A dirty restroom delivers a message of respect. A dirty restroom is a top-level indicator for what is important to a company and can give us an indication of the condition of the rest of the company – even financial, employee morale, market conditions.
Yes, I’m claiming something big. Let me explain.
For example, Restroom or Bathroom conditions can serve as a barometer for what type of service one can expect at a restaurant or fast food chain.
What if we visit the restroom before we order food?
To illustrate, below is an example of a bathroom I visited recently. Unfortunately, I visited this bathroom after I had already ordered my meal. I would have decided otherwise if I had seen this bathroom prior to ordering lunch.
In the words of a psychologist explaining human reactions to uncleanliness1:
Dirty restrooms can trigger anxiety and avoidance in guests, says Wade Rowatt, associate professor of psychology at Baylor University. The facilities can serve as a cue that an establishment is poorly managed or has a sloppy staff. If the restroom isn’t taken care of, why would anything else they offer be something I’d want to consume? Rowatt said.
Even though the image above wasn’t completely bad, it shows an element of sloppiness in their business and operation. What if they are sloppy in their meal preparation also?
It’s Your Turn
Do you agree or disagree? What do you think? Do you have examples you’d like to share?
- restroomnews.com/restroom-cleanliness-affects-businesses/ ↩
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James says
I agree 100%. That indicator is one of the biggest ones I use when evaluating a company. If you can’t take care of the basic needs of your employees what does that say about your company culture and how you treat those people. It is the most basic form of respect for people …
Mike Wroblewski says
I also agree. Looking at bathrooms is just one of the areas I check to better understand the company culture. Other good places to look included employee breakrooms/lunchrooms, locker areas and behind the building/back lot.
Donna says
Interesting that you make this corrolation. I’ve noticed that when associates are feeling like the company is not treating them well, the restrooms and breakrooms become very messy. Its as though they treat the common rooms the way they feel the company is treating them.
Sukumar Roy says
Bathroom condition may also be an indicator for company performance. When I was with Digital Equipment (DEC) in the late late eighties, a manufacturing plant in Massachusetts was implementing operations improvement program (precursor to Six Sigma). The plant janitor developed key performance indicators, benchmarked against a number of four & five star hotels and got customer (users of washrooms) input. DEC took this gentleman to many other facilities and had him present his own successful excellence program.
Bill Quiseng says
If I’ve had the best steak, I’ve ever had in a restaurant, but my wife goes into the restroom and feels it is unclean, do you think I’m ever going back to that restaurant? Not unless I go alone and even then I’d second guess that. Perception is reality and feelings are facts. You can argue the facts with me, but you can’t change how I feel about something. And she feels, if the restroom that she CAN see is filthy, then what must the kitchen look like that she CAN’T see.
Jay says
A few thoughts on this one and as an introduction to my potential bias, I worked in restaurants to put myself through university and still have good friends who have gone on to successful and prosperous careers in the industry.
I 100% agree with the thought that the bathroom shows you how people truly feel about the business they work for. Cleaning it is the least enjoyable task (next to cleaning out the greese trap) and they are, for the most part, out of sight during the ‘core business’ functions. When they are unkept you have to wonder what is happening outside of your line of sight. I mean, they have to know that a certain percentage of their customers are using the facilities.
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