Definition: Given a real-life anecdote of a complex ethical situation, generate a suitable title that describes the main event/root cause of the situation. Imagine that the given text is a social media post, and you have to write the title of the post, so the users can decide to read the main text or not.
Input: I have a coworker who smells constantly. He’s a bigger guy, often late the work and greasy. Constantly sweaty, even though he’s sitting down at a desk the entire day. The smell is pretty bad, people have moved desks and don’t like sitting next to him. It’s common knowledge, and people always talk about it but never confront him or let him know. 

The odor reminds me of back when I was in high school with two brothers. It is reminiscent of wearing the same socks for a couple days in a row and coming home from basketball or football practice. It’s old sweat, the kind that hasn’t been washed away and covered up with shit cologne or axe. It’s an odor that permeates your surrounds and there is no way to avoid it. 

I’m the type of person who doesn’t avoid conflict. While this isn’t a conversation I want to have with someone, one night we both were together late and I told him that he had an odor. He thanked me for letting him know, and for a couple weeks it went away. Soon enough, it came back and he was back to his old habits. Instead of letting it fill his general facility, he started dosing himself in axe during his breaks and coming back smelling like a middle school locker room. 

Again I talked to him, and I suggested this detergent I use that is amazing for removing bad smells from clothes. For a while, he smelt like fresh linen before again going back to smelling like a used jock strap. So I took matters a bit further, I bought a diffuser with fresh linen scent and put it on his desk. This is where things escalated.

One of the guys I work with said “dude just so you know X is telling everyone you’re harassing him and he can’t do anything about the smell. I want to let you know I’m on you’re side but you need to get ahead of this”. So I went over and apologized, he was visibly upset but I tried to give my side saying I was trying to help and I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings. 

Well that backfired, apparently he had already submitted a compliant to HR. We had a lovely conversation about criticizing personal appearance. I was told he has no control over his body odor, I asked if there was a medical reason or any documentation stating he didn’t. Considering he would go through phases actually cleaning his clothes and showering it definitely wasn’t medical - but they did say I’m causing him to have panic attacks. 

Anyway, resolution was a simple verbal warning and to leave the situation alone. Okay sure, went back about my business no problem. Well, word spread and some people actually think what I was doing was intentional. Like I was trying to somehow harass him into taking showers and clean himself. While most people doing give a shit, there’s a collective group appealing to him playing the victim while trying to make the most drama out of this they can. 

It has me second guessing my decisions, they aren’t worth the repercussions. 

dealing with a stinky coworker