A female office worker in China, who suffers from body odor, routinely used antiperspirants at work and believed the smell wasn’t noticeable. However, one day she was informed by her company, “Don’t come in tomorrow,” after colleagues complained that her odor was too strong and affected their work. Feeling helpless, she questioned, “Does this count as a personal reason?” and admitted, “I feel somewhat hurt.”
The netizen's post about being dismissed from her job due to body odor sparked heated discussions, quickly topping trending searches on the 10th afternoon.
The woman shared on social media that she had worked at the company for over a year without any business mistakes, but was suddenly notified by HR one day that she didn't need to return because a colleague had complained she affected others at work.
The poster mentioned she always applied antiperspirant to suppress the smell and believed that no odor was spreading. Being suddenly fired felt absurd and made her quite sad.
She later updated that after negotiating with the company, they agreed to pay her half a month’s salary as compensation, plus her full month’s social insurance. Now, she plans to undergo surgery to resolve her body odor problem “once and for all.”
● Lawyer: This Constitutes Employment Discrimination
Commenting on the case, a lawyer stated that body odor is a physiological trait, not a disease; it does not impact one’s ability to work nor cause substantial harm to the company's operations. Terminating an employee's contract based solely on body odor infringes upon the worker’s right to equal employment and constitutes employment discrimination.
According to CCTV reports, the reason for the unpleasant smell is that underarm sweat glands differ from those of other body parts, and body odor is hereditary—if either parent has it, the child's likelihood of inheriting it is over 50%, and if both parents have it, the likelihood increases to 75%.