The Social Security Administration (SSA) has had a real stinker of a problem in its Baltimore office.

Employees accused one of their colleagues in the Office of Disability Operations of excessive farting, prompting supervisors to issue a formal reprimand to the wind breaker.

The Smoking Gun obtained a copy of the disciplinary action and posted it online. Shortly thereafter, the SSA retracted the reprimand.

The document stated that the worker, whose identity was redacted, was continuously “passing gas and releasing an unpleasant odor” that created a “hostile work environment.”

The 38-year-old man reportedly farted 63 times in his office over a three-month period, and as many as nine times in one day (September 19, 2012). The exact times of each unpleasant gaseous discharge are listed in the reprimand document.

Before the cataloguing began, the man’s supervisor confronted the transgressor with the fact that his coworkers refused to work with him and that the problem was affecting “everyone in the module.” Rather bizarrely, the accused offered to turn on a fan every time he farted, but his module manager pointed out that this actually “would cause the smell to spread and worsen the air quality in the module.”

When it ran its story, The Smoking Gun published a photo of the SSA worker visiting an amusement park. The picture showed him posing with a cartoon character—Pepé Le Pew.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

To Learn More:

Social Security Administration Takes Back Reprimand Of Flatulent Worker (by John Hicks, Washington Post)

Formal Reprimand Issued To Flatulent Federal Worker (Smoking Gun)

Official Reprimand (Smoking Gun)