Complaining Colleagues

[Speicher]

Isn't a shower room there for people to take showers? Surely damp towels are a logical consequence?

You may want to ask your facilities people (or whatever they are called at your office) to check the ventilation is working properly, especially if it's one of these wee extraction units that need to be cleaned out occasionally, to work properly?

Always best to speak to people directly, rather than causing an e-mail war. You could also stand up in the next team meeting (after checking with a friendly colleague or two about the alleged smell), and ask for an investigation of the ventilation system or other constructive improvements.

Hope this can be sorted quickly and amicably, it's not nice

T

No, that is what Vike's colleague is.

Vike's colleague is also not working properly if he has time, energy and inclination to worry about smells like damp towels. I wonder what the cells in the basement smell like - not that I am intending to find out.

As others have said, I think the complainant has bigger issues than what appears on the surface.

 

[marinyork]

Just sounds like bullying by the other colleague to me. I've seen people behave in the same way with respect to cyclist changing facilities (in meetings). You're best off not apologising in an e-mail as it will bring it to the attention of even more people who don't worry about it.

I would bat it back and say the person is basically bullying you and it is in his imagination because you change your towel x,y,z and it is a changing room, that is literally what they are for and other people change there etc. You could even set a trap for him and not cycle in one day and when he complains (which he will do) point out that he's imagining it.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

of course, vike could just stink...

 

[Vikeonabike]

of course, vike could just stink...

But only of Pork....

 

[hackbike 666]

I can only think ride out the storm and see what happens.I get all sorts of dicks at work who hate cyclists and make it obvious.I think it's best to wait till management have a word although I haven't a clue what they would have a word about unless it was bad.

Sounds like he's on a windup (or just a sad individual with nothing better to do) and wants a reaction.Generally I avoid people like this.

After many years of locking the bike in the raft (say at least 15)....now I and a few others lock the bike in the compound at work...while I had already started doing it anyway others hadn't.(it adds at least twenty minutes onto my day)...Either it was health and safety or some gas guzzler who got the hump.

 

[downfader]

Ahem.

Spray bottle of prawns in water. Leave it somewhere warm for a week or so until it pongs.. perhaps put an anchove fish in there.. then a little squirt through any vents of said muppets locker.

That'll sort the f***er out!

We had a work colleage who complained in a similar way, but a slightly homophobic tinge. All the lads got sick of it and in the end someone managed to force his locker open and put a load of gay porn in there. He come in the next day moaning like crazy infront of all the lads, opens his locker and these mags all slide out on to the deck.

Cruel. But he shut up after that, LOL.

 

[brokenbetty]

OCD or mildly autistic?

Autistic people can have hypersensitivity of one or more senses, and won't necessarily recognise how to deal with the situation appropriately.

I have a bit of sympathy for your colleague. I'm not (as far as I know!) autistic but I do have a sensitive sense of smell at times, to the point where I am close to retching from something no one else notices. As mine is hormonal it only lasts a few days so I can live with it, but it would be awful to have to live with it every day.

On a practical note, camping towels dry super fast so don't have time to get smelly and also take up much less room in your bag. Perhaps a compromise that is better for your colleague and better for you as well

 

[3tyretrackterry]

I will assume that because of your job your colleague is of a higher rank/seniority than you which may explain why he feels the need to complain and your unwillingness to tell him to wind his neck in.(correct me if i am wrong)
The email and complaining at breifings is tantamount to bullying/discrimination so a request for a meeting with HR for arbitration should be enough to put an end to it.
If you dont want to go down this route you could always ignore it and treat his comments with the contempt they so obviously deserve

 

[Speicher]

I would be tempted to ignore the twerp your colleague. It he has "picked fights over petty things" before, then if you do not respond, then possibly he will get bored. Are you on very good terms with someone else who has been a victim of his bullying?

If he has OCD or autism, a certain amount of sympathy might be in order. I would definitely avoid any action that means you are sinking to his level.

 

[Cubist]

Vike

Discuss this with your line-manager. They are obliged to mediate. You don't have to put up with this sort of bollox at work. You really need to get this sorted, because it's becoming a personal issue, and by not reacting you're granting the colleague power to think of the next "small irritation".

Apart form anything else someone needs to take the colleague to one side and tell them that's what locker rooms smell of.

 

[Lizban]

You leave your towel for 3 days - maybe he has a point!!!!!!!! (however badly he has made it)

 

[Twenty Inch]

Just throw him down the stairs.

 

[jonny jeez]

You leave your towel for 3 days - maybe he has a point!!!!!!!! (however badly he has made it)

?

 

[Lizban]

?

A colleague is complaining about a smell in the changing rooms (and is dong so in an unaccpetable way we all agree.)

But just because the method of the complaint is wrong doesn't mean it is less valid a complaint.

In his first post the OP stated he left his towel in the changing room for 3 days.

If I left my towel for 3 days it would stink!

 

[Spinney]

I don't wash my towels every day at home. I use them, they dry out, they don't stink. I don't see how this is any different to a towel in a locker room. After all, the towel should only have had clean water on it (i.e. you use it after you shower, so it should not have sweat on it).

I would have thought the smell of sweaty cycling gear left in a locker all day (if that is what Vike does with his cycling gear) would be more likely to cause a smell.

If there really is a smell (which maybe only the inappropriate complainer can smell), then as has been suggested above, it may be worth getting the ventilation checked.