You can’t maintain a good office bathroom hygiene if your employees don’t clean after using it.
Some employees throw non-degradable staff into the toilet, don’t flush the water, or pee on the floor, which diminishes the employer’s efforts of keeping the bathroom clean and hurts their coworker's experience from using it.
These employees probably don’t feel the responsibility of cleaning after themselves in the bathroom. However, to maintain good hygiene in the workplace they should.
An office bathroom is a shared place and everybody using it is responsible for its cleanliness and hygiene.
Wouldn’t you enjoy using a clean and good smelling restroom at work?
Find below a list of rules every employee must follow to ensure having a clean bathroom at work.
The office toilet hygiene is a collective effort
A employee shows his respect for his coworkers by having good manners and culture.
One of these good manners is cleaning the toilet after themselves, so that, the next employee coming in has at least the same experience as the previous one, but not worse.
If the employee doesn’t follow the bathroom hygiene etiquette, the following issues may occur in the office.
Bathroom issues at work
1. Breeding ground for bacteria
A dirty and unhygienic bathroom is a breeding ground for bacteria, which may cause the transmission of diseases between the employees in the office.
This brings us to the next issue.
2. Decreased productivity at work
For the success of the business, it’s vital to maintain the employees happy and productive.
From this point of view, poor hygiene in the office bathroom does exactly the opposite.
Dirty toilets annoy and embarrass employees because:
- they feel that they can get disease-causing germs, which may make them feel unwell and force them to take sick leave.
- Or, due to an irresistible smell in the toilet, employees may not feel comfortable using it and may spend their time looking for another bathroom available.
3. Affected company image
The office restroom doesn’t only project the company’s authority on its employees but it also leaves an impression on its customers, investors, and partners.
Your clients and partners would be positively impressed by the sparkling and nice smelling toilet in your office.
On the other side, leaving your clients and partners with a nasty toilet experience spreads the word about your filthy workplace bathroom.
Office toilet etiquette
1. Should you leave the toilet seat up or down?
Always flush with the lid down.
Flushing with the lid up spreads bacteria all over the toilet, making it unsafe for the next coworker using it.
2. Avoid reading, chatting, or texting in the bathroom
When in the toilet, do your business as quickly as possible and get out.
3. Don't talk to anyone if they are in the stalls.
4. After using the bathroom, wash your hands with an antiseptic soap or sanitizer and dry them out with a paper tissue.
5. Keep the toilet bowl clean. Flush it after using it. If necessary, flush twice or use the toilet brush.
6. If you mess on the toilet seat, wipe it away.
7. Women should sit on the toilet seat while peeing while men should stand closer to the toilet seat to avoid dripping.
8. Before you leave, turn off the exhaust fan and the lights.
How to tell employees to clean up after themselves in the bathroom
Even though most employees in your office are consciously grown-ups over 18, some of them may still break the office bathroom hygiene rules.
To maintain your office bathroom clean, you want to keep reminding these employees about the importance of cleaning after themselves.
- Send out a memo about everybody’s responsibility to clean the office bathroom after themselves. To avoid employee embarrassment and finger-pointing, write this email in a sensitive and yet in a solution-focused manner.
- Another way to spread this message across employees is to have posters inside the bathroom reminding them to wash their hands, to wipe away the splashes and to turn off the light after leaving the bathroom.
- Another option is to create a rotating bathroom cleaning schedule that would involve each employee periodically to clean the toilet.
Related:
Office bathroom products
In order to have employees maintain the cleanliness in the bathroom the employer needs to provide them with the necessary products.
The office bathrooms should be equipped with air fresheners, trash cans, paper towel dispensers, and soap.
Having the necessary office bathroom products employees have everything they need to leave the bathroom clean after them.
Conclusion
Maintaining an office bathroom clean it's always a collective effort.
You can hire a commercial cleaner but without having employees maintain the cleanliness in the toilet it's practically impossible.
You need to take strategic actions to ensure that employee follow the bathroom etiquette.
This means to send out memo or reminder emails, install reminder posters inside the bathroom, or set a rotating cleaning schedule to involve each employee the bathroom cleaning act.
At the same time, provide all the necessary facilities so that employees could take care of personal hygiene while in the bathroom.
