ASK HR: How do I politely tell my two colleagues that they smell?

I share an office with two colleagues who have poor hygiene. One rarely brushes his teeth, and as a result, his breath stinks. He also constantly reeks of sweat, while the other one wears stinky shoes. This makes working here almost unbearable. How do I point this out without offending them?

Sharing negative personal feedback is, for most people, a daunting undertaking as it carries the risks of inflicting emotional bruises, impairing valued relationships and acquiring an undesirable reputation for being the purveyor of negative observations concerning others. 

While some may conceitedly claim to have pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps, successful people often attribute part of their achievements to feedback they received about a state they needed to alter so as to make progress.

People often flounder in pitiable conditions for lack of self-awareness. Opportunities for making improvements are unlocked when illumination is responsibly brought to bear on how people affect their environment. Feedback withheld, therefore, is progress obstructed. 

Consider the purpose and means of giving the feedback, aware that it is easier to approach the two individuals in the context of a meaningful working relationship.

Who will draw the greatest value from the feedback? Do you merely wish to be liberated from your unbearable ergonomic discomfort or equally desire to confer the benefits of self-awareness to the two individuals? Would they sense that the feedback is meant to help them?

Even when intentions are noble, feedback needs to be shared tactfully to achieve its purpose. Individually and in the context of privacy, seek their consent to share the feedback. Focus on the impact of their hygiene on the working environment, not the gravity of your disgust with their repulsive indiscretions.

Although the value of negative feedback does not reside in its taste, well-intended and respectfully given feedback is usually palatable for most people. And if permission is not granted, close colleagues, the line manager or human resources may yet provide alternative avenues for recourse.

The target is to employ means that do not undermine the purpose of the feedback; you want to be a surgeon whose subject lives to see another day, not a butcher.