Bad Bathroom Behavior
Texas Katz
20 Posts
Greetings everyone!
We have an unusual situation at my place of work and I'm hoping to solicit helpful suggestions on how to resolve this unhappy challenge...
Someone is...how do I say this without getting too disgusting...placing stuff acquired from the nose (yep snots) on the bathroom stalls. The cleaning crew reports this happens quite often. Nevermind the disgusting aspect of this situation, I believe this may be a serious health issue.
We have placed notices in the women's bathroom (I don't ever recall this topic being covered in HR School) asking for the employees' co-operation regarding this health issues, but needless to say, the notices were ignored and the problem escalated.
Has anyone gone through something similiar to this? Cameras are out... Security patrols monitoring the potties are out... So what now? Any suggestions???
We have an unusual situation at my place of work and I'm hoping to solicit helpful suggestions on how to resolve this unhappy challenge...
Someone is...how do I say this without getting too disgusting...placing stuff acquired from the nose (yep snots) on the bathroom stalls. The cleaning crew reports this happens quite often. Nevermind the disgusting aspect of this situation, I believe this may be a serious health issue.
We have placed notices in the women's bathroom (I don't ever recall this topic being covered in HR School) asking for the employees' co-operation regarding this health issues, but needless to say, the notices were ignored and the problem escalated.
Has anyone gone through something similiar to this? Cameras are out... Security patrols monitoring the potties are out... So what now? Any suggestions???
Comments
I went back and looked at a few, and the most reasonable choice seems to be to put cameras up OUTSIDE the bathroom. Employees will know you are watching to see who is going in and out. Just having them up may stop the behavior. Also, this is a way to narrow it down to find the culprit if the behavior continues.
Good luck!
Nae
There are six divisions that use this particular restroom. There are three restrooms on the same floor. When we addressed the problem in the first restroom, by putting up notices, the culprit went to the second bathroom. After some time went by, the culprit returned to "decorating" the stalls of the first bathroom. Luckily the third bathroom was left alone. We cannot remove the female bathroom stall doors as we do not want to punish all the women on the same floor. And cameras are a no-no -- inside and outside the ladies room.
I wish we could round up all the ladies into one room and explain the situation, but the managers do not want to escalate the matter in this fashion. I'm thinking a strong memo, sent to all the female employees on the 1st floor is warranted before someone complains to the health department or gets sick from seeing all the "decorations" on the women's stalls.
Since this happy challenge has been addressed by others before me, is there anyone with a memo, to employees, we can use? I can really use some help with this one!
If it's possible, I suggest still going with Ray's solution, even if you have to do it in multiple smaller meetings, since you have to address multiple divisons. Also keeps down the "drama."
Making eye contact implies you know who it is. They won't know the difference. Either someone has very low standards of cleanliness and doesn't see this as a problem, or someone is extremely unhappy and this is how they are getting back at the company. Either way, it is disgusting.
I am sorry I don't have any new suggestions...
Edit: I didn't answer your request for a memo. I think you said you've already posted them, to no avail. The booger-picker isn't intimidated or affected by memos, so more memos probably won't change things.
Do the meetings. For the next week or two after the meetings, walk around hte work areas, just to say hello, make clear eye contact with everyone. Don't bring up the topic, just stop to say hi, make eye contact. The culprit will probably believe you KNOW who's doing it.
Another thought - perhaps the culprit is enjoying watching your reaction to all this, even if you are handling it calmly and professionally? Employees can be like children - they like to get a reaction.
Have you never visited a restroom at a truck stop where all those male truck drivers park their trucks? My husband is a truck driver and I can tell you that Men can be very gross!
Oh, and thanks for the tip on the truck stops...I'll defintely hold it versus stopping...
Signing off...from a very freezing Texas government office...
Also what is he/she capable of doing in a more destructive manner, sounds like either a mentally unbalanced person or a disgruntled employee and I would be worried that it would escalate to more harmful behavior.
Shirley
It wouldn't be the first time we had an employee act out - though by far, this is the sickest way for a person to act out in hopes of getting management's attention.