Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Work Crap

So I'm back in the San Francisco office today, where I go once per week in order to avoid the one hour commute (each way) to our offices in Palo Alto. I mentioned previously that on one occasion I was forced to share an office for a couple of hours with a woman who was doused with old lady perfume. Fortunately I manage to extricate myself from the office without any hurt feelings.

Me: "Hey there [ insert name ], I'm going to go get some coffee but I'll be right back. Do you want anything?"
Her: "No, I'm good. But are you sure you don't want to leave your laptop and all your belongings?"
Me: "Uhh, gotta run."

Since then I've specifically chosen to sit in different shared offices in order to avoid the perfume cropdusting. Today, I'm in the office adjacent to hers. Unfortunately, the odor wafts out her office door and somehow finds its way to where I am sitting. Either that or the overpowering smell is somehow forcing its way through the shared wall in order to poison me. I swear, the stuff has a mind of its own.

UPDATE: She just came in this office to ask me a work question. Ack. I am seriously considering abandoning all acceptable social conventions and wearing one of those surgical masks whenever I'm here. Hopefully it's more acceptable that I try to pass for "quarantined" as opposed to "nauseated."

2 comments:

Kate said...

Surely you're not the only one with this complaint? Can't you get HR to speak to her?

David James said...

Sadly, I don't think I can. I'm not sure that HR will do much for an employee who sits in the SF office once a week and complains that one of the co-workers in a separate workspace smells like "Really Old Spice." They probably would just laugh at me.