When toilet etiquette becomes the main discussion at the workplace

Have you ever participated in a workplace debate or gossip? After spending about three hours staring at your Excel spreadsheet, writing formulas and creating graphs, your brain requires a timeout or moment of respite. Using the toilet or taking part in an office small talk may be a good way to relieve the brain of the severity of data manipulation or computation.  It is quite common in a shared office facility like workspaces.

We are usually guilty of discussing about the toilet habits of people in a different office as opposed to ours.  At times it starts with, ‘The gentleman from the marketing agency next door did a poo and failed to watch his hands.’ This will attract the attention of other colleagues who all needed a break from their screens. This could lead to other personal accounts of unpleasant toilet experiences from other work mates. If this discussion is not properly monitored it could get heated or linger longer than required. The richness of this discussion is highly influenced by the number of toilets available at the workplace. Fewer facilities make the poor toilet habits evident and the offenders more known. Shared office workspaces usually have limited facilities for many users from a variety of companies. We’ll look at some tips in ensuring the toilet etiquette chitchat is kept on track in terms of duration and focus.

Useful tips for an engaging toilet etiquette chitchat

• Keep the sound at a decent level: This type of discussions will not attract everyone from the office. Some of your colleagues have pressing deadlines and there is little or no room for small talk. It is best to keep the noise to a bearable level so you don’t end up distracting others and incurring the wrath of your superiors.
• Avoid talking over others: It is polite and respectful to wait for others to complete their account before sharing your experience. Talking over others could make them feel like they’re not good storytellers. It is quite easy to talk over someone that is a slow-paced talker as some of these folks take time to mentally process their thoughts. Remember the toilet etiquette chitchat is like a series with different episodes. Our individual accounts are like different episodes that make the overall narrative complete and interesting.
• Be as detailed and dramatic as possible: Your personal tale of weird toilet habits will be more interesting if you dive into the details and draw upon your acting skills to add some spice to your narrative. If it allows, you could demonstrate how the guy from the property management office opens the toilet door with his wrist to avoid direct contact with his palms. It will leave your colleagues entertained and energised to continue with the task at hand.
• Don’t expose your work colleagues: You should avoid talking about your colleague’s unpleasant toilet habits. This could make the said colleague embarrassed and negatively affect team spirit. As an exception, you could easily talk about your colleagues if the habits will not cause embarrassment but will invoke laughter and lighten up the office mood.

Taking a break from the spreadsheets, codes or project schedule is a good way to rekindle your brain power. The toilet etiquette chitchat is a good way to break away from the tediousness of work routine.