To refuse to work out of the office

[Jolinar]

Because it isn't fit for purpose?

3 female toilets, 3 male toilets and an accessible loo.

There are serious drain issues and all bar 1 female toilet and 1 male toilet are out of action. In the 2 working toilets, you have to flush twice before anything disappears and there is only a trickle of water coming form the taps, it isn't sufficient to wash your hands - it comes back down the tap so even less gets on your hands. So we have to use the sink in the kitchenette (the only other sink that isn't in one of the consulting rooms) to wash our hands after using the loo.

I can do my job totally from home (and did in lockdown) however we are supposed to be hybrid working, with a minimum of 3 days in the office. Its a health center, so germ central!

AIBU to insist I work from home until the toilet issue is resolved?

Unfortunately we are local authority and not NHS, which adds to the complexity of the issue.

I have emailed the H&S team though.

And I've already told a number of my team to WFH should they want to, regardless of what my manager has said.

Why are you being so aggressively rude?

How would it spread? She holds a wet wipe, or a paper towel in one hand and uses it to open doors. Then she washes her hands when she gets to the kitchen. When I leave public toilets, I never open the door with my bare hands that I've just washed. I use a paper towel or a tissue. Here if I was concerned about leaving germs on door handles, I'd put a physical block between my hand and the handle.

But this has been going on for a long time. I guess the wet wipes or even box of tissues will wait til tomorrow.

The sink issue was from yesterday (I was on leave) so, today is the first day it has been a known issue for me.

I'd take some water from home in bottles to wash m hands and some Clinell wipes (I think they are the most anti bacteria/virus ones there are) If it is a healthcare setting they should have wipes in any event.

If you'd bothered to concentrate when reading the OP you would have seen that they aren't due to be fixed.

Clinell wipes are not a substitute for proper handwashing - staff should not be bringing in water and soap from home, nor should they be using wipes in order to open door handles to get to a station where they can wash their hands properly. I'm not sure if aseptic handwashing is required here, but your suggestions are just ridiculous for a clinical setting.

I wouldn't work there. Report it to the HSE, you can do that online.

Who the hell wants to wash their hands in the kitchen sink after going for a shit?
Are they also supposed to wash down the area as well afterwards?
COSHH / health and safety exist for reasons.

To change tampax/pads/moon cups etc you should be washing your hands even before you’ve dropped your knickers. In a workplace this should be antibacterial hand wash to help prevent cross contamination. Holding a disinfectant wipe to open several doors will do nothing as will holding tissue as the spores won’t be killed.

what the op is describing is both considered harmful and a considerable risk to all users of the building.

If the op is one of the unlucky fuckers who has to regularly change her towels or whatever, cleaning up the kitchen area and handles every time also puts her and others in a similar situation at a risk of overexposure to the products needed which should ideally be barbicide.

I'm actually surprised there are people who would be happy working in this environment for a period of at least 6 weeks.

Maybe some of us have worked in much worse.

But does that make it right? Or are you one of those "race to the bottom" people?

Personally I think everyone should have basic facilities in their working environment.

Wonder how many would be happy if you worked in a restaurant and staff/customers had to traipse into that kitchen to wash their hands

No it doesn’t make it right. I was simply explaining why some people aren’t as indignant as you. 🤷‍♀️

This is completely grim and I can't believe there's a bunch of (manky) posters on here who think it's fine!?
Even if covid wasn't still 'a thing' this is so far from hygienic.
YADNBU!!!

Well, it's easy enough to say you would be, so I'm not that shocked. What would actually happen is another point altogether!

That’s completely irrelevant.

People shouldn’t be working in any setting, but especially in a health setting, with no way of properly washing your hands after the toilet.

That some people are prepared to accept those conditions doesn’t mean the OP should

That some people are prepared to accept those conditions doesn’t mean the OP should

Where did I say she should? I didn’t realise everyone posting on the thread was obliged to agree with her. I’ll just fuck off somewhere else where you don’t get jumped on for having an opinion.

I'm not sure if aseptic handwashing is required here, but your suggestions are just ridiculous for a clinical setting.

They're in administration. The clinical staff have functioning basins in their surgeries.

Has it been checked since it got worse? Quite apart from the general mankiness which I would not be happy with, there's a very real chance drains blocked to that extent will back up completely and flood.

Ah OK. Message the director of Public health? It just seems crazy to me, it's grim and unhygienic anyway. But since covid and all the handwashing messages it's not safe to be open.

OP you are part of a local authority. Surely there is another building you could work from? Asking to work somewhere else on a temporary basis or have portable toilets will be seen as being constructive not using an excuse (however reasonable) to work from home.

I'd contact every single councillor as well. One of them might care.

You're getting daft responses from people who are anti WFH purely because that's what you suggested as an alternative.

There's no way that your building should be open to the public with no hand washing facilities or accessible loo, especially if it's partly a clinical setting.

Even if it's a rented / shared building your employer is responsible for providing facilities to you. You should definitely escalate internally and could complain to the HSE anonymously if you chose to.

I'm not in administration, but I'm not clinical.

I don't know that the taps in the rooms are working properly or not.

The drains were checked pre-covid when one of the drains overflowed. They're damaged and need replacing. Some emergency repair work was done at that time but as the building was being demolished little effort was put in. Covid put the demolition on hold so we've been here longer than anticipated.

The building isn't fit for purpose, has loads of asbestos in it, is generally very run down, lots of plug sockets don't work etc but you get used to it in public services! The toilets going are the last straw though.

I emailed my manager and told them I've instructed my team to WFH until the toilet issue is resolved. Some of the clinics (podiatry, health visitor and midwife) have been relocated now as well because the issue is getting worse and the drain smell has made some of the rooms unusable. The community nurses have been instructed to use the toilets in the other clinic on the other side of their patch and only come to the center for restocking. The only people that can't be easily moved to another office or home are the GPs and receptionists.

Whilst there are other offices we could work from, there's no guarantees of a computer being free in any particular office on a given day. There's not say a bank of spare desks we could just relocate to bit if a particular team member desperately needs to work from an office I'll be able to find them one or two.

Doesn’t matter - it’s a clinical setting with shared spaces.