We have a couple women in my office who are a leetle too fond of perfume.

Avoiding my stack of work so I will share my tale of the perfumed accountant. Back when I was 19 and working in Philly the company accountant came to visit maybe once a week or so and upon her arrival my eyes would tear and the coughing and sneezing. I couldn't really understand how anyone could bear it, but my allergies were quite an issue back then.

After her visit one time my obnoxious boss called me into his office and asked me what the hell my issue was with SmellySue. I explained the allergies. He exclaimed that allergies were bullshit and totally psychosomatic, and demanded to know what my real issue was with her. I told him he was $*&@# crazy and picked up my purse and walked out.

Then proceeded to a phone booth and sobbed and told DH how I quit my job. Great life lesson since I got a new job within an hour because the phone booth was in front of the Inquirer building and their HR office was right inside the front door.

just say something to them

Good advice really. If I was upsetting someone's allergies I would want to know.

I've mostly switched from perfume to scented lotion ... which I think causes less of a problem. And I try to pick something that's fairly low key. But these two women ... one who sits near me I can usually smell her about 10 feet before she walks by me, the other will leave an ... aura ... everywhere she goes.

And - coincidentally? - both are fond of spraying air "freshener" lavishly in the rest room.

I wish there was some way to make it stop.

Or at least receive the actual shipments.

We've had quite the battles here over air freshener in the bathrooms. In the old building, they put in those plug-in heated fresheners in the wall sockets, and one bathroom was just a renovated closet, so the fake floral stench got compressed when the door was closed and the fan was off. I pulled the freshener out of the socket, then it got plugged back in with a post-it saying no one had authority to unplug it. So I unplugged it far enough so it still hung in the socket, then when that triggered a nastygram I just turned it all the way down, to 0 from 4 (gah). No one ever thought to look at the number on the dial.

Here in the new building, the bathrooms are much bigger, so any smells diffuse quickly.

I've started dabbling in aromatherapy for my own allergies and I am paranoid that my scent will bother someone else. I, for one, would much rather be told it's an issue than not, because I am not going to be able to guess no matter how concerned I am.

Good luck with the jobs, ita!

ETA: never had problems with getting other people's legit e-mail. Y'all just need less common names.

shrift, I'm not very happy with your people right now...

There's not much you can do when it comes to ID10T errors.

Or do they never check their mail?

People don't pay attention to all kinds of things that you'd think would be important. I think they may be the same people who try to bring giant bottles of liquids through airport security.

Damn, I knew I forgot to say something: Much job~ma, ita! I truly hope this unplanned vacation from the 9-5 grind is over soon.

Thanks, meara!

I have a Filipino person who I think is harassing me now, because I it was kind of contentious the first time they signed up with my email address--to a hacking site. That's my ita.ita.ita address.

I get a surprising amount of (>2) Facebook accounts set up with my real name and my ita.lastname email address. At least one of them has seemed entirely sincere, with pictures, and friends of people living within the area she said she did. That was easy--I messaged a friend and told them I was nuking it.

Now I just put a message on the timeline that I'll nuke it in fifteen days.

Unrelatedly, whey people started creating fonts, I wonder if they realised they'd be replacing handwriting. The lack of ability to express oneself individually through fonts is remarkable (either you can't tell them apart or it's your phD thesis in Comic Sans (I think my sister would accept that)). And the assumption that every letter should be rendered the same every time (I just got weirded out by a font that didn't--ds inside words were very different from sequential ds or ds at the start and end of words in Caflisch Script Pro.

Which would be nice, on a regular basis--have a font consist of 40+ letters for a given alphabet, maybe more. Would be nicer to read.

I would HOPE they wouldn't get cranky about it.

Back in the halcyon days of previous employer, not only was everyone especially graceful (except for the one chick with the egg sandwich) people not only cut down on certain smells, food and recreational, but my cubemate would stop people from coming in with bad smells, or deliberately eat somewhere else and mint up afterwards. I don't expect that from everyone, but it was exceptionally touching.

Damn, I was expecting Tennant to use a British accent in Grace Point. His American is wobbly.

I know, shrift. I'm just frustrated. I can't imagine living my life being that clueless.

I can usually smell her about 10 feet before she walks by me, the other will leave an ... aura ... everywhere she goes.

Yeah, someone in my condo building occasionally leaves a cologne vapor trail in the front entrance.