What is the correlation? You might not be able to link it directly, but this is how I relate these two things together. Economists (including Aco) calculate productivity by dividing output with input. Input in this case is defined as the sum of resources (capital, human resource, etc), where output is the final product of a process. So, the larger the result from that division, the higher the productivity is. Then, what does toilet have to do with productivity? Well, probably not many people might even think of it. But I think toilet affects the productivity.
This is the story of a toilet. I had quite a number of intriguing toilet experiences that no one ever think about. In one of my project assignment at a government oil and gas company, the toilet in the building where we worked for about 2 years was very “fascinating”. There were 4 toilet rooms with toilet bowl in it, but no toilet seat at all. Imagine how you are going to pee in that kind of situation! The first time I used the toilet, it took me about 5 to 10 minutes to get the best position to pee in this toilet! I was curious how the others can survive with it. So, on one conversation over lunch with my colleagues I asked some of them on how they use the toilet. And, I got amazing stories! A woman colleague told me that she used to do half-squat every time she peed because it was impossible to sit on the toilet! The other one said that she sometime sat on it –with the help of a roll toilet tissue to cover the bowl--because she could not stand the squad position if she had “big event’ that usually took minutes. The most hillarious one is that some of them even squatted over the toilet bowl to avoid contact with the non-hygienic bowl! For some of my metrosexual male colleagues, the toilet thing was really a big problem. They solved the problem by going to a five-star hotel located about 1 km from the office just for “pup”.
Another experience I have now is quite the same, even though not as hilarious as the previous one. I am assigned at the state utility company where there are 2 toilets which tissues as the problem. Sometime I have to spend 3-5 minutes looking for tissue. Some of us try to find another toilet in different floor. You do the math for the time spent on these non-value-added activities!
You may think that this toilet story is just a tiny problem that you would not be bothered to think about it. But, have you ever calculate the economic side of this extraordinary situation? How much opportunity and time we can save if we have clean and proper toilet? Let say, 15-20 minutes of no added value a day, can be accumulated to 100 minutes a week, 2000 minutes a month and 24000 minutes a year (equal to 400 hrs. try converting this to consultant rate: 8hrs = USD 600-800). Not to mention that actually bowl-type of toilet is really not suitable for some of Indonesian people. Instead of seating on the bowl, they squat ON it! If you are the next person using the toilet, you have to really clean up the seat!
Back to productivity, when the output is less due to employees’ beyond-control factors, it is the responsibility of the employer/client to solve it. Working environment is not simply office, computer, networks, colleagues, documents, but also toilet and temperature (I’ll write the last one later in different post -- I can assure you, this is as much interesting!).
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