Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime; They changed the toilet, it hurts my behind - New Toilet design aims to uncomfortably reduce work bathroom breaks

[rcmaehl]

Source:
CBS
BBC (quote source)

USA Today
Standard Toilet (media source)

 

Summary:
British Startup, Standard toilet has designed and marketed a new toilet designed for businesses. The toilet is slanted and reportedly become uncomfortable after an average of 5 minutes. Standard toilet notes that this is all in the name of health, and increasing business efficiency and profits.

Media (click to enlarge):

 

Quotes/Excerpts:

Quote

A toilet designed to slope downwards slightly, making it uncomfortable to sit on for more than a few minutes, has been pooh-poohed on social media.  The toilet design has an upper surface that slopes downwards at a 13-degree angle.  The concept... is intended to have medical benefits, according to its designer, Mahabir Gill.  The BBC spoke to Mr Gill about the toilet, which has been branded "StandardToilet". Mr Gill said a prototype of the toilet has been built and he has tested it himself. He added that the optimum angle is between 11 degrees, where staying seated for more than 15 minutes remains comfortable, and 13 degrees, where "five to seven" minutes is the maximum.  However, the idea has been met with withering humour online. "If it is real I think it's a perfect representation of the disdain capitalism has for workers and for human beings," Hilary Gardiner, who uses Twitter username @plume__, told the BBC. "Current toilet seats provide a horizontal seating surface," the website says. "This enables a user to sit relatively comfortably on the toilet."As a result, a user may spend longer than necessary sitting on the toilet without short-term discomfort. Sitting on a toilet for longer than is necessary is generally undesirable." The sloping design could save industry billions in wasted hours, StandardToilet claims. Raymond Martin, managing director of the British Toilet Association sought to defend the design, describing the online backlash as "a bit of a knee-jerk reaction". "There are certain places where this time limit will be useful," he told the BBC. One Twitter user well-versed in the history of toilets pointed out that a sloping loo has been designed before. "Twyfords tried it over a century ago, but it didn't catch on," Terry Woolliscroft told the BBC. He also questions whether wasting time on the toilet can really be tied directly to the advent of social media: "If social media and mobiles didn't exist, then people would still spend time in the loo, probably reading the newspaper."

 

My Thoughts:

I feel attacked in the most personal way possible. Plan and simple. Dear god, I hope very few companies consider buying this design, and if they did it shows how little they care about their employees, only profit. I would personally quit a job if they implemented this design. Thankfully, a few people have pointed out this may not be ADA compliant.

[wANKER]

Startup

 

This won't make it to market, at least in the UK. 

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

I don't think this will ever fly in the US because of ADA.

[Animal901]

4 hours ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I don't think this will ever fly in the US because of ADA.

Toilets already cut off the circulation of your legs.  The "right height" toilets are worse. These will probably let you sit longer once you learn to lean on it.

[Nowak]

4 hours ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

I don't think this will ever fly in the US because of ADA.

I can already hear lawyers celebrating because of this.

 

Literally every single employer in the US that adopts this is liable to be successfully sued under the ADA.

[minibois]

Imagine being such a bad employer, that your employees would rather spend time on the shitter, then in the workplace.

Imagine trying to fix it with uncomfortable shitters, rather than actually fixing the issue you're facing.

[Nowak]

Just now, minibois said:

Imagine being such a bad employer, that your employees would rather spend time on the shitter, then in the workplace.

Imagine trying to fix it with uncomfortable shitters, rather than actually fixing the issue you're facing.

Remember how Microsoft's Japan office reduced work weeks down to 4 days a week for an entire month and found that greatly improved employee morale and boosted productivity by 40%?

 

yeah, me neither

[AnonymousGuy]

23 minutes ago, minibois said:

Imagine being such a bad employer, that your employees would rather spend time on the shitter, then in the workplace.

Imagine trying to fix it with uncomfortable shitters, rather than actually fixing the issue you're facing.

The article says that it's more useful in public restrooms, bars, restaurants, etc where you want a quicker turnover.  I don't think any employer would be sadistic enough to do this.

 

27 minutes ago, Nowak said:

I can already hear lawyers celebrating because of this.

 

Literally every single employer in the US that adopts this is liable to be successfully sued under the ADA.

Not really, as long as they have the correct number of disability-accessible stalls for the building they can have as many of these toilets as they want.

[Tech_Dreamer]

someone in the Chinese market is gonna copy this & make it mainstream.

[ARikozuM]

53 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

The article says that it's more useful in public restrooms, bars, restaurants, etc where you want a quicker turnover.  I don't think any employer would be sadistic enough to do this.

hahahahahaha

 

 

Welcome to late-stage capitalism. 

 

[amdorintel]

7 hours ago, rcmaehl said:

5 minutes

mine last for a good 10 minutes

[Guest]

7 hours ago, amdorintel said:

mine last for a good 10 minutes

Mate you get your phone out and half an hour just goes by 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

10 hours ago, AnonymousGuy said:

The article says that it's more useful in public restrooms, bars, restaurants, etc where you want a quicker turnover.  I don't think any employer would be sadistic enough to do this.

Think again. Plenty of employers are "sadistic" enough to do it, though most motivation would be to get more work out of people by reducing the amount of time taken for restroom breaks than just enjoying inflicting pain.

[jones177]

2 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Think again. Plenty of employers are "sadistic" enough to do it, though most motivation would be to get more work out of people by reducing the amount of time taken for restroom breaks than just enjoying inflicting pain.

It is for abusers.

For an employer it is a big issue to deal with employees that camp out in a stalls with their phones. 

Even with a company large enough to have an HR office has issues because abusers more likely double down on their excuses. 

A company can easily find themselves in some sort of expensive legal process over it.  

I also know managers that have been "me toed" over pointing out the issue to an employee so dismissing them for any other reason is preferred.

[Founders]

Implementing sand paper and calling it TP wasn’t enough of a deterrent for employees? Let us take a shit in peace, for some people it’s their only moments of solitude in the work place.

[Zodiark1593]

9 hours ago, floofer said:

Mate you get your phone out and half an hour just goes by 

I wouldn't care so much if bathroom stalls here weren't in such limited supply.

[kokakolia]

Beats having to use a porta potty smeared in shit. I just accepted that I cannot shit at work, being employed in the construction business. 
 

And nothing annoys me more than these awful French porta potties. They have a lip instead of an open hole. So the poop gets stuck under your butt with nowhere to go. And a worthless « flush » spewing blue goo is there to push the poo into the hole. And it just makes the poop blue. 
 

tl;dr French porta potties are horrible. 

[Gegger]

19 hours ago, Tech_Dreamer said:

someone in the Chinese market is gonna copy this & make it mainstream.

in china public restrooms are usually squat toilets(it's already fucking uncomfortable holding a squat) and it stinks too

 

i don't see squat toilets going away anytime soon

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I wouldn't care so much if bathroom stalls here weren't in such limited supply.

They are pretty ample. Just go to a different floor if none there.

[Tieox]

Inb4 China sells padded seats which neatly fit these to make them level, are easy clean.  And fold up to fit inside your work bag.

[RonnieOP]

If your not disable or have a health condition then honestly this doesnt really make a difference.

 

This wouldnt even be a product if people didnt try to fuck over businesses by taking 20 min shit breaks while browsing twitter.

 

My workers get a 30 min break after prep and before service starts. We provide food if they are hungry and they can go smoke, go to the bar across the street, use the bathroom, etc.

 

Ive cut multiple peoples hours over the years because they would take 2-3 20 min bathroom breaks. If you need to shit 3 times in 6 hours for 15-20 mins at a time you should not be working that day lol. Im not dumb i know what your doing. 

 

Just remember. Basically every rule/policy/law was made due to people abusing something. 

 

[Zodiark1593]

33 minutes ago, floofer said:

They are pretty ample. Just go to a different floor if none there.

There are only 2 stalls each floor unless I feel like walking to the other corner of the damn building.

[Monkey Dust]

Seems kinda harsh, especially for those times you've angered the arse fairies and they reek a terrible vengeance upon you.

 

Amazon are going to be installing these aren't they?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

There are only 2 stalls each floor unless I feel like walking to the other corner of the damn building.

2 stalls is what I’ve got too. I think they should just get rid of the urinal and put 2 more. 

[AngryBeaver]

Thank god this isn't an issue I would ever have to face. People in my field are too valuable of an asset to the company to do something like this to. I mean they can't find enough of us already. Now I have worked for some companies that WOULD do this sort of thing.

 

I actually am still friends with an ex Co-worker who go two write-ups for "abusing the restroom" even though he had a diagnosed disorder that caused the need for it. When they started asking him to clock out to use the restroom he quit, fought them on the unemployment front, and won.