AT WORK
Office workers raising a stink about colleagues' overpowering scents

By Chad Graham
Des Moines Register Columnist

The caller gave no name but left an urgent voice-mail message.

"It happened again at work," she said. "The people in our office don't know what to do," the caller said. (This was getting good. Life in Des Moines, Iowa, is pretty much suspense-free.)

"We have a co-worker who's wearing too much cologne. It's getting unbearable."

Click.

The mysterious caller posed an interesting predicament before hanging up: How do you handle co-workers who sicken the office by drenching themselves with the likes of Chanel No. 5 or Old Spice?

Should someone tell these nasal-clogged boneheads they don't work for the Macy's fragrance department?

Should our survival strategy involve taping coffee beans to our nostrils?

This situation could worsen for some offices.

According to the Fragrance Foundation in New York, the biggest trend in scents for women during the spring and summer of 2003 is a relaunching of the classics.

"Romantic fresh white florals, connoting a wet, dewy feel and highlighting a signature note such as gardenia, honeysuckle, peony, jasmine tuberose or cyclamen," the group's report reads. Even Elizabeth Taylor recently launched a new "Forever Elizabeth" fragrance.

For men, scents might be milder, but will have "crisp crunchy vegetable notes, such as tomato leaf, celery, cucumber and green pepper."

For evening, the group recommends men find a fragrance with tones of paprika, tumeric or dried red chilies.

Who would envision there'd come a day when men would reek like a produce section or chicken marinade?

It's enough to make me hope for co-workers who douse themselves in Febreze.

Rochelle Bloom, president of the Fragrance Foundation, offers a way out of this perfume predicament, this cologne quandary.

If an office is having trouble with scent overkill, she suggests a supervisor broach the offense during a staff meeting.

A script for said boss: "There is one other thing I'd like to discuss before we end the meeting. It's been brought to my attention that some people are wearing too much fragrance and it may be bothering other people."

Don't name names.

Don't point.

Don't look toward the person and hold your nose.

Hopefully, the offender will get the hint.

For offenders who fear they're wearing too much fragrance, Bloom suggests applying lotions or sticking to the after-effects of shower gels during the day. Apply perfume or cologne when you leave work and head to a social occasion.

"It's a way of doing it in degrees," she said. "It's subtle enough to not be offensive to anybody."

Other scent suggestions:

• Our sense of smell improves as the day progresses. Don't "awaken" anyone with a new, heavy-duty fragrance.
• Many people past age 50 have a dulled sense of smell and must be careful not to apply too much scent — especially in warm weather or during stressful situations.
• People who eat a high-fat diet and apply fragrance to their skin have a more intense smell.
• People who smoke have a desensitized sense of smell and can overdo perfume or cologne. "Make a smell test of a favorite fragrance on the inside of your wrists and then sniff test to see if any of the lifestyle changes described above have influenced the fragrance," the fragrance group suggests.
• Always remember the "scent circle." Everybody has one about an arm's length from the body. No one should be aware of your fragrance unless they step inside your circle.

Finally, the fragrance group advises: "Fragrance should be one of the most subtle personal messages you send to those with whom you come in contact."

So stop screaming your scent to the office.