Body Odour: Some of our scripts.

Salam,

In my workplace, body odour seems to be one of the topic that we always discussed. WHY? Every month we receive a lot of international students from different countries. Most of them come from drier countries. So, it's quite normal for them not to take the bath everyday because they don't really sweat. They don't realize that Malaysia is a very wet and humid country. They are not use to sweat and of course they don't realize that they'll stink when they sweat.

Thus today, we had an interesting chat with our immediate boss regarding this matter. It was just a casual sharing about the topic. At the end we came out with several statements to be used when we deal with B.O. problem:

• "It's very humid here and that's why you sweat a lot. So, please invest on deodorant and take a bath in the morning".
• "Please change your clothes more often. If possible, don't wear the same clothes everyday".
• "We need too reduce this air pollution".
• "Other students have complained about the uninvited smell here. Please do something about it".
• "If you easily sweat, you better do something before it bothers other people".

Some of the statements given were not so tactful. However, we have tried our best to be tactful and in the end they just don't get it. It's hard to be sarcastic as they don't understand sarcasm. My approach is more straight forward. I can be heartless sometimes but it's better to get the message across rather than you have to put up with the stinky smell. Now, my nose is more sensitive than before, I have to blurt out and point at this B.O. problem.