Co-workers' Stinky Food and Morning Sickness- Do I Suffer or Speak Up?

honestly, they know....&, as adults, are making their choice. This does not make them bad co-workers....simply adults with their own agendas.

2nd part of my honest answer: you cannot expect them to revolve their worlds around you! Sorry.....I hope the nausea ends quickly....Peace.

I had horrible sickness for the first 5 months of my pregnancy. If a smell bothered me I would remove myself, I never felt it was up to others to cater to me. But, if you have to be where you are then there is no harm is simply mentioning the trouble you are having to them.

Get some dried ginger for work, it's very good for you & will help alleviate nausea. Congratulations!

Sorry, but your morning sickness is not their problem.

Aw yes i feel for you, i am like 5 weeks pregnant and smells are a big problem for me. Anything with tomato sauce or garlic will send my stomach turning. I think it might be rude to tell your co-workers their food is making you sick. I totally would tell my husband and close friends but not a co-worker (depends how close they are to you as friends i guess) Id keep ginger gum, drinks, pills etc... in my desk if i were you and roll with the punches.

Most people dont want to hear their food stinks.

suck on peppermints.

Just ask them nicely if they could either not eat at their desks for a while or if they could close their doors. They probably have no idea how it would smell to to someone with morning sickness. I don't know if this is an option, but a small fan in your office might help circulate the air so the smell disipates more quickly. And as someone who spent years working in HR, people eating at their desks is NOT a hostile work environment. Irritating maybe, but not hostile. Sorry for the soapbox, but when this term is thrown around for every inconvenience it diminishes the real issues that employees face.

So sorry you have to go through this.
If you don't have a problem letting them know that you are pregnant, then I would totally ask. Not tell, but ask nicely, along the lines of: "Would you please consider eating your lunch in the break room or during lunch break? Would you consider doing this for just a few weeks,because I expect my sensitivity to diminish?" Explain that asking them is really your last resort and you hate bothering them and that you cannot do anything else on your end to prevent this: you can't leave because you have to do your work."

Frankly I am surprised at some of the answers you got here... What's wrong with asking for a simple act of human compassion? It is such a minor adjustment in behavior that I would do it for a coworker without a blink! We expect others to be considerate of our needs: not to play loud music, not to smoke in bars, not to wear strong perfumes, not bring peanut products to schools where kids are allergic, not to use un-pc language, etc, etc... and here we have a very simple temporary situation and a very simple way of fixing it...Why not ask for it with a bit of humor and humility?

Is there a smell that is calming and soothing to you? If so, try and buy that oil and rub in on your wrists (and under your nose if you can tolerate it!) so that is what you smell in times of *ickness*. Bath and Body Works sells TONS of oils and you can mix your own if needed. I am just thinking maybe the smell of whatever it is you like to eat and crave (hopefully a sweet due to the types of oil!) will cancel out the violent fumes coming from your co-workers ;)
Congrats on the pregnancy by the way :)

After being prego 3x's over I wouldn't make my pregnancy issues someone else's problem.I would carry on do what I need to do to make my ill's better,including getting up to walk away from whatever it is.I get ora's that then trun into instant migraines but I can't tell someone to stop wearing their perfume because i'm prego or it just doesn't agree with me.Sorry but I must say tough it out.They are working ladies just as you are.
Get your favorite room spray body spray & spray it a few times maybe that will lessen the smell for you then again it may disagree with others.

Can you shut your office door?

You say they are considerate people, so try talking to them. They will probably be receptive. I wouldn't say anything, but that is just me, and I would be miserable!

Hopefully this won't last much longer!

You can get a fan and have it blow from your desk towards the door of your office. It will not let the bad odor in.

You can ask them if they wouldn't mind eating lunch somewhere else for a few more weeks until the morning sickness is over. If they are truly nice people, they will appologize and scram.

Since you have your own office, can't you just close the door when you know they'll be getting ready to heat up their lunches and eat? You could also keep a garbage can next to your desk and throw all caution to the wind and just yonk into the garbage can. When I worked in a call center my desk was close to the microwaves for a while and I had to occasionally ask the brokers and clients if they minded if I put them on hold for a moment. Little did they know it was so I could yonk into my trash can thanks to someone making popcorn or heating up some monstrous meal. When one broker shouted at me for interrupting him to ask him to put him on hold and I respectfully told him, "But sir, if I don't put you on hold my morning sickness will get the best of me and I'll be making throwing up noises in your ear..." "GO AHEAD! Put me on hold please!" When I got back on he apologized.

After my supervisor reviewed that call they moved my desk. :-)

get some vicks vapor rub and put a thin layer right under your nose. All you will smell is the mint. This is a trick that morticians used to use or police on nasty crime scenes.
I sympathize, but it would be rude of you to suggest they eat elsewhere...I do not know if you are getting the same heat we are, but here it is hotter than a goose. I don't even like to get in my car to go through a drive through right now.
Also sucking on a starlight peppermint always helped ward off morning sickness for me.

Great question! I agree that asking directly or even hinting poses the risk of inadvertently hurting people's feelings, no matter how close or friendly the relationship is at the moment. The risk for hurt feelings -- I think -- has to do with people's ideas about tolerance to different food flavors and aromas. The risk is higher if comments/requests are interpreted as culturally-related. For instance, if I don't like the smell of kimchi or natto, is that necessarily interpreted as me having something against Korean or Japanese culture? (It shouldn't, but some people will wonder.)

Sometimes the risk is the interpretation may be based erroneously on personal-hygiene (as in, if someone's food smells like "garbage").

In your case, you've made it clear that it's neither a cultural or hygiene issue; it's obviously the morning sickness!

About a solution:
Does anybody know if personal air filters (that operate on batteries or that plug in) really work? I worry about the ionizer ones if they emit ozone, and they probably take a while to kick in, huh?

One product that does work immediately, at least around baby diapers and bathroom odors and smelly shoes, is Zero Odor spray. There's no fragrance to "cover up" the odors, which I do appreciate!

by a can of air freshener and shut your door......would that work??

I totally understand how you feel. I am pregnant with baby number 2 as well and am almost 9 weeks along and this time around I am suffering from crazy nausea. Its horrible and smells are the biggest trigger for me too. I dont know that I would be able to find the words to tell these ladies the issue but what if you tried getting some lavender oil and peppermint tea that you could indulge in =) while these ladies are having their lunch? It might help to overpower the stinky food smell and get you through. Or even if you could plan your afternoon break around the time they eat and take a walk outside or something to get away
Good Luck and I hope you feel better soon

That's a really late lunch. Does your office have a break room away from your office? If so that is where they should be eating their lunch. I would ask them to use that instead of the desk. If that doesn't work HR would be brought into it. They are causing you a hostile working environment. They may not know or even think about you being pregnant and smells.

Good luck to you.

The other S.

This is just something that hopefully you can get over soon.
I was so nauseous during my first pregnancy that I couldn't stand the smell of coffee. The thought of someone eating onions on a sandwich. (I am a huge onion lover, by the way). I was just miserable, but if you think for one second I would tell people they couldn't make or have coffee by me or eat onions on a salad or sandwich....my extreme sesitivities didn't need to affect anyone else. That was how I felt, anyway. Can you imagine asking people not to have coffee? I'd have been pitched out into the parking lot.
My last job, we had a woman that made the most gross smelling stuff to eat every single day and not even pregnant, it made me want to gag. It was some weird protein burger patty or something and it smelled like a rotten garbage can. She heated it up in the break room, with the door closed and ate in there by herself, but that smell permeated every bit of our building. We would open doors and windows and do anything to try to get rid of it. I wasn't the only one it bothered, but she had every right to eat in the lunch room just like any of the rest of us. And she wasn't eating at her desk or in front of us. I don't know how she even ate it, the smell was so bad.

Anyway, just try to keep your door closed or get some fresh air. Hopefully your nausea will subside. Try the vicks and soda crackers. Close your door. I know how you feel, I really do, but you can only ask so much of other people as far as accommodating you.

I hope you feel better soon.

I completely agree with Vita B. Why not ask tell them your problem? Ask nicely and humbly and see where it goes. You are not asking for much and if they chose not to adjust their schedules to help you then you are just left where are now. No harm done, but they might be willing to help.

I would talk to them = )

Oh I feel your pain! With my first pregnancy I was working and SO sensitive to smell. I worked in HR so I had LOTS of people in my office throughout the day all smelling different from lunch, to sweat, to perfume. I thought I was going to toss my cookies at all times. It was awful! I couldn't tell people they couldn't come in my office though, that was my job. I tried some aromatherapy candles. Scents that weren't offensive to those coming into my office but were enough to sort of overpower the scent of whoever was in my office or eating lunch down the hall. It wasn't perfect but it did help me get through the day and I did close my door a lot and put a note on it that said to knock if you needed me. Ugh. I know it's the worst!!! I hope you're able to find something that works short of going to work out of your car all afternoon. Good luck & congratulations!

I have no answer to your question, but all I can think of is the episode of The Office when Dwight is peeling a hard-boiled egg at his desk and Pam (who has morning sickness) starts a vomit chain through the whole office. Priceless!

Sorry to hijack, but maybe you could show them that clip and they'd take the hint?

Can you bring something in to help you mask the smell (like mint oil)? You could, in casual conversation, say something like "Man will I be glad when this nausea finally passes because who ever named it "morning sickness" lied...for me it's like "all day or morning and afternoon sickness"". They may ask or say something that prompts you to then say "even just smelling lunches heating up sends me running". They may or may not get the hint but do NOT tell them their food is making you sick. They will get defensive.

Can you take a later lunch (even if you have to eat at your desk earlier) so you aren't at your desk when they are heating their food up?

I used to work with a lady who had the nastiest smelling food ALL the time. I wasn't pregnant but it made me sick almost daily.

You have great responses to what to you in your office. The air purifier is a good idea. I can give you a suggestion about how to help your nausea. Get acupuncture. It has worked for thousands of yrs. I have referrals in the D.C. area, but none in VA. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in finding a practitioner.