A Plea for Hygiene

Hi everybody.  I know.  It's a little off the beaten path tonight.  I thought that I'd share an office dilemma that I felt forced to address today.  Sadly, probably not unheard of in today's office environment.

Hey!  Can a plastic doll have his privacy please?

What to do about an office hygiene problem?  How best to handle it within the confines of a very small company.

Let me explain the company that I work for.  It's a very small company of only nine employees, myself included.  Of the nine employees, five are basically "Chiefs" and three of us are "Indians".  Besides the product that we make, we are absolute experts at micro-management techniques.  Perhaps you might say that it's perfected where I work.

Here is the situation and an e-mail that I sent to the entire organization this afternoon:

I know what you're thinking right now.  "Chucky.  Why didn't you just go to your manager and explain the situation?"  To put it politely, my manager hasn't the slightest business acumen.  His people skills are absent and he is only capable of making a bad situation worse.  If I had to guess, he would probably call out the individual in front of everyone and made everyone feel uncomfortable.

Now.  Before you go chastising me for taking the approach that I did, let me explain what I first did.  I first indirectly informed the company's owner of the situation via a neutral party.  I truly believe that the neutral party informed the owner of the situation but he elected not to do anything about.  I was hoping for a company-wide e-mail from top management similar to mine.  Short, sweet, and non-accusatory.  Our company owner is a true practitioner of the maybe-if-I-don't-act-it-will-simply-go-away business management philosophy.  His sole function is to lead without understanding and to direct without inquiring.

Should I catch this individual a fourth time?  At that point I feel obliged to simply call them out to make note of their act.  I honestly believe they are not even aware what they are doing.  Perhaps they were raised behind the barn somewhere between the out-house and dog house?

So... what would you do?  What would you have done differently?  Should Chucky have pulled out his dagger?  "Kill, Chucky!  Kill!"

Hi-dee hi-dee hygienic-ho my friends!