Manhattanite Fired After Just 2½ Hours Over Alleged Hygiene Issue

When Chris Smalls, 35, finally landed a temp gig at an AI‑focused firm in Manhattan, he was more than relieved. After nine months of scrolling through job boards, a quick call from a staffing agency felt like a lifeline.

He says he showered the night before, slipped on a brand‑new polo, and walked into the office ready to start in “people ops.” The first few hours were a bland blur of paperwork and introductions – nothing out of the ordinary.

Then, midway through what should have been a routine onboarding, his supervisor sent him off for an “early lunch.” Before he could even step outside, the temp agency called him back. The message? He was being terminated on the spot, citing “hygiene issues.”

Smalls, who posted the story on Reddit under the handle Havocko, recounts a baffling phone call with the agency liaison. She seemed unsure, asking only what he’d worn – confirming it was that new polo shirt. He insisted he’d been freshly washed, even joking that he’d “thoroughly washed myself, including my a,” while admitting his pants could’ve used a lint roller.

He tried to pinpoint the culprit: a nervous nose‑scratch? A silent burp? He didn’t know, and he certainly didn’t get closure. Both his roommate and a close friend sniffed the air and said he didn’t smell. “I own a cat and a dog, my apartment is spotless, and my one roommate is a smoker, but that’s it,” he wrote.

The post quickly amassed more than 7,500 upvotes, drawing a mix of sympathy and skepticism. Some commenters suggested maybe he hadn’t showered that morning, or that the company simply needed an excuse to cut him loose. A handful floated the “hire‑to‑fire” theory – a practice where firms hire short‑term workers just to meet turnover metrics.

Smalls himself doubts that scenario. He believes the most plausible explanation is that a colleague misinterpreted a harmless nose‑pick as a hygiene violation. “Jobs will make up any excuse to let you go, and temp agencies are users,” he told The Post.

Adding a legal angle, he mused that if New York weren’t an at‑will employment state, the story might have ended differently. As of now, he’s still waiting for the pay from that half‑day and for any word from the staffing firm.

The episode has reignited conversations about at‑will employment, the power imbalance between temp agencies and workers, and just how subjective “hygiene” can be in a corporate setting.