December 8, 2007
Bad Breath Doorman Avoids Dismissal
After 40 years opening doors for the tenants at the same Upper East Side building, Jonah Seeman probably would not like to be remembered as the "Bad Breath Doorman;" who would? Still, he's happy he spoke up when he received his third disciplinary letter in nine months, suspending him for having terrible halitosis. The message was quite clear that he was going to be dismissed because of bad breath that someone--never identified--who felt that his oral odor was just too much to bear. Seeman is 60 years old and has worked at Gracie Gardens on East 89th St. since 1967. For now, it seems that his continued employment seems assured.
Recently, however, he received what he perceived as a third strike letter from Cooper Square Realty.
"Your poor personal hygiene in the form of bad breath is seriously interfering with your job performance," Cooper Square agent Joe Scholes wrote.Seeman's seen a doctor about his alleged condition and was given a clean bill of health; he cut garlic from his diet, regularly gargles with mouthwash, and uses breath mints while working. Tenants at Gracie Gardens were appalled that they would lose their longtime doorman over such a matter. Cooper Square Realty relented and said that Seeman would not lose his job nor any more pay over his breath issues."We therefore have no choice but to take the necessary disciplinary measures up to and including termination of your employment if necessary."
Yesterday we linked to the American Dental Association on how to treat and prevent halitosis. Today, we offer the advice of the Mayo Clinic on the same subject.
(Picture of a plushy of Porphorymonas gingivalis, the microbe commonly causing bad breath)
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I can understand why they wanted to fire him - his breath smells like Seeman!
But seriously folks...
I've had two boyfriends who smoked, and the only breath they had was tobacco breath. Their breath smelled like cigarettes. That's not bad breath in my book. Poopy breath, sulfurous breath, morning breath, boozy overdrinker's breath, superheavy garlicky breath, and kim chi breath (I'm often guilty of that), breath that has some kind of decomposing smell to it is bad breath.
Some people seem to think if you smell anything on someone it's bad! We're alive! As living organisms, we all smell like something or another, at any given moment!
I've noticed that when horny, people don't notice breath, good or bad. Either that, or being horny makes people's breath suddenly smell great. Bad breath is in the nose of the beholder!
I wonder what would have happened to this guy in France in the 1600's. Back then, bathing was something you did once a month and NO ONE brushed their teeth or flossed for that matter, or scraped their tongues! People plain stank! This episode is as trivial and irrelevant as the goons who fired him. I hope he gets his job back. Morons, all of them.