How you smell can influence matters at work
By: Costa Provis, LCPC
If you are like most men, you probably want to excel in your career. And while much of the contemporary advice on this topic is focused on education, positioning and, experience, few people focus on the importance of male grooming.
Specifically, I’m talking about how you smell.
Not long ago, a 25-year old male client I work with who is employed in the aerospace industry was up for a promotion. For our purposes, let’s call him Mike.
At any rate, he was trying to move from the position of lead sales specialist to account manager. Not only did the promotion carry an increase in salary, it also included travel to warm weather destinations. That’s a good deal when you live in a cold-weather city like Chicago.
At any rate, he didn’t get the job. And it wasn’t because Mike wasn’t qualified. He most certainly was. He also had a good sales record with consistently high marks on his annual reviews.
So, you may be wondering the reason he was passed over? It’s simple. Mike had strong body odor issues. In fact, they were so strong, human resources once pulled him into their offices to address complaints from fellow coworkers.
And while he was never directly told that he didn’t get the promotion because he smelled, he was given backdoor feedback from someone in the know about what really happened.
As Mike and I processed his feelings about not getting the job and the news about his man-scent, I decided to ask him a question about his self-care routine with a specific focus on the use of soaps.
To make a long story short, he revealed that he had a hard time figuring out the best men’s body wash to use because of a dry skin condition. When asked if he’d talked to his dermatologist about the issue, he revealed the following:
“I haven’t done that yet because it just doesn’t seem like something guys do. When I shower, I usually just rinse off and call it a day. Real men don’t run to their doctor for that kind of thing,” said Mike. “My girlfriend said I should go too but it just seems dumb,” he added.
Concerned that he was operating under a false belief (and one that was holding him back professionally) I encouraged him to revisit his current thinking.
I also informed Mike that if he didn’t address the issue of body odor, it would likely pop up again in the future. As a homework assignment, I provided him the link to a news article about this very topic to drive home my point.
It took some time for him to come around, but he eventually realized that his professional appearance, including the way he smelled, really matters. Ultimately, he made an appointment with a skin doctor for an evaluation.
The verdict? Mike was diagnosed with eczema. This meant that using certain types of body washes could worsen his condition and even exacerbate symptoms.
But that didn’t mean all body washes were out of the question. You see what Mike didn’t know was there are a whole family of men’s body wash products that are specifically designed for people with this issue.
For example, Cetaphil makes a wash specifically designed for guys with this problem (See Amazon). There are many others as well. It just takes some looking around to find the right one.
In Mike’s case, he began to include the body wash in his shower daily shower routine. Over the course of time, he noticed two things. First, the look and feel of his skin improved. Second, folks seemed more responsive to him when in their presence.
From the career perspective, the decision to begin using a wash was one of the smartest things he ever did. The following year, he applied for the position again when it became open. Low and behold, he got the job.
Was it because of the body wash? In all honesty, it’s hard to say. But one thing is for sure – had he not addressed his body odor issues, he likely wouldn’t have been promoted.
So, the windup is simply this. How you look and smell really matters when it comes to job advancement. If you aren’t engaging in a regular self-care routine that includes skin care, you may be harming your career.
