BO *and* wrinkled shirts
I used to work as a trainer in a large technical support call centre in Nottingham. A good part of my job was training new staff in both computer tech support and customer service and telephone skills. 

One Monday I had just such a new intake, one of whom was a man in his 40s, a large chap. To call him disheveled would be an understatement; his shirt looked as though it had been taken out of the washer and allowed to dry out in a crumpled heap. I made a note to have a word with him about the company's dress code at the first break, and took him on one side to give him a dressing down. So to speak.

It was only then that I realised the seriousness of the problem. He had clearly been living in the same clothes for weeks. His trousers were also wrinkly, and to be honest, he stank. I pointed out that for reasons of antisocial lack of hygiene and violation of the dress code, I was sending him home to shower and change.

The odd thing was that he did not see any problem with wearing disgusting clothes and not bathing.

Length? Several years. When I left to move to California, he still worked there, and was as clueless at the end as he was at the start.
(wertperch is losing his hair, marbles and patience., Thu 10 Jan 2013, 20:53, 4 replies)

So your story is....
I live in California and you lot have to be cold and put up with stinky people.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Thu 10 Jan 2013, 23:10, closed)

To be fair, that's a pretty good story.
I'd certainly be keen to tell everyone if it applied to me.
( 4Q just lurking, Fri 11 Jan 2013, 0:56, closed)

Now I might be old fashioned,
but what's the point in enforcing a dress code for minimum-wage phone monkeys?

Unless they're using videophones, it's not like anyone outside the company will ever see them.
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Fri 11 Jan 2013, 0:05, closed)

I take your point. But this guy went well beyond dress code, he was a biological weapon.

The company had this thing about "professionalism". It wasn't a suit-and-tie place, but clothes had to be clean and whole. Buggers made me wear a shirt and tie, though.
(wertperch is losing his hair, marbles and patience., Fri 11 Jan 2013, 0:48, closed)