I used to work in a grey cubicle as a payroll clerk. Two cubes away from me sat the Tampon Lady.
I don't remember the Tampon Lady's name. I only remember how much I hated sharing work space with her. She was nice enough. She did her job and had no annoying habits that I recall. There was, however, one issue, and I never figured out how to address it. They just don't cover stuff like this in business college.
She kept a super-size box of Playtex Deodorant Tampons in her desk drawer. It had to have come from Sam's Club to be the size that it must have been. I never saw the tampons but I know they were there and I imagine every person that worked on that floor knew the tampons were there.
Playtex Deodorant Tampons have a distinctive odor. If you have ever smelled one, you will always be able to recognize the sickening, flowery scent that they are saturated with. I can smell them in a strange woman's closed purse when she walks by me at the grocery store. And I could smell them in my co-workers desk.
Monday through Friday, I smelled them, week after week. She kept them there all the time, not just at her time of the month. I was assaulted be the tampons as soon as I arrived at work each morning and I left work in the evening with the scent apparently stuck to the hairs inside my nose. I was not free of it until I had been out of the office for several hours in the evening.I will admit that I have a more sensitive sense of smell than the average person. That's surprising since I have been a smoker for many years. Still, the tampons were a menace and made for a hostile work environment if there ever was one.
I am allergic to flowery perfumes. I can't walk through the perfume department at a department store without becoming ill. I can not read magazines that have perfume samples in them. I used to take the stairs instead of the elevator even when I worked on the 16th floor of an office building so that I wouldn't be in a crowded elevator with someone who had marinated themselves in perfume and spend the rest of the day with a migraine.
So this was a problem for me and I didn't know how to address it. Luckily, I got pregnant and had to quit my job. I wonder if the Tampon Lady still works there.
This article was inspired a blog entry I read earlier today.
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Comments: 46
I can still remember one household I would visit where the female head of househod had so many scented items that even the butter for toast seemed to taste like perfume. gak.
~thanks~ for that! NOT
I would still welcome any criticism, constructive or not.
They always blow them over nothing. We'll take cover when I see or hear the funnel. I'm checking outside every now and then.
I was in a public restroom once (pooping) and some crazed lunatic squirted her perfume at my stall, like 6 times. I nearly died from the stench of her perfume before I was able to escape from the toilet, and spent the rest of the day with a horrible migraine.
Yesterday, I entered another bathroom that smelled like that and I nearly threw a fit. I can't understand why anyone would want to marinate in their perfume of cologne, and I definitely can't get why someone would want me to marinate in their personal brand of stink!
You know what I can't stand either is the smell of air freshner - after awhlie when mixed with bathroom stink - the smell is soooo repelling - the 'freshness' is only a reminder of poo!! You would have better luck letting the stink go away on it's own then adding a nasty fragrance to it!
The restroom will be empty before you get any farther.
I'm home now.
Only at the mall during Christmas rush.
I did go to one the other day to return something. I took my new Electronic Yodeling Pickle with. No one noticed the yodel emanating from my coat pocket on the escalators or anywhere else. It was most disappointing.
Janna! You bought a pickle! I'm so excited! It's now one of the sounds I can use on my cell phone.
Andrea, I don't know about you, but those tornado warnings in January freaked me out last night!
Your Sam's Club reference reminded me of when I was a single mother, three kids of my own and a foster daughter to boot. I had to go to Sam's just to be able to keep four females stocked in feminine hygiene items. I'd go through the check out with several of those huge, 100 pc. Tampax boxes, a couple boxes of overnight pads and a few boxes of mini pads thrown in for good measure. I used to feel so sorry for my son during that time frame.
I didn't buy it, it was a Christmas gift. Along with this (no more using knives and rulers!), it's one of my favorite gifts.
When I worked for Clinique, there was a customer who came in once a week and always went straight to the Estee Lauder counter (right next to mine) and hosed herself down with Youth Dew, which is the muskiest, most sickening old-lady-smelling perfume ever invented. We once hid the bottle from her and she pitched a fit and insisted that someone open a new tester. If we'd had an escalator in that store I'd have thrown her down it.
For several years when I worked in Toronto, I had to take a street car to work and home again. If I was lucky and working an odd shift it was no problem. If I had to travel during rush hours I would often find myself gagging from the smell of some person's perfume or cologne that they felt it necessary to bathe themselves in.
The worst offenders were those women who thought 'Georgio' was the best perfume... it is/was not and in fact is one of the worst ones for me to smell as it triggers horrid migraines.
It's too bad these people can't smell themselves in a closed environment... it might just halt their penchant for bathing in the stuff ... or kill them!
what a hostile environment that must have been... imagine eating popcorn at your desk with that smell.... yuk... thanks for the not so funny story... Blessings...
My nose is getting all itchy just thinking about it (guess it's a sympathy allergic reaction.)
The worst I ever had was a coworker who would make tuna for lunch. Keep in mind, I'm highly allergic to iodine, shellfish, and a bunch of other things that rule out eating seafood. My mouth would itch and my throat would start swelling, just like I do when I'm starting to have an food triggered allergic reaction (I go into anaphylactic shock). Finally, I spoke to my boss who *lucky for me* understood, and made her stop.