Improve Productivity?
Use Urinal Bag Instead of Bathroom
By Daniel Muniz

A supervisor of a field crew for Qwest in Denver Colorado certainly thought outside the box in coming up with a novel approach to improving productivity for his servicemen. Instead of having his field technicians leave the job site in search of a public restroom, he handed them urinal bags to relieve themselves in.

Of course this new idea didn’t sit too well with his team.

Apparently this manager didn’t really think out this concept all the way through because it involves a lot more than just shaving off unproductive time in a work schedule.

First of all, going to the bathroom is simply a cost of doing business and there is absolutely no way to escape it. And because it doesn’t show up as part of overhead, there is no way to account for it either. It is just a loss that employers have to accept and most companies don’t think twice about.
 

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And in the places that a worker cannot step away from his job, like at an assembly line, the scheduling accounts for it in the form of breaks during the day. In factories as well as in other similar work environments, break time is religiously adhered to because that is the time for an employee to do his personal business whether it is in the bathroom or just making a phone call. Afterwards, everybody gets back to work.

But the amazing thing is that this process actually works out really well.

Plant managers know that their factories have a quota to meet and a production schedule to follow but their workers also have to be able to do their job without any undue distractions in order to achieve optimal efficiency. So in words, for smart planners employee breaks is a no-brainer because they do not see it as a waste of time or a sunk cost but as an investment that pays off handsomely since it allows their people the ability to do their job better.

And whenever workers who can do their job better, everybody wins. That is just the big picture when everything is taken into account for a business operation.

However, some employers feel that they are at a disadvantage because their employees who have to out in the field and wherever they are at; the facilities may not be handy. As for a huge telecommunications company like Qwest, their field service technicians can be just about anywhere where their equipment or their transmission lines are at. As a result, what should only take a few minutes to do in an office building can easily turn into a twenty minute or longer venture out in the field to find a public bathroom, like in a restaurant or at a gas station.

But that is just a cost of doing business even if it is bigger.

Likewise, most employers usually don’t get mad because they have to pay the utility company for electricity. Having the lights turned on inside an office is a necessary component to conducting business. A company may be able to save a lot of money by not having electricity at their facility but they cannot operate because electrical power for light bulbs and computers and for everything else is a truly necessity in the business world.

Consequently, using a bathroom is not any different.

Now here is something else that this brilliant manager may not have considered.

Suppose a technician is out in the field and decides to pull down the zipper of his pants and whip it out and into the urinal bag in order to answer the call of nature. He may feel that he is being discreet especially if he is inside his service truck or down a manhole. Now imagine if someone happens to observe this act and then calls the cops.

All of a sudden, this becomes a crime that could have serious legal ramifications. Toss in the presence of children and the whole thing could easily get out of hand even though the serviceman was just doing a requirement for his job.

Now take into consideration a number of other legalities.

What if this supervisor hands a urinal bag to a female technician? How is she supposed to discreetly relieve herself while sitting inside a truck? And what if exceptions are made that exempt women from this requirement and what kind of repercussions could there be from the male employees who resent such unfairness?

Even though it is very unlikely for something bad to happen, using urinal bags in a semi-public place just opens up a Pandora’s Box of mischief and enormous liability.

But more to the point, companies ought to focus on what is really the bottom line instead of trying to find ridiculous ways to cut corners. And the bottom line is employees who do an outstanding job. That is a one big metric that pays off in huge dividends to employers. A business can get a lot more output and productivity from someone who is conscientiously doing his or her job to the best of their ability due to a ferociously strong work ethic. And that kind of performance will always offset any time that is lost going to the bathroom.

Overall, it is the focus on the big picture that makes the real difference instead of relying on silly unwarranted requirements. And concentrating on anything else is simply a bad way to do business.

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