weed that smells like skunk. Hook a brother up? ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/119 "2014-10-25T18:16:53Z")
> [@Bozuit](#): > > 1 in 10 of what? Not all who have ever used cannabis, surely. That would be 10m current/former addicts in the US alone. Yep. 10m people who - if you use the definition that addiction is a habit that you pursue past the point where it negatively impacts your life - have had pot use affect their jobs, their school and their relationships. Who lie and steal to be able to feed their habit. Is this stunning? I mean, my kid is one of them - having pursued smoking pot at the expense of his grades, his girlfriend and his relationship with his parents. I know MANY people who choose to smoke even though it keeps them from pursuing jobs where a drug test is a requirement. People who dropped out of high school and college because they’d rather be high. I’m shocked its only 10M people who have done this. (How many pizza delivery drivers are in the U.S. - because most of them come to my door skunky and glazed over - delivering pizza because it fits in with their lifestyle choices). I’m not saying pot has the addictive characteristics of alcohol or heroin, where if you manage to kick it - you avoid it for the rest of your life because a single drink puts you in grave danger of ending up worse than you were before you kicked the habit. But lets be honest. People pursue all sorts of hobbies to the point where they negatively impact their lives - and weed is certainly one that I would think anyone who hasn’t spent their lives in a cave has watched someone they know (or at least someone they know of in high school) make stupid decisions in order to feed their habit. Now, the people I know who smoked pretty extensively as young adults have more or less made good - unless they made more serious choices (like extensive alcohol use, or meth, or serious cases of Peter Pan syndrome) - hold jobs, own homes - but they did get a delayed start. And now that my friends and I are beginning to think retirement is getting scarily close, suddenly that delayed start is scaring some of them. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530/120 "2014-10-25T18:24:18Z")
The thing about heroin and alcohol vs. pot is that you can literally quit pot any time you want, you just may have a psychological dependence that keeps you from wanting to. With heroin or alcohol, you can actually die from withdrawal, so you need medical assistance to quit if you are physically addicted. I’m not trying to belittle the costs of marijuana dependence, but sometimes you hear about uninsured people who are still using heroin or drinking while waiting for a bed in a free or sliding scale rehab facility, because they want to quit, but they don’t want to die. Physical dependence is the reason. The DTs can kill you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-employee-smells-like-skunk/693530.md?page=7)