Why Workers Deserve Great Bathrooms on Every Project
I hope you are doing well. Today I want to share a short but important thought that has been on my mind for years: bathrooms on the jobsite. It may sound simple, but the way we treat workers in this one area speaks volumes about our culture, our respect for people, and the kind of environment we want to build.
The Power of Respect in Small Details
Every job since my time at the Cancer Center project, I have made it a point to provide great bathrooms for the workers. On one job, we built bathrooms inside the building on levels two and four. Once the permanent bathrooms on levels one and three were finished, we transitioned workers into those. They were clean, permanent, and a huge step up from what most jobsites usually provide.
On another project, we worked with a trailer company that gave us an eight-wide trailer for the price of a five-wide. That allowed us to build out a complex of bathrooms inside the trailer system itself. They were beautiful, fully functional, and the trades absolutely loved them. I even have videos of those setups because I was so proud of what we accomplished.
The Pushback and the Misconception
But every time I talk about this, I hear the same criticism. Some foreman or superintendent will roll their eyes and say, “If you give them nice bathrooms, the workers will just sit in there all day on their phones.” The first few times I heard it, I brushed it off, but the more I heard it, the more it bothered me. The comments were usually made in a dismissive or disrespectful tone, as if workers had no dignity and no pride in their work.
Let me be clear. That idea is completely wrong. I have provided beautiful bathrooms for over a decade, and never once have I seen workers hiding in them. People are not going to sit in a bathroom stall, surrounded by smells, just to waste time. It is not happening. And if someone ever did, that is not a bathroom problem, it is a cultural or hiring problem.
People Are Not Resources
This mindset comes from an outdated way of thinking about people. In the old era of construction management, workers were treated like resources, objects to push and measure. That scarcity mindset leads to ideas like withholding bathrooms to control behavior. But workers are not resources. They are human beings, and they deserve respect.
When someone says workers will just hide in a bathroom, it says more about how that person views people than it does about the workers themselves. In fact, providing a clean, comfortable bathroom is one of the simplest ways we can show respect. On some projects, we even added music and air fresheners. It made a difference, and the workers appreciated it.
A Challenge for All Leaders
If you still believe that nice bathrooms encourage laziness, I challenge you to rethink it. Build such good bathrooms that, yes, someone could hide in them. If they do, you now have visibility into a cultural or behavioral issue that you can actually address as a leader. But most of the time, you will simply find grateful workers who feel valued.
Nasty bathrooms are never the solution. They do not increase productivity, and they certainly do not foster respect. Providing great bathrooms is one of the simplest and most effective ways to create a jobsite culture built on dignity.
Key Takeaway
Workers deserve clean, comfortable bathrooms, and providing them shows respect while strengthening jobsite culture. Hiding is not a bathroom issue, it is a leadership issue.
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