I’m often amazed at grown individuals (mostly women) who refuse to utilize the free water and available soap (sometimes scented) to wash their hands after spending a few moments alone in the bathroom stall. It’s none of my business what they have done in those individual stalls, but it becomes my business when they walk out of the stall nonchalantly, adjusting their clothes, tossing their hair and seconds later, they’re wrapping their germ infested hands around the door handle, tainting the handle with all of their bodily germs. Yuck! I don’t want to be plagued by your nasty germs. I have a family to care for – but at least I’m conscious enough to grab paper towels on my way out to cover the door handle for protection.
How many times have you been standing at the bathroom sink inside the bathroom of your place of employment as you scrub your hands diligently with a rhythm of fast pace and confidence? You’re so confident that you’re ridding your nails and skin of potentially harmful germs that you begin to hum spiritual hymns, not realizing that you’re not alone until your hymns are interrupted by a loud, moist sound and vibrations of toxins releasing from someone behind the closed stall behind you. The sound of a vacuumed flush is followed by a dainty woman who’s dressed with sophistication and perfect heels, stepping out of the stall. You glance over her without hesitation or distraction from your cleansing process, and realize this woman sits a few offices down from your office. You become grossed out by the smell that follows her from the stall, just as you part your lips to smile and say hello. Suddenly you begin to feel a spontaneous urge to vomit in your mouth as the woman makes a gesture that seemed to successfully pull her underwear out of her backside region, fluff her hair, then proceeds to the bathroom door. But then she hesitates…This is the moment that you think she’s reclaimed her sense of hygiene and class when she returns to the sink. Yet, you only become even more disappointed when she then glances in the mirror at herself and then hog spits in the sink, looks straight at you through the mirror, cracks a smile and heads back towards the door. What would you do?
Well, if your workplace is a cesspool of unorthodox, dysfunctional people that forget they aren’t in a public facility that houses a community of co-workers they eventually come in contact with in the bathroom at least once or twice in their career, then you must take necessary actions to protect yourself and the hygiene of others. Tackle Ms. Nasty and call her out by spraying her with disinfectant spray and sanitizer gel. Trust me… I’ve just made a mental note to myself to avoid handshakes and direct interaction at all costs. I’m sure I’ll have to tackle her with wet wipes and sanitizer if our bathroom break should ever fall on the same schedule again, and force her to wash her hands at least three times – because seriously, hand washing and hygiene is a requirement!