What to Do if Your Coworkers’ Perfume affecting your Asthma?

I don’t know if anyone else has thought of doing this after being exposed to a cologne-doused coworkers or colleagues in your office or job’s environment. People are reluctant to complain to management or HR about problems like this, figuring nothing will be done.

Well, there is strength in numbers you know. If you don’t have immediate numbers of friends with breathing problems you can call on to complain along with you, how about printing out the responses on regarding how severely perfume is affecting people with asthma in work, and presenting it in a non-confrontational manner to the manager or HR.

You might even be able to get information from your local schools on the number of kids with asthma. Your state department of health probably has numbers of asthma sufferers in your state.

If your superior or HR manager and owners can see it’s a real problem for company, especially, if they see the problem can actually cause them to lose sales and productivity, then you might get them to change policy about employees wearing fragrances.

One other point about employees wearing fragrances is it transfers from them to the products on the shelves or stick to your goods. If you see a stinky employee stocking shelves, wait till he/she moves along and then check the products just stocked. Very often they reek of fragrance where the employee touched the package when putting it on the shelf. Find the stinkiest one and take it to the HR manager and let the manager take a whiff. Ask the manager if he or she would want a box of tissues or a box of cereal slathered with cologne, not just if you have asthma, but if you hate that particular fragrance.

The key is always to be firm but polite, informative, not confrontational. If you get no cooperation, simply say to the manager that the store has lost a customer and that you will make sure to tell all of your friends and family, including the parents you know with kids with asthma. Again, hit them in the wallet and they might start thinking about making a change.

The other option you have is go one better- coworkers. And it is an equal opportunity for disaster. The guy with the locker above mine, could not go near him and had to wait until he was done.

The lady in the next department in my company has insisted on working next to me for an extended period of time. She knew damn well from talking on more than one occasion she could not be next to me on the lunch line, or anywhere else. I told her to take the breadbox sized tester into her work area so she could do her job and I do mine. Next I’m in HR because her and my supervisor, and her supervisor, lied to HR saying I cursed, screamed, etc. When I did nothing of the kind. I went to the lunch room after my supervisor wouldn’t get off her personal call on the phone.

I went to the lady’s supervisor who wouldn’t help me either. So I went into the bathroom to stay away from her perfume (named Poison, how appropriate and ironic). I come out and management is standing there asking me what’s the problem, am I going to finish testing the unit today? etc. I see she’s not there and test the helicopter panel, get called into HR. I put it off until next day. They wouldn’t let me return to work, even with a doctor’s note, because these 3 females (who are all friends) lied about the incident.

I ended up taking a severance package (unheard of for an hourly employee) and went where the grass was greener. I was underpaid and held back for advancement before. Now I started getting paid what I was worth.

I’ve been discriminated against 3 times, this time I can prove it and am suing. This one was the first time I told the story about above.