Because bathroom germs love living up to their full potential.

Bathrooms get a pretty bad reputation — and with good reason. Some of your grossest, yuckiest, and most private of all moments go on in there. But you’re not the only one who uses that communal bathroom at work. Each and every coworker you come across uses it — meaning you probably don’t even want to think about the germs growing in there. Well, too bad. Because we’re going to have a look at some of the unmentionables in your office’s bathroom.

1. Hand germs

This may or may not come as a surprise to you, but an alarming number of people don’t wash their hands when they’re done in the bathroom. According to The Huffington Post, “92 percent of Americans say they believe it’s important to wash their hands after using the restroom, only 66 percent actually do . . . As for washing with soap? Almost 70 percent admitted to skipping that step of the hygienic process.” Yuck-o!

We assume it doesn’t come as a surprise to a few of you culprits, since you don’t do it yourself. But we like to believe that there are a few people out there who do take care of these germs. And if not, there’s got to be some way to inspire people to wash their hands more frequently.

Giving folks easy access to soap via dispensers is a simple way to encourage an increase in hand washing. And a non-touch, electronic dispenser goes even further in reducing the spread of germs.

Even when they wash, employees can get irritated when they have to put their clean hands on the dirty door handle to leave the bathroom. An easy solution? Put hand sanitizer dispensers just outside the bathrooms. You’re bound to stop the spread of hand germs in no time.

2. Moisture-spawned mildew spores

Depending on where you work, you might have showers in your workplace’s bathroom. If you have a fitness center on campus, workers might want to freshen up before returning to their desk. And if your employees work in a more active environment (think personal trainers, camp counselors, life guards, and swim instructors), they’ll need a quick shower before or after they clock in and out.

But guess what those good old showers can bring? Humidity. And guess what humidity can lead to? You guessed it. Mildew and mold.

So beat that mildew and mold into submission with specialized cleaner well before it becomes a workplace disaster.

3. Even more hand germs

As expected, bacteria can be found throughout your bathroom (see hand-washing, above). But you might not consider that it multiplies in place that you’d expect to be extra clean: your hand towels. Since you only use them on clean hands, it’s easy to assume they don’t foster much bacteria. In reality, most people aren’t changing out their hand towels frequently enough.

Our suggestion? Switch out the hand towels for paper towels. Each paper towel your employees use is brand new, meaning it’s much cleaner than those old, soggy rags.

4. Employee discontent

Hey, we know it sounds crazy, but you might be surprised at how unhappy your employees are with each trip to the loo. Between understocked toilet paper (gross) and those dirty, damp, cloth hand towels, they could be losing motivation to spend time in the office. And that’s not much good for anyone.

So make sure you show your employees the respect they deserve. Keep your bathroom stocked and clean at all times. Never run out of the essentials like toilet paper; offer fresh and clean paper towels so they feel germ-free after their trip to the toilet; and make sure you stock up on cleaning supplies to eliminate any influx of germs in the restroom.

Thanks to ReStockIt, your employees will be happier and healthier than ever before. Ready to take the simple steps to make a real difference? Browse our large selection of bathroom and cleaning supplies or contact us today with any questions!