when i got to work this morning the whole office smelled like a fireplace.
the office has been known to smell like a lot of things (popcorn, B.O.) but never a fireplace. probably because we don't, like, even have a fireplace.
it turns out someone was burning incense.
and perhaps i'm being over-sensitive, but how rude is that?? it's difficult for me to tolerate perfumy smells at all, and this was particuarly powerful. sandalwood + ash + fire smells. and it was pungent.
i go out of my way to buy scent-free laundry soap and stuff like that. i avoid the perfume aisle of department stores like the plague. and i didn't want to appear uptight about this, but about 10 minutes after i sat down at my desk i thought i was going to go crazy. i seriously felt like i couldn't take a breath. i got up and ran around the office, "who's got the incense? who's got the incense???"
i finally located it and beat the hell out of it. (that's the only way i know to put out incense.) i threw it in the garbage can and ran outside and took a deep breath.
i wish i could have stayed out there and worked on my laptop or something, because coming back inside was terrible. the fireplace smell again, extra strong now because I COULDN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.
geah!
i think i need to step outside again. right now.
Posted by xta at December 3, 2004 12:27 PM | TrackBackburning incense in a shared office space is only slightly less rude than smoking. forget about beating the hell out of the incense. you shoulda beaten the hell outta the person with the incense. consider yrself lucky that you had to miss doing Divaville last night -- the XDU headphones reek of patchouli (bad hippy DJ! no biscuit!!)
Posted by: georg at December 3, 2004 12:43 PMha! I was going to post the same thing! Somebody must have doused their hair with patchouli right before going on the air. The headphones stank on Monday afternoon and they still stank last night. I swear my head smelled like patchouli when I got home.
Posted by: Sarah at December 3, 2004 01:05 PMWhich is worse, incense or patchouli? They both pollute your space. Although burnt microwave popcorn should be a felony offense, if it's not at home. I've thought this for a long long time.
Posted by: pinky at December 3, 2004 04:49 PMoh my god, i just noticed that there's mistletoe hanging over my office door!!! what the hell is going on here today?!??
Posted by: christa at December 3, 2004 04:59 PMas you may recall, we had an Odor Incident in our office earlier this year. a person in the office next to mine spilled some kind of perfumey essential oil in his office and was unable to effectively clean it up. it was literally nauseating.
people are morons. the stories i could tell (but really, really won't) about the bathrooms around here.
Posted by: lisa at December 3, 2004 05:12 PMI just had to ride the elevator with Bathes-In Cologne-Man. Don't people realize how obnoxious they smell?
Posted by: lainey at December 3, 2004 05:51 PMOn the otherhand, they could be trying to mask a really bad smell, like if they had really bad gas. I got in trouble one day for lighting a candle in my office but I was trying to hide the fact that I had a really bad smelling fart.
Posted by: Dallas at December 4, 2004 03:53 PMI can't believe incense passes the fire codes, much less the rules of basic human decency. And what if a co-worker - or a visitor - had asthma?
One of my colleagues is extremely chemical-sensitive - gets migraines if people use strong-smelling cleaners on their monitor, that kind of thing. And I have to say, I'm grateful. No one in my office puts out potpourri, no one wears strong perfume, etc. etc. In other words, we all benefit.
Except of course that they de-molded the basement last week, and half the staff had to leave because the epoxy smell was giving us all blinding headaches. Does epoxy kill mold? Does it kill everything?
-lady macventril