班味

The smell that isn't a smell

班味 isn't about body odor or perfume — it's the visible exhaustion that office workers carry. The slightly unfocused eyes, the slumped posture, the blank stare at the phone screen. You can't wash it off with soap; you need sleep, a weekend, or a vacation.

The word breaks down as:

• 班 (bān) — work shift, office, job
• 味 (wèi) — smell, taste, aura

Together: "the smell of the office" — the aura you absorb from eight hours of fluorescent lights, email ping, and meetings that could have been an email.

How to spot it

Users have identified several telltale signs of 班味:

• The post-work thousand-yard stare — eyes open but nobody home.
• The weekend delay — 班味 doesn't fully lift until Saturday afternoon.
• The Monday morning reapplication — 班味 returns the moment you clock in.
• The commute buildup — 班味 intensifies the closer you get to the office.

Related exhaustion vocabulary

• 班气 (bān qì) — "office energy": the mood of the workplace, usually negative.
• 下班脑 (xià bān nǎo) — "off-work brain": the mental state of only thinking about leaving.
• 摆烂 — what happens when 班味 becomes permanent.
• 摸鱼 — the coping mechanism for people drowning in 班味.

How to use it

The word is almost always self-deprecating. You don't say someone else has 班味 — you say it about yourself:

• "今天班味有点重" (a bit heavy on the office stench today).
• "周末了，散散班味" (weekend — time to air out the work smell).

If a friend posts a selfie captioned "班味很重的一天", the correct reply is knowing solidarity, not a compliment: "辛苦了，周末好好散味" (hang in there, spend the weekend airing out).