Coworker asks employee if she can smell her baby's head at an office party, employee happily obliges: 'Apparently, infants' heads smell good, and I just found out yesterday!'

Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor

Jan 1, 2026 8:00 AM EST

It's a good thing the new mom wasn't offended by the request!

It's hard to know exactly where to draw the line with your coworkers. Every workplace is totally different, and there are always different expectations regarding how close you can be to coworkers both at and outside of work. The worst workplaces are the ones where all of the employees are best friends, but you struggle to connect with your coworkers for whatever reason. You would never willingly put yourself in a social situation where everyone loves hanging out with each other, but only tolerates your presence. But if you have to do that to pay your bills, that's what you have to do!

We've all had to go through those workplace trainings that tell us what is and isn't acceptable behavior with our coworkers. Those trainings account for the big stuff, but what about regular little social interactions you have with your coworkers throughout the day? If someone asks, "What did you do this weekend?" are you obliged to answer? What if you were doing something over the weekend that you'd never want your coworkers to know about? Is it more wrong to lie to them or to tell them the uncomfortable truth?

The hard thing about social interactions with coworkers is that they are unlikely to tell you if you crossed a line. You'd trust your friend to tell you if you have crossed a line, but coworkers are much more likely to tell human resources that you did something wrong before they'd tell you.

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The employee in this story asked a borderline question about their coworker's baby. Some new mothers would be horrified if their coworker asked them if they could smell their baby, but she was totally down to offer her baby's smelly head to her coworker. No harm, no foul.
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My coworker is smelling infants heads at work

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