Business English: Should I aspire to the top toilet?
A male manager (54) wrote: To cut costs, more colleagues from other buildings were last year crammed into the office where I work. The lavatories struggle to cope (and that's just for the men; I don't know what it's like for the women). ...... Now we learn that these will be further reduced in number to create an "executive washroom" for the exclusive use of top management and their guests. Should I take this as an incentive to claw my way further up the greasy pole so that I can sample its delights (very hard at my age)? Or stage an, er, sit-in to oppose such segregation?
Read what Lucy Kellaway, "agony-aunt" of the Financial Times (London), answered:
Neither. Sit tight and consider the benefits of the new arrangements. Two sorts of activity happen in a workplace toilet, neither of which is compatible with the presence of a top executive. The first is ridding the body of waste. This is best done alone or with people with whom you feel quite comfortable. To try to make small talk with a boss in the neighbouring cubicle - or at the next urinal along - must be one of the most stressful workplace events there is.
The second function of the office loo (at least for women) is as a venue for gossip. This is slightly risky as there is always the danger that a boss might be earwigging from behind a closed stall door. To have the loos declared free of top management is therefore a positive development for keen gossipers.
Symbolic implications make no sense
Although the practical implications of having separate toilets for executives make a lot of sense, the symbolic ones make no sense at all. To segregate lavatories by rank is so outrageously out of fashion, so anathema to modern egalitarianism, that in my entire working life I don't think I've ever even seen it. The nearest I've got to an executive washroom was watching the episode of The Simpsons when Homer gets promoted and is given the key to one.
The only other place where the loos are divided along hierarchical lines are in schools, where the teachers (understandably) don't want to use the same loos where pupils are scrawling graffiti or pushing each other's heads into the pan.
Be the man of the people
I am curious about these managers of yours. Do they care so little about what others think? I suspect that irrespective of what action you take they won't last long. If you have any desire for high office left at 54, you should start positioning yourself as a man of the people. When the top management gets toppled, as they surely will, you'll be well placed.
As for overcrowding, if there really aren't enough loos to go around, what you do is easy. There are legal rules on the minimum number of toilets and basins in workplaces. If yours has too few, you don't need to sit in, but to speak up.
Aus: The Financial Times, London. www.ft.com
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The Financial Times, 30.09.2012
© 2012 The Financial Times,
© 1999 - 2012 Financial Times Deutschland
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