Wash your Hands

I am always interested by the signs in restrooms.  Particularly the ones that notify employees that they must wash their hands before returning to work.  I think we like the idea of cleanliness and sanitation but the fact is obvious that few people, including employees, wash their hands.

Yes it makes sense to remind employees to wash up.  But the way the notice is written my not be the best to communicate it.  It communicates more than just its intended meaning.

“Employees must wash hands before returning to work.” 

As an employee I would take a little offense at the tone.  It is a dictum said to everybody indirectly and to nobody directly, as if the one to whom it applies is too stupid to remember and on top of that not worth addressing directly.  Its like two people talking about a present third person as if the third wasn’t there.  But the comment is certainly directed at the ignored audience.   My thought would be to challenge the sign and management, “I don’t have to wash my hands, you’re not here—you can’t make me.”

As a customer when I read the sign I feel leery of the organization.  If the management has to remind their employees of something so simple I lose confidence in their ability to master the things that really matter.  It also makes the reminder seem last minute as if they forgot to tell their employees and so decided to just put a sign up in the bathroom as a quick-fix.  Obviously hand washing and general cleanliness isn’t part of the natural culture of the organization.  That’s concerning.

I think a more appropriate wording would be, “Our employees wash their hands before returning to work.”

As an employee reading it I would feel as though the company is not condescending to tell me something that I already know.  Rather the company is telling the customer something about the way it and its employees are, namely clean and sanitary.  The reminder to the employee is there but it is secondary.   It changes from a behavior demanded to a confirmation of a culture to which the employee belongs.  The employee becomes and insider to the system and not an outsider that needs constant telling.  There is the subtle undertone that to be one of us you must behave like us.  If you don’t…well, that’s your way of showing you don’t want to be here.  That attitude will eventually bring you down.

As a customer I feel reassured that employee hand washing is so fundamental that the employees needn’t a reminder.  The company is confident enough to tell me that it simply happens.  It’s part of their culture.

I may be the only one who has ever thought or cared about the wording.  Maybe it doesn’t bother anyone else.  Even if it did matter to more customers I doubt it would change.   Because while its easy to wash your hands, its easier to not.  Changing a sign is easier, but easier to not.