Woman lost job for wearing too much perfume

[Moonliner]

My initial thought was there is no reason to wear to much perfume other than being annoying. So I say good riddance. Then I thought who would continue to cause a problem like this? An annoying bitch who was looking to start a lawsuit. Then I read the article. What a surprise. Not.

[Not Afraid]

I'm not terribly allergy-prone, but perfume completely destroys me. I had the unfortunate experience of sitting near (not next) to a heavily perfumed person on a plane to London. It was horrible and I wish perfume was illegal on airplanes! (Of course, on the way back I sat NEXT to someone who needed a bath.)

I see someone who wears a lot of perfume at work in the same way I see someone who wears skimpy clothes to the office. It's unprofessional and distracting they need to be talked to.....and stop. If this woman didn't stop, then she deserved to lose her job.

[wendybeth]

The company gave the reason for her firing, which was due to three customer complaints in one week. If documented, that is ample reason. I also dislike people who bathe in perfume- a little goes a long way, and I think a lot of people don't know how to properly apply it in the first place. I've worked with people who wore crap like 'Exclamation!' and I could barely stand to be in the same room as them. **** smells like Raid.

[tracilicious]

I think people need to be taught this simple rule early in life:

Spray, delay, and walk away.

[Gemini Cricket]

I have no sense of smell. She could come work with me.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by blueerica

Before I read the story: Agree, wholeheartedly. Which is why I voted other.... My first reaction was "Ha Ha" a la Nelson.

What she said.

[Morrigoon]

I agree, it's a professional environment. Getting fired for too much perfume is the same as being fired for wearing flip flops and torn jeans.

[Isaac]

The headline doesn't explain much about her termination so I'm okay with it.

At my company, men & women cannot wear heavy perfume or cologne cause it effects some people's allergies. If the woman was asked more than once to not wear heavy perfume & she did not conform, then she deserved it.

[alphabassettgrrl]

I don't have much of a sense of smell, but my hubby is nearly allergic to about any scent I've tried. Natural oils seem to go under the radar and fall into his "simply dislike" category, but don't set off the screaming fits like regular perfumes do.

It's true that some people bathe in the stuff and yeah, that can be a problem. Customers were complaining about her perfume- that's valid. She tried to switch to a different one, but if she's using half a bottle at a time, that won't help.

Oversensitive people? Maybe. How do you draw the line between "makes me uncomfortable", "dislike the scent" and an actual physiological problem in the scent-recievers?

You get complaints, if you want to continue working with these people, you got to find a way to accomodate them.

[Prudence]

I'm so torn. Sure, some people bathe in scent and it's just like anything else inappropriate - they need to stop or leave. BUT, I've also been in workplaces where some members of staff ganged up on others, where one complaint early on snowballed into a flurry of other, unjustified complaints - even when the original behavior stopped, and even a perfume incident.

One of my coworkers received a complaint about her perfume from a faculty member, and honestly we were mystified, as none of us even knew she wore perfume and we spent lots of time around her. No one else in the suite knew she was wearing perfume. She "confessed" that that she did the "spray, delay, walk away" technique, QE junky that she was, so technically she was "guilty." We weren't a perfume-free workplace. The coworker stopped wearing perfume, of course, but the faculty member still complained until the coworker was moved to a different suite - and replaced with someone else who wore perfume.

So, I agree - not enough facts in the story. In theory it's a perfectly valid reason to fire someone. In reality, whenever there's an illegal or inappropriate reason to fire someone they come up with an allegedly valid reason for cover.