Don’t stay in the stink

I’m passionately, madly crazy about my husband. Let’s get that out of the way first up so that you don’t all think I’m too harsh in what I’m about to say.

But… my husband is a fitness fanatic (well according to my standards).

Every day, all the time (yes, even when we’re on holiday) my husband will run or go to the gym or do some sort of exercise. Now if he’s running, my husband doesn’t just go for a light jog, he runs flat out for an hour at a time and that has consequences.

I’d just walked into the room we’re staying in while on holiday, only to be met by his running gear hanging up over the doorway, the smell of which had not so lightly flavoured our room.

I wrinkled my nose, got past it and set up my laptop to return a few late night emails.

Cut to 10 minutes later and as I sit here typing, I can’t smell a thing wrong with the room.

My nose has adjusted to the smell and now it just smells like any old normal room.

I’ve stayed in the stink too long.

Now, in a personal context, I can live with my husband’s running clothes being on the door, but I need to know that the next day I just may end up smelling a bit like them myself. So I’ve got three options, move the stink (take the smell elsewhere), remove the stink (wash the clothes) or smell like the stink.

How long have you stayed in the stink at work with an employee that you knew wasn’t right for your office culture? Leave it long enough and you can almost forget the problem is there, but it’s not gone and you’ll reek of the stink by continuing to have issues with that staff member if you don’t do something about it.

How long have you stayed in the stink plugging away at a procedure, system or idea that didn’t work?

How long have you stayed in the stink at a job you didn’t love?

Move the stink, remove the stink or smell like the stink? Which will it be?

PS. My husband, after reading this blog, insists his running clothes smell like a daisy and in fact, he seems quite proud.

Kirsty Dunphey is the youngest ever Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year, author of two books (her latest release is Retired at 27, If I Can do it Anyone Can) and a passionate entrepreneur who started her first business at age 15 and opened her own real estate agency at 21. Now Kirsty does lots of fun things which you can read about here. Her favourite current projects are Elephant Property, a boutique property management agency, Baby Teresa, a baby clothing line that donates an outfit to a baby in need for each one they sell andReallySold, which helps real estate agents stop writing boring, uninteresting ads.