About 4 or 5 years ago, my apartment building was getting renovated. The cement balconies were getting sanded down and new railings were being installed. There was so much cement dust in the air, you could hear the "crunch" when a glass got set down on the glass coffee-table. I developed a persistent cough that lasted for two months, as well as a horrible sensitivity to perfumes, colognes, and other scented products.
It got quite bad; sometimes, I would be standing at the front of the bus when someone would board at the back, and I would be bowled over with nausea from the perfume smell of the person. It got so that I really resented anyone wearing any perfume at all. After the air cleared at the apartment and my cough went away, I continued in my scent-free ways; I couldn’t believe that some people have to live with a scent allergy every day of their lives.
Well, now it’s back. It seems that being pregnant has heightened my sense of smell. I keep complaining about people’s perfume/cologne, and I just clued in this week that it’s probably pregnancy-related. (On Monday, I had to request the course facilitator to remind people not to wear perfume and I put two and two together.)
Most people know that they shouldn’t be wearing scents to work, but there is at least one major offender in my office. It’s actually a really nice scent, but it’s starting to give me headaches. So today at our work team meeting, I let everyone know that I have developed this scent sensitivity and that it will probably eventually go away, but in the meantime, I would really appreciate a scent-free workplace. Maybe going scent-free for a few months will start a new trend for them and they’ll never go back. At worst, if they actually do cut out the scent, they’ll realize how strong it is when they go back to using it.
Perfume is such a personal thing, it’s almost a bit embarrassing to ask people to stop; I guess it’s kind of like saying, "You really smell. Eww." and I don’t want to embarrass anyone. So doing the request in a team meeting was great because I don’t have to point fingers. Now I just hope the main "perpetrator" actually remembers my request during his morning routine . . . .
