Things like spicy food, pungent food, dry mouth, and forgetting to brush your teeth can all cause short-term bad breath. However, many people suffer from chronic bad breath – that is, all bad breath, all the time, not just after eating or first thing in the morning.

The best way to beat bad breath is to practice good dental hygiene: brush your tongue and teeth, floss, use a tongue scraper, and see the dentist regularly. If you can’t brush after meals, certain brands of gum can help get saliva flowing and clean out your mouth. What doesn’t work? Mouthwash, breath sprays, mints, and most brands of gum just cover the smell up and don’t address the underlying bacteria.

What’s the best way to deal with an employee who has bad breath? If it’s just a one-time thing and you have a good relationship with the employee, a simple offer of dentist-approved gum should solve the problem. However, if it’s a bigger issue (say, a group of colleagues have approached you about a particular individual), then it’s time to pull the employee aside and use our difficult-conversation framework.

You might say something like: “Stacey, thanks for taking a minute to talk to me. I wanted to talk to you privately about a sensitive issue that has come to my attention. If it were me, I’d appreciate someone being straightforward, so I’ll just say it right out: I think you might have a problem with bad breath. You’re an excellent customer service representative and I wouldn’t want this issue to affect customers’ perception of you. There are a lot of people who have this problem, and I’d be more than happy to help in any way I can. Can you think of any solutions?”

Usually the employee will apologize and promise to deal with the issue by improving their personal hygiene or by altering their diet. We have never encountered a situation where an employee will argue with you – most people are far too embarrassed for that. (If you do encounter objections, however, you can handle them using the standard routine that we’ve already discussed.)