Published on 12, July, 2020
Part of why I got an assessment was to access helpful adjustments at work, because I'm very sensitive to both sound and smell.
Currently the two people that sit next to me at work smell awful, and it's really inhibiting my working ability. They're also loud (talking, tea-slurping, apple eating, etc), but I can cover that by wearing headphones. The smell I cannot. I'm sure the guy on my left doesn't wash his clothes, and the guy to my right has terrible breath.
Does anyone else have this issue? Its' driving me mad, and my work cannot offer me a better place to sit.
Yup - I feel your pain. I am sat next to a bloke who cracks his knuckles about 50 times a day, which makes me jump and cringe every time, and buys the noisiest crisps ever then manages to make the bag last an hour, just so I can get every excruciating loud crunch.
There is another person, with a very loud, carrying voice, who insists on having long calls at her desk. I find it impossible to tune out (I can still hear it over the noise cancelling headphones), and my concentration is shot for the duration (bit of a problem as I am a software developer so once I have lost my thread, it's a pain to get it back).
I don't have anyone unwashed smelly but am hypersensitive to smell and people wearing perfume around me is awful. I guess it must smell good to them otherwise they wouldn't use it, but to me it's more like stale spilled alcohol (or a drunk tramp) overlaid with fermenting fruit. One of them used to spray it in the office, which gave me an instant migraine. I also find this a huge problem on public transport and usually end up feeling like I am going to throw up by the end of the journey at least once a week.
Oh yeah and there's the people who heat up food in the communal microwaves so that the whole area smells like someone has been microwaving roadkill.
In addition to this I have a very draughty air con unit blowing on my head all day and awful artificial light (more migraines!), but apparently there isn't anywhere else I can be moved to either.
I don't know what the answer is - I guess it depends on your workplace's attitude to "reasonable adjustments" as opposed to what they probably see as just us moaning about everything. Please do let us know if you find a way to get any improvements made!
This sounds like my office! It's really hard to get any adjustments because nobody knows that I have sensory issues (I'm waiting until I have a diagnosis to disclose my autism). People just assume I'm moaning when I say I'm too hot or can't cope with the noise of the air con/strength of the blowers (I sit right underneath it). The artificial light is horrible and they're on sensors, so they go off if nobody moves for a while. Just as I'm enjoying the sensory break, someone walks over to switch them back on (even if it's only the lights above me that are switched off, and I explain that I like it dull). I was once told, "We can't always cater to the minority" when I asked if there was anything we could do about the lighting levels!
Wow moggsy. Thanks for this share.
I had to leave my job, I couldn't cope in an office environment. You highlight some of my biggest problems too. I had thought I was silly for feeling like that for otherwise mundane office happenings!
Something must be done!