I'm a grad student, so I share the office with a fair number of other folks. I don't want to be the stereotypical smelly grad student. We have showers in the building basement, but they've recently begun sporting a new sign:

"This shower is for infrequent use only and is not a replacement for your home shower. Abuse of the shower will result in its being eliminated."

I really don't want to ride all the way to the RecSports area for a shower, so I've been making do with a change of shirt and a new stripe of anti-perspirant. I've seen "Baby wipes" in this thread. Anybody else have a good clean-up solution?

Talk with management to get a "pass" to utilize the shower. Heck, they don't want to be around a smelly grad student, either! Seriously, if they know that you bike commute and that you simply want to not be offensive after the ride, most likely they'll be happy to let you use the shower. If not, be stinky for a few days, making sure to say hello to said management. At *least* twice a day.

That's all I use, and where I live, it's normal to sweat profusely even sitting idle in an air-conditioned office for nine months of the year. Damn humidity! But seriously, that should suffice. Additionally, if you ride the last mile or so of your commute at a gentler pace, you'll have even less sweat to wipe off when you get to work.

Unless you're some super-epic commuter, that's all you need. I don't shower or stink after my 15 miles hilly ride in, even riding hard on the fix when I end up sweating like a hog. If you're humming, maybe change your deodorant?

if you shower before you leave, and wear clean bike clothes, no matter how hard you sweat, i don't think you'd be offending anyone when you got there!

why not just ask someone someday if they can smell ya? i used to wear a t-shirt shorts and sandals (while running a lab full of PC's for the undergrads) and coulda cared less if i smelled but your environment may not be as slack as mine was... but now i work in an office, commute 15 miles each way with no showers here in the cube farm. i just change into my business casual in the bathroom when i get here and no one's complained yet...

i had great times at grad school! and don't forget to use the downtime to ride your bike!

If you volunteer to clean the shower stall once a week for free, I don't see how they'd complain... that would help you get your pass to use it daily.

just use the shower

Me? I'd just ignore the sign.

However, make sure you at least wipe out the stall when you're finished showering. The only evidence someone was there should be water in the shower. Wipe out any hair or bits of soap after toweling off. This seems obvious to me, but apparently not always to others, including where I work.

Tell them you shower when you get home, too, if anyone asks.

Don't shower.

Just walk around in your stink and tell them you don't want to violate the new shower rules, so just suck it up!

Ok, or you could just ask for an exception to the shower rules. You're not some hobo off the street taking advantage, you're helping out by staying hygenic during work hours.

Why did they suddenly put up such a sign anyway?

Koffee

I can only assume it's due to cutbacks. UTexas has its eyes set on yet another tuition hike while paring down the programs offered. To quote one of the guys interviewed in the Daily Texan, "I swear if it's for another f****** statue..."

Sounds wierd. "We'll provide a shower, but please don't use it."

I'd use it. If they hassled me, I'd ask them to explain exactly what "abuse" of the shower means, not to be a jerk, but to find out how often I could use the shower without making people upset. You're not using as a replacement for your own shower, so there shouldn't be too much problems.

I once worked in a retail store that actually had two showers for bike commuters to utilize after their ride in. The only 'abuse' we encountered was an employee who would come to the store on his days off to take a shower. Seems he was trying to keep his water bill down...

I've read about the baby wipes. Did you use them? How did they work?

yea, just use it. go in, quickly rinse off, and dry off, put some deodorant on, and put clothes on, and walk away. make it like a 3 minute job.

Axe body spray works wonders for masking odors as well, I must admit.

In the past when I didn't have access a shower at work I would wash in a sink in the men's toilets.

Yikes, a persons propensity to sweat, and the resulting body odour after a few hours of the bacteria getting to work, varies hugely due to a number of factors, including physical condition but also genetics!

My commute in is only 3 miles, I live in the UK, yet even with the temperature in the high teens/low twenties (celcius) I arrive dripping with sweat. All deodorant will do is make that sweat smell sweet, for a while . . . . there isn't a deodorant alive that would get me through a half-day or full day meeting/workshop without me becoming truly offensive.

My strategy involves 'cooling down' for 15-20 minutes at work before going for a cool shower, then sitting still for as long as possible afterwards so as not to reactivate those sweat glands. Personally I doubt anything else would work for me. Of course I am very lucky to have the option to do this!

I'm not so lucky as to have showers where I work... I don't sweat THAT much and if it's hot, I'll just carry a change of clothes. I'm fortunate enough to not sweat as bad as many people.

1. Who's patrolling the shower? How are they going to know whether you used it or not?
2. What's the difference between having a shower you can't use, and no shower at all?

I'd use the shower.

Well if office space is tight like most places...and nobody uses the shower, they'll make it into a grad-student's office

That's what happened to our "work-out center".

Oh no! People are using the bathroom fixtures! Better take them away!

So what's next? No defecating in the toilets? Sinks are not to be used for washing? Please refrain from urinating in the urinals?

One time at work a boss handed me a new power tool and said "Try not to ues this. It'll last longer" I don't know if he was kidding or not. I handed it back to him and said "In that case I won't need it"

Same here - shower before, no stink after up to 10 miles at least IME. My big problem is where to lay my bike clothes after I've changed, because the clothing WILL stink even if I won't (and I sweat a lot!).

<--- finishing grad school after too many years

What? Is this shower like your grandmother's good china? It's only for when company comes over?

I'd use the shower.