Smell of sweat from the office neighbor disturbs concentration
A study has investigated the extent to which odors are a nuisance in everyday working life - and how this affects work performance.
The tuna fish sandwich of the office neighbor, summer sweat odors, perfume clouds and cigarette smoke: the fact that bad odors can be annoying is probably no surprise to anyone. In a study, hygiene specialist CWS-Boco investigated which odors are particularly annoying in everyday working life and how this affects performance.
Most of the 500 respondents are bothered by strong odors. Overall, more than three quarters gave this answer. Women (82%) are more bothered by odors than men (71%).
Odors are apparently particularly unpleasant in the office (89%) and in the conference room (88%), while they are somewhat more acceptable in the kitchen and canteen (73%) and in the washroom (73%).
The breakdown by type of odor shows that deodorant can contribute a lot to office peace: 90% of respondents are bothered by the smell of sweat, 65% even strongly. Tobacco odors bothered 78% of respondents, chemical odors 70% and food odors 54%.
And bad odors are apparently not only annoying, but according to the respondents, they affect the ability to concentrate (62%), creativity (49%) and performance (49%). 80% of the participants feel uncomfortable with bad odors at work, among women it is even 89%.
The complete study is available download here.
