That one thing you never want to smell...

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Worst thing I can smell at my store is farts too.

You'll be moseying along and suddenly run smack into an invisible Wall O' Stench, like somebody just shit their pants or blasted one.

This is a fairly common occurrence on Senior Days.

Second worst thing you can smell is one of the cash office specialists. She's a special kind of stench right there. It's so bad we have to carpet-bomb the cash office and the service desk with Glade and Febreeze after she leaves for the day.

[Peppergirl]

I work in a call center. At my company, apparently the worst smell is burnt microwave popcorn.

One of the executives apparently hates the smell so much that he insisted it be banned and PLACED IN THE EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK, which we all had to sign.

And yes, I'm serious.

And because I'm such a contrary little witch, and because I work weekends, I purposely brought in some popcorn, passed it around. We all microwaved our bags and had a big 'ol illegal popcorn fest!!!

Then my co-workers and I sat around and threatened to tattle on one another for breaking the cardinal popcorn rule.

[Pezzle]

Hmm... what DO you not want to smell at a nuclear power plant?

The smell of melting stuff is unique so I'm going to have to say excessive steam. That and scaffolder farts.

[Caveat Emptor]

Wite-out mixed with scented hand lotion.

[Boochan]

In my store? Rotting/Rancid food.. when someone has been a slack bastard and let the rubbish pile up in our jail cell I mean office's rubbish bin :P
Otherwise, electrical/plastic burning smell.. because it meant something just died and we probably have to write it off as breakages.

When our office was infested with cockroaches (now gone after more then a few roach bombs were set off), the smell left behind when we squished one.

[InsanityInc]

Just remembered one. Paper factory. ANY plant that makes paper ANYTHING. I've been to several, couple of different manufacters, and ALL of 'em smell like rotting corpses. If the winds right, you can smell 'em for at least 10 miles out. I'm a country girl, and have ran across dead animals in the summer, and been less grossed out by the smell.

[Supermarket Slave Girl]

My husband works at a slaughter house, there's nothing in that place i would want to smell

As soon as he gets home i make him have a shower.

[Boochan]

My husband works at a slaughter house, there's nothing in that place i would want to smell .

That reminds me..
My stores storeroom is offsite, on the other side of the mall that my store is in. We share the alleyway with a few other random tennants (greengrocer, crockery/homewares store, store that sells chicken products), and the alleyway also has meat deliveries. Many times I've gone out the back for one item, and I've walked out just as a whole rack of caracasses are heading to the butchers in the mall.. and they go slow and I have to smell the excellent smell of (generally) beef or lamb caracass. The whole alleyway also stinks like a butchery..

[InsanityInc]

Eyah, I can agree with the slaughterhouse. I used to have to make pickups from a chicken plant when I was pregnant. After the first time of me gagging, and then explaining, they just brought me my paperwork.

[Andara Bledin]

Eyah, I can agree with the slaughterhouse. I used to have to make pickups from a chicken plant when I was pregnant. After the first time of me gagging, and then explaining, they just brought me my paperwork.

You think a slaughterhouse is bad? At least that is just the meat and blood.

Rendering plants, on the other hand.

^-.-^

[jfreak125]

Computer room.... burnt capacitor... esp. fun when followed by a puff of smoke and loud ZZZAP!!!! yep... fried power supply on my server... not fun when in middle of HUGE project....

[Difdi]

The APOCALYPSE of STENCH

I had a job years ago as a janitor in a dairy/bottling plant. Now, understand, most people have *no* idea what rotting milk smells like. I don't mean a little or a lot sour, or forming clumps and starting to stink. I mean when the milk turns *black*!

One of my jobs was to clean the unloading bay, where the milk and corn syrup tankers unloaded their cargo into holding tanks. This involved a pressure washer and a sincere desire to spontaneously lose one's sense of smell. And that was just the residue from when the tanker driver hosed down the bay after unloading earlier in the week. I'm seriously tempted to suggest that sort of thing to the guy who does that Dirty Jobs show on Discovery channel.

But my last day on the job, I encountered something truly indescribable. So utterly horrific, the memory of the smell, even years later, makes me want to vomit.

You see, the bottling plant had been using two refrigerated trailers as extra storage space for the refrigerated loading dock. They'd never needed more than 3 of the 5 truck bays, so they used the 2 extras for storage. Those 2 trailers were never moved. So when the drain underneath them developed a blockage, nobody noticed. For over a decade. Then they needed to move one of them for some remodeling work being done to the plant. What was under that trailer still figures into some of my nightmares to this day.

The trailers in question were downhill of the unloading bay, and at deepest part, right under the loading dock, the thick black sludge of rotted milk, motor oil and sugar runoff was over a foot deep. The smell was such they had to evacuate the loading dock, since *none* of the union guys (teamsters, FYI) would go near it. A friend of mine does hazmat cleanup for a living. I'm well aware of just what sort of biohazard would result in guys in near-spacesuits shoveling stuff into barrels that won't see the light of day again for thousands of years. This qualified. Easily.

Then management catches sight of yours truly, a non-union janitor. They handed me a scrub brush and a hose, and pointed me at it. The smell coming off the pool of sludge was unspeakable at 100 feet, and eye searing at 50. I asked to borrow a sealed, self-contained air supply respirator from building maintenance. No go. I asked for goggles to protect my eyes and one of the rubber suits the guys who crawl into the milk tanks use for inspections. No go. I asked for a high pressure fire hose and a shovel. No go. Scrub brush and garden hose were all that were available.

That's also the day I quit that job. Funny coincidence, eh?

[crazylegs]

I asked to borrow a sealed, self-contained air supply respirator from building maintenance. No go.

I'm aware of jobs where the police have had to borrow similar kit from the fire brigade to enter a building where a dead body was because of the smell, I would image you would have to destroy all your uniform as well because you would *never* get that smell off!

[Dark-Star]

Wow. I woulda quit too, those cheapskates were asking you to risk your health big time.

One from not so long ago:

You NEVER want to leave an electrolysis experiment alone for awhile, then come back later only to a very strong sort-of sour/sharp smell. This means that your container has sprung a leak and the entire room is now a HUGE fire and explosion hazard!

For all you non-scientists, I shall explain:
Electrolysis is the process of breaking down water with a DC current. Water is chemically H20 and reverts back to H and O in this process.
H is hydrogen and it burns quite easily. (remember the Hindenburg)
O is oxygen and fire needs it to burn.

If the two have mixed in your container *and then escaped*, you have explosive gas loose!!! And lots of it!

Fortunately no kaboom, but I coulda made the news that day...

[Andara Bledin]

H is hydrogen and it burns quite easily. (remember the Hindenburg)

Totally OT Fun Fact time:

While hydrogen is readily flammable, the Hindenburg didn't burn because it was a hydrogen-filled zeppelin.

No, the reason for the Hindenburg disaster was not what was on the inside, but what was on the outside. This was actually covered up for a very long time, but the material that covered the outside was painted in a highly reflective and also highly flammable paint that was known to be combustable if the temperature was high enough.

The idea behind the paint was to reflect light and keep the hydrogen cool, but somehow the brains behind the whole thing didn't think as far as considering what would happen if the paint wasn't also kept cool.

^-.-^