Q. Have you any suggestions for dealing with the annoying
and surely unhealthy practice of reading newspapers in the lavatory? Some of my office colleagues retire to the cubicle for an inordinate amount of time with the office newspaper. One of my colleagues recently retired there with the office edition of the local Good Food Guide! I feel this must be ingrained behaviour from an industrial past, but that also it must be unhealthy for those who read the paper later, unproductive in terms of time taken away from the workplace, and incongruous in terms of a place to read the Good Food Guide. My female staff are deeply offended by this practice on the part of a minority of our older male staff. Please, Mary, what would you suggest?
Name and address withheld A. Your follow-up query to the loo-books issue is thought-provoking. Reading matter provides necessary distraction for the slow of expulsion but there is no reason why books or newspapers should become any more contaminated than the clothing worn by lavatory-goers. Trousers, when dropped, for example, will brush up against the stem of a lavatory. Shirt hems may even enter the bowl. Women's bags are placed on the floor of lavatories. All these items may later be juxtaposed with desk surfaces off which chocolates or fruit are eaten. Therefore,
you should entreat your female staff not to dwell overtly on these matters. If they persist, supply the lavatories with copies of the daily paper labelled 'Lavatory edition — do not remove'.
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