I have a co-worker who has HORRIBLE breath! YUCK !!!!!!!! She loves coming in my office first thing in the morning to tell me about her cats, what she cooked the night before or any other off the wall subject. The only thing is that as soon as she opens her mouth, the TERRIBLE ODOR slaps me in the face. I know that she brushes her teeth and visits her dentist twice a year for cleanings but the breath is a killer.
She is in to "organic" eating and other healthy eating, so I don't know if something is missing in her diet that causes her breath to smell like an out house or a toilet bowl but whatever it is, it makes me SICK. I literally want to vomit when I smell her breath.
My question is, do I tell her that her breath smells or do I just deal with it? I don't want to hurt her feelings but at the same time, when she comes in my office and leaves, the smell doesn't leave with her. So, if someone comes in my office after her, they will think that I am the one who "owns" that horrible smell.
It depends on how good a friend she is. If she is eating ketogenically then smelly breath and stronger sweat are normal. It could also be that all she has in the morning is coffee, which leads to morning breath plus coffee breath. I'd just offer her a mint or, if she was a close friend, mention that she has very strong breath and it's a bit off putting.
It's tough, because you work with her and don't want to either make her uncomfortable or create hr problems. And it isn't an easy problem to solve. Suck it up if you can, of course, but if not, polite mint or gum offering might be the smoothest solution.
Usually when breath is VERY bad it's a sign of periodontal disease. It doesn't matter if she brushes everyday it's sometimes due to age/genetics. Like someone else mentioned leave a bowl of mints on your desk. I don't know that I'd have the guts to tell someone their breath is like raw sewage (unless they asked) and I work in Dentistry. :/ If it's not stomach related then she needs a more aggressive type of cleaning.
I guess use your best judgment depending on how close you are with the person.
I don't envy the situation you are in, but it reminds me of a guy I used to date. He was a cop and as the supervisor or whatever overnight, he was put in the position once that he had to talk to one of his crew about his bad breath. He joked he was going to just give him a bag of breath mints, but he approached the subject as a health matter. The guy did go to the dentist and there was an actual problem that was causing it. I don't remember the specifics, but I do remember how much he dreaded talking to him about it.
My aunt always says "sorry, my breath is awful" and gets out a little box of mints then she starts passing them around if there is someone with foul breath nearby.
If she's taking care of her teeth, I'm wondering if she doesn't already know it (dentists generally will tell you when your breath is unusually disagreeable, because they will want to check for underlying problems).
I'd only suggest saying something if you're pretty good at being tactful. If not, I'd try the offering the gum or breath mint before trying a more direct approach. If you're fairly good friends and you can be tactful, then you might be able to ask without her getting upset or offended.
The problem though with making any personal comments, is that they can come to bite YOU in the butt. Personally, I would suggest going to your supervisor first and asking a hypothetical, "I'm concerned about a fellow coworker because she has quite offensive breath odor, and I'm not sure how or if I should tell her?"
This protects you to some degree, because if the supervisor thinks it's an inappropriate question, he or she will advise you not to bring it up. Also, it's possible that the boss already knows about the issue, either because other coworkers have complained, or because the supervisor has noticed it him or herself. Also, the supervisor may suggest you tell them who it is, because they'd feel more comfortable (or feel it more appropriate) that such feedback come from a supervisor (although because you didn't initially name names, and because you were willing to address the situation) the supervisor isn't going to think you're just wanting to create trouble, or that you're just wanting to badmouth the woman with the bad breath or get her in trouble or embarass her in some way.
One summer, I was working in a youth home and I had an ugly and very painful boil in my armpit (from an infected hair). When the thing burst (gross TMI, I know) the skin was so raw that I couldn't use deodorant on that arm pit, and I was giving off some pretty offensive BO. I knew it, but I didn't have much I could do about it (I'd slip into the bathroom whenever I could to wash the pit with soap and paper towel, but ten minutes later it would be reeking).
My supervisor brought it up (not only had coworkers complained, but also some of the boys). I was incredibly embarassed, but I was sort of glad that everyone who had noticed hadn't come up to me and mentioned it. I could handle it coming from a single person (especially my boss, even if it was terribly embarassing). I don't think I could have handled it if I had many people bringing it up, no matter how tactful they tried to be - I actually was rather impressed with the boys for not saying stuff to me, because these were troubled boys with behavior problems who didn't always know how to be socially appropriate let alone tactful.
If it were to happen today, I'm confident enough to probably mention it before others would have a chance to, but at the time I was in my early 20's and I would have been mortified. Coming from my boss it was still embarassing and awkward, but better my boss than half a dozen people.
Now, I don't know that this woman would feel the same way, but asking your boss's advice protects you both. If your boss has already spoken to her about it, and there's nothing she can do about it, your boss may encourage you to let him/her take care of it (he or she may not tell you whether or not he or she has or hasn't talked to the coworker about her breath). And if that happens, I'd let that be the end of it. And if the boss gives you advice on how to handle it (unless it's horrible advice) I'd consider following the boss's advice (again to protect you from being targeted as some kind of troublemaker).
simply place a dish of mints on her desk or a pack of gum where she sits..she will get the point and it will be anonymous..the truth might sting, but she will figure out that she needs to do something...no harm no foul.
My partner has bad breath and I was really reluctant about bringing it up but, when I did, I was really clinical about it. I left no room for embarrassment, only solution finding. She had not realised her breath was bad. Between charcoal tablets, a new electric toothbrush and a good examination of what she ate for lunch at the work canteen, we seem to have it under control.
I asked her if her colleagues had ever shown any reluctance to talk with her, or said anything, and she said they had not. She was not embarrassed about it as, she pointed out, there are a couple of them with horrendous BO and it is just part of life's rich panoply.
I would be disinclined, as a work colleague, to talk with her about it but, as mentioned above ... if this is a concern to you because it is affecting you badly, then talking with HR is the option. It is possible, as with my partner, that her family or close friends have already discussed it and she is aware of it but not able to get rid of it.
I first read your post as saying she cooks her cats the night before, ahahaha!
This is tough. You say the smell lingers - I'd say "say nothing" to her but that seems to cross a line. A mint would be putting a band-Aid on a broken bone but it might get the point across.
I have a co-worker who has HORRIBLE breath! YUCK !!!!!!!! She loves coming in my office first thing in the morning to tell me about her cats, what she cooked the night before or any other off the wall subject. The only thing is that as soon as she opens her mouth, the TERRIBLE ODOR slaps me in the face. I know that she brushes her teeth and visits her dentist twice a year for cleanings but the breath is a killer.
She is in to "organic" eating and other healthy eating, so I don't know if something is missing in her diet that causes her breath to smell like an out house or a toilet bowl but whatever it is, it makes me SICK. I literally want to vomit when I smell her breath.
My question is, do I tell her that her breath smells or do I just deal with it? I don't want to hurt her feelings but at the same time, when she comes in my office and leaves, the smell doesn't leave with her. So, if someone comes in my office after her, they will think that I am the one who "owns" that horrible smell.
What would you do?
I have a boss who has this same issue. It's so terrible when he is standing over me, or even talking face to face. I just don't know what to do. But the same exact thing you are facing, I am facing as well. I just haven't been able to say anything. I don't want to hurt his feelings.
Read Crucial Conversations. It's all on how to have really hard conversations with people and it even tackles co-workers with bad breath. My company offers professional growth classes and this was one of them.
Long story short, yes, you should tell her. If you had absolutely terrible breath would you want someone to tell you?
Co-Worker Has Bad Breath. Do I Tell Her?
