The Smell Talk: How to Handle Body Odor at Work Without Making It Worse

Every manager keeps a mental list of conversations they would pay real money to skip. Near the top, somewhere between "your role has been eliminated" and "please stop microwaving fish," sits the one nobody trains you for: telling a colleague that they smell.

The temptation is to handle it like a sitcom: leave a travel-size deodorant on the desk, send an anonymous note, and hope the hint lands. The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), the free advisory service funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, has a fact sheet on exactly this, and it is politely unimpressed. Employers who deal with hygiene problems indirectly, by "sending anonymous notes or leaving soaps and deodorants on the employee's desk," may simply let the problem continue until it starts "interfering with the work of other employees or driving customers away."

The weather does not help. As Giuliana Gabriel of the California Employers Association put it this spring, "Heat and humidity can make odors more noticeable." A quiet problem in March becomes a loud one in August.

Step Away From the Air Freshener

The next most popular workaround is fighting smell with smell. In 2018, a former Indianapolis courts official sued the city, alleging she was fired for "creating a hostile work environment" after she installed air fresheners in response to complaints about a coworker's "chronic body odor." Her suit argued the coworker's odor was a disability protected under the ADA. Whatever the merits, the plug-in did not end the problem. It started a new one.

Fragrance is a complaint category of its own. In a nationally representative survey of 1,136 U.S. adults, University of Melbourne researcher Anne Steinemann found that 34.7% of Americans report health effects such as headaches and breathing difficulties from fragranced products. More than half would prefer a fragrance-free workplace. Spraying the problem away can simply hand a headache to the colleague two desks over.

People notice more than they admit. When Chewsy Gum surveyed 1,782 UK workers, 68% said strong smells such as food, body odor, and too much cologne or perfume bothered them. Fish and eggs were ranked the most offensive, a finding worth taping above every office microwave.

Find Out What You're Actually Dealing With

Before anyone says a word, JAN's advice is to decide who will handle it (usually HR or the direct supervisor) and to verify that the problem exists, through a reliable source or your own observation.

That step is not bureaucracy. In January 2024, eight Black men were told to leave an American Airlines flight from Phoenix to New York after a flight attendant complained about "an unidentified passenger's body odor." According to NBC New York, the three men who sued "were not responsible for any odor, were not seated together, and did not know each other before the incident." The airline settled and fired the flight attendants involved. A smell complaint is subjective, and subjective complaints are exactly where bias hides. Check it before you act on it.

Then think about the cause. Writing in July, CEDR Solutions CEO Paul Edwards reminds employers that "body odor can sometimes be caused by a medical condition, medication, or even a sincerely held religious practice." Some sources are not personal hygiene at all; his list includes "smelling like horses, animals, or farm chores after feeding in the morning." He also flags a quieter signal: an employee who has recently become withdrawn may be dealing with something bigger.

Medical causes are more common than most managers assume. Research cited by the International Hyperhidrosis Society puts excessive sweating at 4.8% of Americans, about 15.3 million people, and at 8.8% of adults aged 18 to 39. JAN's fact sheet adds the other usual suspects: personal problems, financial problems, cultural differences, or simply a failure to bathe.

So don't assume. If the employee says the issue is medical, JAN advises starting the interactive process to determine whether the ADA applies (it covers employers with 15 or more employees). JAN's accommodation ideas for body odor are modest: rest breaks, a private area for hygiene needs, an office with an air purifier, telework, or reassignment away from the public. They are also cheaper than their reputation. In JAN's latest cost data, 61% of employers said their accommodation cost nothing, and the median one-time expense for the rest was $300.

How to Have the Talk Without Anyone Wanting to Evaporate

For the conversation itself, JAN's guidance reads like good manners with a checklist attached. Choose a private space and leave the employee time to regain their composure before going back to work. Be "sensitive but direct." Name the specific problem, because the person may genuinely not know, and explain how it is affecting the workplace. Then spell out what happens next: when it needs to be resolved, what happens in the meantime, and when you will follow up. JAN even supplies a closing line: "If I can help you resolve this problem, please let me know."

Gabriel suggests an opener that takes the sting out of the first ten seconds:

"I want to talk to you about something that's a bit sensitive, and I want to approach it respectfully," suggests Giuliana Gabriel, Senior HR Compliance Director at the California Employers Association.

JAN also recommends deciding in advance whether you will say who raised the concern. The conversation is about the issue, not who noticed it. Edwards frames the goal the same way:

"The goal of the conversation is not to embarrass the employee; it is to address a workplace issue," writes Paul Edwards, Owner and CEO of CEDR Solutions.

Afterward, write it down. Edwards advises documenting the conversation in your own notes, along with any follow-up, and moving to progressive coaching only if the problem persists. Before sending anyone home, "especially unpaid," he says, make sure your policy supports that step "and that no medical, religious, disability, or other protected issue has come up."

For HR leaders and managers, the smell talk playbook looks like this:

• Decide who owns it before it happens. Name a default messenger, HR or the direct supervisor, so the talk does not bounce around until it is weeks overdue.
• Verify, then act. Confirm the complaint through a reliable source or your own observation. An unverified odor complaint is how bias gets a paper trail.
• Retire the anonymous note and the air freshener. Hints let the problem linger, and added fragrance can start a second complaint from the 34.7% of people who react to it.
• Ask before you assume. A medical condition, medication, religious practice, farm chores, or a rough patch at home can each be the cause, and each calls for a different response.
• Know your accommodation options. Rest breaks, a private hygiene space, an air purifier, or telework often solve it, and most accommodations cost little or nothing.
• Document and follow up. Note what was discussed, the agreed timeline, and the check-in date, then actually check in.

Nobody gets into HR to talk about armpits. But handled privately, specifically, and kindly, the smell talk is a five-minute conversation. The anonymous-note approach can last all summer.