Company Creates ‘Tilted Toilet’ To Limit Worker Bathroom Breaks

We all go to the bathroom during an eight-hour day at work. But some people may spend just a bit more time sitting in the stall than they may need. We all need a break here or there, and sometimes the only place to find peace and quiet is on the toilet.

However, workers are quite aware of these bathroom breaks. And one company was so against them that they actually went so far as to recreate the toilet seat so that employees physically couldn’t sit on them for longer than five minutes.

The company, based in the UK, invented the “StandardToilet,” which is tilted at downward angle of approximately 13 degrees. That means sitting on the toilet literally feels like you’re doing squats, so that the average human can’t sit on the toilet for more than five minutes before their legs are hurting.

Cruel and unusual punishment, much?

The toilet is uniquely designed to cause pain after five minutes, but the angle isn’t enough to cause your health any actual long-term harm. “Anything higher than that would cause wider problems,” said StandardToilet founder Mahabir Gill. “Thirteen degrees is not too inconvenient, but you’d soon want to get off the seat quite quickly.”

The thing is, the tilted seating does provide a health benefit similar to the Squatty Potty—but let Gill assure you that his reason behind this invention so has nothing to do with health. “Its main benefit is to the employers, not the employees,” he explained. “It saves the employer money.”

There may be some truth to Gill’s ways. According to a survey by Protecting.co.uk, a British software company, the average time spent on the toilet in Britain is 4:45 minutes in the toilet with those in London on it for an average of a whopping 28 mins 35 seconds!

Sure, more and likely more people are scrolling their phones in the bathroom during work hours these days. But is that a reason to make it physically impossible for someone to sit on a toilet for longer than five minutes? In some cases, it takes longer than five minutes to do your business anyway!

The toilet seat has garnered quite a bit of chatter—and most of the feedback isn’t too excited about it all.

“Viewing time spent in the toilet as a threat is the wrong way of looking at the issue entirely,” says Charlotte Jones, co-author of the Around the Toilet project. “I think the importance of the toilet as a refuge during the workday says more about inadequate workspaces, heavy workloads, and unsupportive management than it does about the workers themselves.”

StandardToilet was able to come to fruition through GoFundMe medical fundraisers and initiatives like  SweetGreen’s “Family Fund.” It’s even been approved by the British Toilet Association (BTA).

The seat retails between £150 and £500. But has anyone bought it yet? Gill is currently speaking with a number of local councils and major motorway service stations to get them to distribute his product. Eventually, he wants to extend StandardToilet to train stations, pubs, shopping malls and offices. For now, take your work bathroom breaks while you still can!

What do you think of this toilet seat invention? Are you guilty of the work bathroom break? Do you think there’s any harm to taking some time away from a hectic workday?