ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

Office workers in the UK spend an average of 8.6 minutes hiding in the toilets three times per week, collectively earning 1.5 billion euros on average per year as they do so.

Toilet-related time wasting activities in the office are costing UK businesses more than they may realise, according to www.ukbathrooms.com, which polled 1,791 Britons aged 16 and over in full-time employment, in order to find out more about their toilet habits in the workplace.

When asked the question, 'do you ever hide in the toilets during the working day?', 27 per cent of participants replied that they did. When looking at the main reasons for doing so, 71 per cent claimed that they did so as a ‘time wasting activity’, whilst 14 per cent did so to ‘avoid certain colleagues/clients.’ And 57 per cent admitted they were likely to hide in the toilet to pass the time ‘three times per working week.’

All respondents who admitted to hiding in the toilets during the work day were asked to estimate how long, on average, they spent hiding each time. When taking all answers into account, the average length of time spent hiding in the toilets was 8.6 minutes.

The average working year consists of 46.4 weeks, so the average Briton therefore hides in the toilet at work 139.2 times a year. If each worker hides in the toilet for 8.6 minutes per visit, three times per week, then the average Briton spends 19.95 hours in hiding.

With the average salary being 13.54 euros per hour, each person hiding in the toilet earns 270 euros per year while they are there.