What Would You Do?

I was listening to my fave radio station earlier, where the presenters were asking their audience what they would do, if they worked with someone who smelt bad. Would they tell them, or would they say nothing, and just live with the smell?

It was most amusing to listen to some of the answers, but it did strike a cord with me.

Years and years ago, I had a girl who worked for me, who not only smelt like unwashed knickers, she also used to look really scruffy, and she had a bird's nest thing going on with her hair. (I'd inherited her with the job.)

The thing was, she was absolutely wonderful at her job, she was super-organised, and the clients liked her. Now if she'd been a back office member of staff, then I probably would have just lived with it, but unfortunately, she was in the public eye quite often, so something had to be done.

I thought for ages about how to broach the subject, then I decided that I simply couldn't tell her that she looked a mess, and that she stunk to high heaven.

Instead, I booked the whole office a make-over, fully equipped with a beauty consultant, and got our local Toni and Guy to give us all free haircuts.

Yep, totally chicken shit thing to do, but dammit, it worked. She had a new do, started wearing make-up, and the ripe smell was downgraded to just mildly sweaty armpits. Score.

So, what would you do if you had a colleague, or a friend who had a serious case of bad body odour? Would you tell him/her, or would you just live with it?

Also, is it worse when the person who smells is a woman?