Be honest: what do you actually do when you go to the toilet at work? So beyond the obvious?
Whatever it is, be sure you are not alone. According to a British study, toilets do not bear the nickname "quiet town" for nothing. The study "Around the Toilet" by Sheffield Hallam University confirms general assumptions that many people there not only meet the needs for which toilets are primarily designed.
Several use the toilet as a place of retreat: at work or at large events, during a panic attack, to cry at work or to take a short breath while playing a cell phone game and to check social media. Respondents said that the toilet was the only private place while they were on the move.
After five minutes it gets uncomfortable
Appearance standard toilet. The British start-up wants to ruin the toilet for all those who appreciate and use it as a place for a short break from the outside world. The company - drum roll - invented the uncomfortable toilet. Ink!
You could also say: the employer loo. Mahabir Gill, the founder of the British "Wired", explained that the seat had a gradient of 13 percent. That is enough to be exhausting and uncomfortable for the legs after about five minutes, but at the same time it is not steep enough "to harm health".
The founder allegedly got the idea while he was standing in line in front of the toilets. He believes his recipe for success is that his invention "saves money" for entrepreneurs. After all, the employees spend less time in the quiet place and more at their workplaces.
On Standardtoilet.net, the interested entrepreneur even gets a direct calculation of what he can save. According to "recent studies", it says that the average toilet user spends 25 percent more time in the bathroom than necessary. Companies in Great Britain alone would wash almost 19 billion euros into the toilet every year. And that doesn't even include the usage time of the smartphone in the toilet. Mobile games, checking social media and responding to text messages, emails and so on would cost the UK economy another 4.7 billion euros.
You can literally see them in front of you, the bosses with the dollar signs in their eyes. Especially since, thanks to the standard toilet, the retreats could be eliminated for a mere 170 to 580 euros per bowl.
Oh well.
An invention that is almost too nasty to be true. Sometimes deadly serious, capitalism-based innovations and weird internet humor overlap in such a way that ... you can hardly believe something like that. Or better: you don't want to believe it, you don't want to believe it.
Even if the British Toilet Association, an advocacy group of British users of public toilets, gave the invention a press release. Even if the British "Wired", the "Guardian" and the BBC have already reported on the company. Especially since StandardToilet stopped responding when we asked for a photo of the founder Mahabir Gill and didn't respond when we asked for a phone number to clarify a few more questions.
Call the patent attorneys mentioned on the website. Unfortunately, they are bound to secrecy and cannot provide information about patents and clients. Call the UK Patent Office. Unfortunately here too: a wall of silence. Call the company that rents the StandardToilet premises listed on the website. Here, too, the lady says on the phone that she unfortunately cannot give any information about the tenants. But ... "But if you didn't have a tenant named Mahabir Gill with you, you could tell me, right?" - "Yes, if there wasn't one, I could do it."
A hot lead
Question to the colleague: "But I'm not seriously calling a company in this office building and asking whether the toilet people are on the bell, right?"
"Yes! Definitely," replies the office neighbor. Laughing.
"Ah, I know the article! They should have their offices here?" Asks the friendly man on the phone. "Yes. I know it sounds a bit silly, but maybe you could…" - "Wait, I quickly run down and see if they are on the bell."
Do not stand, neither StandardToilet nor the name of the company boss.
What does that mean? Of course, it could be that there is less behind the company than the vortex suggests. A one-man company that does bigger than it is. But it could also be that all this is just a wonderful nonsense. As a precaution, let's switch to the subjunctive for the rest of the article.
A completely wrong perspective
Let us assume that these toilets really exist, they really went on sale. Such a rough advance into the quiet places of its employees could easily backfire for a company. Visiting the toilet is not just black or white, it is not just doing business there or harming business.
"Wired" Dr. Charlotte Jones. She was a research associate on the Around the Toilet study and even said, "Seeing the time workers spend on the toilet as a threat is a completely wrong view of the subject." The importance of the toilet as a place of retreat says more about excessive workload and lack of empathy management levels than about the workers.
If the 13 percent toilet really became the standard that entrepreneur Gill conjured up under the name of his company, employees would certainly take countermeasures. This is already shown by the reactions on Twitter. There, a user is already announcing a patent for a toilet seat wedge, which will level the seat again. And a man threatened to straddle the toilet and thus reverse the effect.
So get ready, Mahabir Gill - and rent office space or at least put up a doorbell.