Stuart was an ideal employee, an amazing customer service officer who the clients loved, as he always went the extra mile to make sure they were happy. He was always on time, was hardly ever sick and consistently exceeded his objectives.
There was just one problem, Stuart’s personal hygiene was not consistent, some days he smelt super fresh on other days his odour was eye-watering. Staff complained but no one spoke to Stuart.
Ever been in a situation where everyone is aware of a problem except the person who is causing the problem?
Rather than addressing his body odour issues, his manager placed him in a separate office, stating that his telephone conversations could be distracting to other members of the team. However, when a team leader position became vacant and Stuart applied, someone had to talk to him and you guessed it, it was me as the HR Manager.
He and I had a private chat, where I discussed the situation and tried to find a resolution. Stuart felt so embarrassed. He hadn’t known that his odour was a problem and couldn’t understand why no one had spoken to him sooner.
The problem was that he shared a house with roommates and wasn't always able to get into the bathroom to shower before he needed to leave for work (he knew he wasn't super fresh on those days but didn’t think he was stinky). He had felt that his colleagues were avoiding him and thinking back could understand some interactions better. Stuart’s confidence was destroyed. He wanted to retract his application for the team leader position.
That wasn’t what we wanted. He was a great candidate for the role. We discussed options to improve his hygiene - like using the showering facilities at the office but building his confidence in his manager and colleagues was the bigger issue.
We needed to build an environment that was open and honest so that any issues could be brought out in the open and addressed before it caused a longer-lasting problem. I mediated a meeting between Stuart and his manager who was clearly uncomfortable with discussing personal issues and so some additional management training was given to him.
Stuart was able to get his hygiene under control and get the team leader role. His colleagues and team members warmed up to him once they were able to share the space comfortably and his manager became more effective at addressing challenging issues.
Do you have an issue that you haven't addressed because it's awkward and/embarrassing?
Having challenging conversations can be hard, here are 5 tips to help you to address the stinky issues:
Stick to the facts, be clear about what the issue is and why it needs to be addressed.
Show empathy, as awkward as you may feel the other person will be trying to absorb the information.
Ask about mitigating situations, there may be business or personal issues that can cause or affect the issue.
Offer solutions suggest some options that can resolve the issue
Follow up, don't just talk and run, check-in and make sure that the individual is ok.
Use these tips to address your challenging team issues and let us know how it goes