Does An Employer Need To Provide A Changing Area

[fossyant]

Disabled loo might be your best bet. That's what I use

 

[gelfy666]

we are a metal fabrication factory so we do have a uniform to wear.

 

[Moodyman]

Reading threads like this always makes me realise how fortunate I am and have been.

my last three employers all had showers, changing rooms, lockers and a drying room.

 

[MrGrumpy]

Have a shared changing area in our rest room, we are all male ( last female got sacked ) so no probs. toilet with shower is next door so all good but have found myself showering night before and doing the shower in a can when I get to work :-) been lucky with our facilities and new bike sheds. Could do with a bit more drying room though especially for winter or in this case bleeding summer as it feels like winter :/

 

[fossyant]

We were given a heated drying cupboard, which is great. But, some of the civvies have realised we have it, so if it rains they put their coat on one of the shelves. Biggest annoyance, is the smoker who puts his kit in, good god it stinks.

 

[Mike!]

No cycle to work scheme here but we had a shower fitted around 18 months ago, one of the WC cubicles was converted. No drying facilities but as i'm IT i get the use of an air conditioned server room so that tends to work nicely!

I'm also the ONLY one that uses the shower

 

[RichardB]

My employer runs a C2W scheme and has a shiny sustainable transport plan for brownie points with the greenies in County Hall, but there are no facilities whatsoever for people to change/shower at work if they follow the aspirations of the plan and actually cycle. Luckily, my (female) manager allows me to use her room to change (we work different hours) and store my work clothes in a spare drawer in her filing cabinet. I shower at home and use a spray when I get to work. I am currently lobbying for dedicated facilities (a spare office with a few hooks on the wall, basically) but as I am the only person who cycles to work, I think I am on a hiding to nothing.

 

[BigAl68]

We have three indoor cycle sheds, each with showers, lockers etc. I guess working for the NHS has some benefits.

 

[RichardB]

I guess working for the NHS has some benefits.

Nice that they do that, but outside the public sector it's quite rare, I think.

 

[BigAl68]

Nice that they do that, but outside the public sector it's quite rare, I think.

I spent 10 years working for Hewlett Packard and we had the same there. I think if the employer has a proper green policy and wants a healthy workforce it pays for itself.

 

[DCLane]

I've got access to changing rooms, showers, a locker, underground secure bike storage and a drying room.

This is one thing my university is good at providing since it helps them get more points for being 'environmentally friendly'.

 

[Dan B]

Because most people only consider cycling or running in the summer, dedicated spaces to support them are often seen by a company as a huge waste of resource. They prefer to build exciting, eye catching elements that attract the type of talent that wants to feel like it works for Facebook or Google. Touchdown areas, collaborative spaces, agile workplaces...are all more impactful on a bottom line than a changing room that stands empty for 6 months.

I'd expect that the type of "talent" that wants to feel like it works for Facebook or Google is going to commute by fixed-gear skateboard, and so would view a changing areaas a very good thing - as long as it doesn't take space away from the foosball table and beer fridge

 

[Berk on a Bike]

Disabled loo might be your best bet. That's what I use

Our disabled toilet is used to store cleaning equipment for the office cleaners. Surely that's not on...?

 

[fossyant]

Our disabled toilet is used to store cleaning equipment for the office cleaners. Surely that's not on...?

Most are...

 

[Mandragora]

We don't have showers/changing rooms, and it's shame, as I work in a school. Meanwhile, the kids' changing rooms have showers, but languish unused. On the rare days when I am lucky enough to combine cycling along with a working day, I have a quick freshen up in the disabled loo, which is roomy and otherwise unused. It'll do, just about, until I get home and have a proper shower.

My 30-stone colleague, however, startled me somewhat on one of the last days of term this year by whipping off her top and changing into a different frock while we were both in the office that we share between our two classrooms. I did, in a feeble, quiet voice point out that the piece of paper I'd put over the glass panel that overlooks the corridor that was, at the time being used by kids, had long since fallen down, and that we didn't have any privacy. She wasn't perturbed, and just carried on, which does, at least, show a remarkable level of resilience and body confidence. It's not an experience I'll forget in a hurry.