I supervise 14 people in the Security field and have a female with body odor. As you can imagine this is an uncomforable topic to discuss with anyone, but a female even more so.

How do I talk about body odor with the femal employee?

The experience I have, is let HR deal with it... they are trained to avoid law suits that arise... if your HR is distant, they should be advised. Follow their advice to avoid inevitable discrimination accusations. Good luck...

I don't think it's discriminatory to quietly take her aside and tell her she's has body odor. There is no easy way to say it. You can trying finding another female to say it for you. However, what are the chances that she'll want to be the one pulling that kind of trigger. Try this: Ask her if you can talk to her about something of a "sensitive nature", she'll begin to wonder what in the world you could be referring to. This sets up the approach. Then take her aside and say, "I feel very uncomfortable to say this but I feel you should be made aware. I hope you won't take this the wrong way or think that I am trying to be malicious. There is no easy way to say this so I'll just say it. (Say her name first...), "_____ you seem to have body odor." It is hard to say no matter how you slice it or dice it... I'm pretty sure I would not want to do it. If it really is so difficult to live w/ then it's something that just has to be done.

I agree with SweetDee, however, would like to add one note. Make sure you have a female employee with you so that it is not just you and the female employee. It is sad, but you need to have a witness to what is said to the employee to avoid costly lawsuits.

Shirley