A company has invented "inconveniently sloped" toilets to stop employees from taking long bathroom breaks.
According to developers, the loos are so uncomfortable that people won't be able to sit on them for longer than five minutes, and they've even received the support of the British Toilet Association (BTA), which campaigns for better public toilet facilities.
Manufactured by StandardToilet in Staffordshire, England, the toilet was created to force employees into a slight squatting position. The units cost between $197 - $657 a toilet, and as per the Daily Mail, there has already been interest in the product.
This woman found a python in her toilet:The toilet was created in a bid to increase productivity in working environments where employees were spending too long on the toilet.
"It is estimated that in the United Kingdom alone, extended employee breaks costs industry and commerce [$5.26 billion] per annum," Gill said. "With the advent of flexible zero-hour contracts, it is easy to see why our StandardToilet can be an asset to a business."
"Medical studies have suggested that using the traditional WC can cause swollen hemorrhoids and weakening of pelvic muscles."
Gill explained that the toilets have a slope of 13 degrees, which means that the toilet is uncomfortable for employees to sit on for long periods of time, but it comes with the added benefit of helping to improve their posture.
"The StandardToilet provides Increased comfort through promoting the engagement of upper and lower leg muscles which helps reduce musculoskeletal disorders," he said.
"Anything higher would cause wider problems. Thirteen degrees is not too inconvenient, but you'd soon want to get off the seat."
However, the slanted toilet has not been without its critics.
"Viewing time spent in the toilet as a threat is the wrong way of looking at the issue entirely," Charlotte Jones, co-author of the Around the Toilet project, told Wired.
"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."
