Dear Jean,
My boss has really bad breath. When he speaks to me, I almost gag. What can I do to let him know of his problem? He is a very defensive person.
Reply:
I know only two options: Get up your courage and tell him, or stay two arms’ lengths away.
I have a client who was the person with the bad breath. His secretary kept a bunch of mints in her desk. As he would be walking out of the office for a meeting, she would say, “Wait, here are a couple of mints.” It wasn’t too long before he asked her if he had a breath problem. She told him the truth, and he was thankful to hear it. She probably saved him a couple of teeth too. Her courage helped her boss detect early stages of gum disease.
