Foul-smelling applicant, told to take a shower, threatens to kill job interviewer

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/foul-smelling-applicant-told-to-take-a-shower-threatens-to/article_d21a52e2-b173-11e4-887b-afe415ffb76c.html

POSTED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015 1:30 AM
By Kevin Cole / World-Herald staff writer

A job seeker reportedly became enraged and threatened to kill an employment agency staffer last month when he was told he couldn’t attend an orientation meeting until he showered.

“I’m going to get my gun and come back and kill you,” the prospective employee told an interviewer, according to an Omaha Police Department report. The deadly threat was made Jan. 21 at an employment agency near 110th and I Streets.

The incident began Jan. 19 when the suspect reported for an interview “with a foul smell about him,” police said. At the end of the interview, the applicant was advised that his body odor was offensive and told to shower before returning for orientation.

Two days later, the interviewer noticed the applicant “smelling worse” and told him that he would not be allowed to proceed to orientation but could return the next week — if he cleaned up.

FULL story at link.

[panader0]

1. Ted Nugent?

[misternormal]

6. Now...

Be nice to "Uncle Ted", the Pedophilic Draft Dodger, because he's "Little Yellow Bus" Special.

[greytdemocrat]

2. Well that stinks.

[whatthehey]

3. So...did he get the job or not?

[Enrique]

4. "with a foul smell about him"

do people in Omaha speak like 17th century Englishmen?

[pipoman]

10. They are all Warren Buffet's servants .

[chrisa]

12. Maybe the writer is originally from The Shire

[MineralMan]

5. Well, after that threat, I guess he won't have to shower

for his job.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. He should have applied at the cabbage factory first.

[FLPanhandle]

8. With those hygiene and personal skills...

I'm shocked he is unemployed.

[pipoman]

9. I hire quite a few people and would never say that to anyone

I just wouldn't hire them. This however sounds like an employment agency, this is their role, to help people market themselves to prospective employers...

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. There's an art to dealing w. this sort of thing.

A lot of "exceptional individuals"..... live alone due to age, disability, etc.

The extended isolation .... e.g. lack of normal levels of social feedback from peers and intimates...encourages obliviousness to how one .... shall we say.... impacts others.

All of a sudden they've got a job interview .... or whatever... and YOU have to tell them, effectively, that they stink.

But that's what Bill Gates, Arne Duncan et al., would do. And the inability to recognize the subtleties involved, the interpersonal *art* in getting this done ( "this" being: getting the client to bathe, shower, groom etc. so that they can get the job, interview, housing, etc.) feeds the delusion that the situation does NOT require sensitivity, empathy and TACT.

Punitive approaches are not helpful here. Nor is data-freakism.

It's about helping people. Not threatening the shit out of them.

[enlightenment]

14. There is some interesting language

in that article; it says that the applicant "reported" for the interview. People who seek out agencies generally are not considered to report - they arrive - which makes me wonder if this person is somehow "in the system".

When homeless people seek aid, they are often told that they have to seek employment; unfortunately, their situation doesn't lend itself to regular hygiene, so a sink bath in a public toilet might be as much as they can manage. Or, as you note, someone living on the fringes of society may have forgotten the social 'niceties' and simply not realize that they are more fragrant than is considered acceptable.

Many, many years ago I worked as an employment counselor; I still recall one lady who came in smelling like she bathed in her perfume. It was eye-watering; she literally reeked. Telling her that she had to stop doing that was hard to accomplish without hurting her feelings too much, but I managed it. Tact can be learned and I would hope that the person working at this agency takes a few lessons instead of justifying his/her behavior based on the clients admittedly over-the-top response.

[TwilightGardener]

13. Interviewer adds note: follow up on anger management issues.