#1
According to Joseph H Harris, an employment law partner at FordHarrison, the top three complaints from coworkers are body odor, bad breadth, and dirty clothing. “But body odor is by far the number one complaint, at least in my experience. This is not exactly a hygiene issue, but very strong colognes and perfumes are a related, and very common complaint,” he tells Bored Panda.
He believes poor hygiene becomes an HR (human resources) issue when it starts to impact other employees, customers, or the company’s reputation.
#2
There’s no need to silently stew over a clueless coworker or assume the only option is to fly the coop. Experts suggest these office annoyances can often be addressed early, before they snowball into bigger issues.
“Candor makes everyone feel better,” Dave Ulrich, professor of business at the Ross School of Business, tells Bored Panda.
“Decades ago, there was an employee who came from a culture and background where bathing was less common and her body odor was strong after some time. Her peers said something to her supervisor who simply explained to her the norms in the current culture. She was embarrassed no one had said something sooner, changed habits, and moved on,” he recalls.
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There was a brief period of time when we were all religiously washing our hands, constantly disinfecting everything, and being mindful of coughing or sneezing in public… because our lives literally depended on it. Offices had signs up about basic cleanliness, and hand sanitizers could be found in every corner.
You’d think after the pandemic people would still be a bit more on their toes about hygiene at work, especially when most people are back in the office full-time.
But sadly, most of these habits have all but faded away — at least for some people.
“I do think there’s a school of thought that the pandemic made everyone less well socialized and just more self-focused and inconsiderate, and one big way that trait plays out is in an office kitchen,” Alison Green, who runs the ‘Ask a Manager’ workplace advice column, tells CNBC.
She believes many people who got used to working from home may have simply lost the habit of keeping things tidy in shared office spaces.
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#8
It’s not just the occasional messy coworker, either. Research shows that one of the biggest workplace icks is people not washing their hands after using the bathroom.
A survey found that only 61% of office workers actually wash their hands properly with soap and water. At least 7% admitted to not washing their hands at all and 18% to washing their hands quickly.
Around 26% of employees said they eat at their desk multiple times a week, but very few properly clean up afterward. Most just do a quick wrapper toss and call it a day, which is how crumbs and germs become a shared office experience.
#9
Coworker "L" rarely bathed... And absolutely never laundered her uniform.
Her husband "D" never, ever bathed, had a fingernail fungus issue...
And they both smoked like chimneys.
He didn't work there, but I see them around town over a decade after, and they still stink. I go out of my way to avoid any and all contact with them in stores.
Anyway, her uniform... When you work with food, the fryers, the deli, the general grease in the air... Permeates everything. My shirt, even laundered frequently, smelled like... meat nitrates and fryer grease.
Hers was years of that and BO.
I cannot believe the health department didn't fail us because of her.
And no, I don't shop there anymore and haven't in a decade.
#10
#11
A coworker has been taking off shoes at work, and the smell is disgusting, it makes me want to throw up. At first, I tried my best to ignore it or mask the smell with perfume, but as the days passed, the strong foot odor became impossible to ignore. Since we shared the same workstation, I could tell others were uncomfortable too—but no one said anything. I tried dropping subtle hints. “Wow, the AC is strong today! Perfect weather for some warm shoes,” I joked. But she didn’t take the hint. I suffered for days then finally decided enough was enough. During a quiet moment, I said to her, “Hey, would you mind keeping your shoes on while working? I know heels can be uncomfortable, but that’s why I wear flats in the office.” She looked at me, confused, “Why does it matter?” Trying to keep things light, I said, “It just makes me uncomfortable to see bare feet at work.” She rolled her eyes and told me not to look. I hesitated before adding, “It’s not just that... there’s a bit of an odor. It might help if you kept your shoes on.”
That’s when things took a turn for the worse. When I politely asked her to keep them on, she became defensive, insisting that she would know if her feet smelled. She accused me of harassing her and threatened to involve HR.
The next day, I walked into work thinking the issue had blown over—but I was wrong. She went straight to our supervisor and reported me. Before I knew it, I was being called out in front of the entire office. My supervisor reprimanded me for being disrespectful and implied that I had overstepped. I felt completely humiliated. I let it go, but a week later I was horrified to see an email from HR—someone posted this message on our social media anonymously — “Ban barefoot behavior in the office, it stinks.”
I was scared I would be held responsible for it, and as it turns out, I was right. My colleague, convinced that I was behind it, angrily confronted me, asking me why I was trying to humiliate her. I swore I had nothing to do with it, but she didn’t believe me. Whoever made the comment deleted it later, but it seemed like everyone was convinced it was me. Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, I was called into a final meeting with HR. They told me they had received some “anonymous” complaints about my behavior and that I had created a hostile work environment by “making unprofessional remarks and harassing female co-workers”.
So, as an intern, they had decided to end my contract early. They refused to listen to me. I was fired—for simply asking someone to wear shoes.
Hot desking in offices, where employees don’t have a fixed desk and instead sit wherever there’s space each day, is also becoming quite common in workplaces.
It means more shared surfaces and less control over how clean or personal a workspace feels day to day.
So if we go by the numbers showing that not everyone washes their hands properly before eating, it means germs picked up from common touchpoints around the office, like door handles or keyboards, can easily end up where food is involved.
Eating at the same desk where you work only adds to it.
A study found that hot desking increased exposure to illness-causing germs by 18%.
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These stories are not only a matter of bad etiquette or office pet peeves. They have real-life consequences on a person’s physical and mental health.
Viruses and bacteria can survive for weeks or even months on surfaces like telephones and doorknobs, and spread to other workers via direct or indirect contact.
Research shows that office desks harbor more than 10 million bacteria which is 400 times more germs found on a standard toilet seat.
In a study, 4,800 surfaces across office buildings were swabbed and flagged as “officially dirty.” Especially high bacterial counts were found on common touch points like tap handles in bathrooms, microwave doors in shared kitchens, computer keyboards, and refrigerator handles.
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#17
This was not an issue that appeared out of nowhere but has been a known issue by all my other coworkers that this man does not clean up after himself. At first I didn’t judge because I didn’t know his home life so I would ignore it and chew gum under my mask when near him. However the issue began when he farted in front of my face. I leaned down to pick up a pencil months ago and he farts right in front of me. Obviously I was grossed out and he apologizes, I say it’s alright and move on. I know that sometimes people are gassy so I excused it.
The week after that, he farted in front of me again. This time, my manager was there and said “Thank you for letting me be over here when you farted.” My coworker shrugged and went back to work. I got extremely uncomfortable. Not only was my manager acknowledging what happened and how it has happened before, but my coworker had no consequences from it. After that second incident, I tried to spend as much time as I could away from this coworker. However he always wanted to talk and even when I was physically uncomfortable, he would keep talking. This week was my breaking point with my coworker. He farted twice, and once I was right behind him. I asked him why he did that, and he said he does it at home. I do not care that he does it at home, but at work it is a different setting.
The second fart is what got me. I was trying to pitch a sale to a customer and he farted right near the customer. The customer got uncomfortable, denied the sale and left. Not only that, she called the store an hour later to talk to our manager to complain about my coworker. I was overwhelmed that day so I went to our HR and reported that I was not comfortable working with my coworker unless he showered and did not fart in front of me, or customers. Now, my coworker has been giving me the stink eye and I feel terrible for tattling on him like a child, but I no longer felt comfortable.
Research shows just how common exposure to workplace-related germs and infections is. A UK-based study covering offices, factories, warehouses, and retail spaces found that 69% of British workers — 21 million — claim their workplace is a health hazard.
Around 35% of workers said they have picked up an illness from their place of work. And 18% claimed to have been struck down with food poisoning or caught a stomach bug because of dirty workplaces.
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Workplace conditions are also linked to how people feel, how productive they are, and how much they are able to focus.
Research shows a cluttered or unclean workspace is linked to higher stress levels, and overall reduced job satisfaction. And when the environment feels messy, employees often see it as a sign that the organization doesn’t care about their wellbeing. This can lead to lack of motivation and teamwork.