Workers Hiding in the Toilets

Here at UKBathrooms we looked at how long people spend in the bathroom during work hours and whether the whole time was used for the normal bodily functions or whether people were spending their time on smart phones. From research we found that Britons spend on average of 8.6 minutes hiding in the toilets, three times a week. This means those workers are collectively earning over £1.3 billion on average per year on the toilet.

Many companies come down hard on employees, who they feel are taking liberties with toilet breaks. Some companies now require staff to clock in out and in for their toilet breaks and others find line managers are taking note of their toilet habits. So why do people spend so much time in the bathroom? Aside from the usual activities, many respondents admitted to us that they do sometimes just waste time in the bathroom. 27% of the Britons taking part replied ‘yes’ when asked ‘Do you ever ‘hide’ in the toilets during the working day?’

Those that replied yes, said that they hide in the toilets on average 3 times a week for around 8.6 minutes at a time. Although not many admitted why they spent so long in the toilets one of the reasons is to spend some time on social media. Many offices ban social media and other sites from their networks and if mobile phones are also banned, the only time to check up on the latest tweets is from the toilets. A number of those we questioned said that they weren’t really bothered about wasting this company time, nor did they care what their work mates and bosses thought that they were doing.

Our Director, Peter Gregg had this to say: Being in the toilet for a prolonged period of time can lead to colleagues making assumptions about what you’re doing in there, Britons would apparently much prefer their colleagues to think this than admit they were hiding in the toilets for a break! £1.3 billion is an incredibly large figure to earn collectively ‘loo hiding’, particularly when you realise that’s what employers are paying for their staff to slack off and hide in the toilets. I’m pretty sure most employers don’t realise how many of their staff may do this, but it’s down to them to find out why their colleagues feel the need to hide in the toilets – and maybe these employers need to make their work environment a more enjoyable place to be! Either that- or perhaps pop some arm chairs in the bathroom. At least then employers can be sure that they’re looking after employee happiness when they’re avoiding actual work.”