How do you tell someone that they smell without being hurtful?

I work in the HR department for my company, and we were asked by one of our employee's managers to kindly tell them that they have unpleasant BO. How would you like to be told? I was thinking about making a gift basket or something silly.

How do you tell someone that they smell without being hurtful?
Like the post above says, no gift baskets! That could make the person feel like they are the joke. Just be honest. If you are friendly with this person, take them to lunch and talk about it. Don't sit this person in a meeting with other employees and discuss this, as the person will feel like they are being targeted, and that could go really bad! Just stick to doing it one on one, they will be embarrassed about this. Honesty is the best policy. Even try to relate with them when they feel utterly embarrassed, say it's happened to you before with bad breath or something! Also keep in mind, this person may not have bad hygiene habits, this could be as a result to medication or a medical problem.



I also think it's tacky that the boss is delegating this task to the fellow coworkers. If the matter has been brought to the bosses attention, the boss should be taking care of this issue- they are most likely passing it down to you because he/she is to chicken to confront the employee because of the sensitivity of this issue.



Best of luck. It's a tough one. :)
Reply:Noooo gift baskets! That can turn ugly! I had to do this not too long ago to one of my associates. Since it's such a touchy subject it's best to just sit them down and say you would like to discuss what is considered a healthy hygiene for your place of business. Let them know there is a problem without sugar coating it too much. Suggest a different brand of soap or even refer a brand that you use. Let them know you are trying to be as sensitive to the problem as you can and with this being addressed you are confident you will never have to have this embarasing conversation with them because the situation will be taken care of promptly.
Reply:Pull them to the side and say "I'm not trying to be hurtful but I thought I would tell you before someone else tells you." and then tell them.
Reply:Do a mandatory regulations meetings and include hygeine as one of the topics. If they don't get the point then pull them aside. Sometimes it is better to not single anyone out, then sometimes it is okay. You should use your better judgement. But in any case be compassionate, afterall someday you might have toilet paper stuck to the bottom of your shoe or something.
Reply:They are aware of their problem leave them alone and get back to work.

absolutely everyone has had at one time: bad breath, sweat smell, odors from skin from medicines or food, diabetic.

There's an old saying

"every dog smells his own a** first"
Reply:A gift basket full of lye soap and steel wool will do the trick.
Reply:you simply have to be frank with them. you pull the aside in a private meeting and tell them that an issue has been brought up concerning their body odor. let them know that it is affecting their relationship with their team, and that they should look into doing what they can to correct it, for their own benefit. also make sure it isn't a medical related problem.