Hygeine at work.

Maybe she threw it into the toilet but missed? I'd give her the benefit of the doubt. At least she did wash her hands. Not everyone does.

I have some sympathy with her about not using the dryer - they do make your skin very dry.

The staff keep asking for handtowels in a dispenser but the manageent say no. The policy is for as much recycling as possible with the minimum of waste, and hand towels are wasteful. It was the fact that the assistant re-entered the cubicle after she had washed her hands that annoyed me. I come from a healthare background and cross contamination is a big no-no. I would have thought that food stores would have the same ethics.

Did she have to open doors to get out of the toilet area? It always worries me as it doesn't matter how well most of us wash our hands as the door handles are contaminated by those who don't bother. A bit like when peanuts were placed on pub bars !!

She may have re-entered the cubicle, but surely just to pull a few sheets of paper out of the dispenser and dry her hands with it - she didn't even touch the flush button again if the paper was on the floor!

If you brought it to the management's attention, what could they do? I really don't think it's a food hygeine problem, and if the store was closed, who was this person?

I hate those driers too, they never get my hands properly dry!

I have read that the hot air dryers are not good - can't remember why though but I always go for paper towels if possible

Apparently when using a warm air dryer you should not rub your hands together but just hold them under the warm air and turn your hands from back to front.

This doesn't work !!

The Dyson dryers work. The rest are rubbish.

....I mean the ones that make you feel as if you're going to be sucked into them......

And the ones that send ripples across the backs of your hands.

She was a daytime employee recruited on to night shift to help with the promotion changes. She touched the door and the paper dispenser . I hadn't cleaned those. I always make sure that the flushers, door handles are cleaned. Did you know that we are not allowed bleach!!! We have to use this eco. stuff, it won't get the inky fingerprints off the doors. I sometimes wish (fleetinly) that I hadn't retired from Nursing.

I haven`t used any of those electric hand dryers since a good few years ago, when I was using one in a public toilet in Lincoln, and there was an almighty bang, sparks flew, and fleetingly made my hands sting. I haven`t trusted them since that day.

When I worked in the cafe in Asda we were not allowed to use bleach or nail brushes. When I moved to M&S they also had the no bleach rule. I'm afraid that when my friend and I were running a little cafe in Cornwall we used to swear by bleach!

Elegran I used one that did that last week!. It gave me the willies. I did n't realise till then I had old lady skin like that!

I used one that ^boasted" that it would send ripples across your hands! I would have thought it would apologise! A little bit stronger and it would have taken the flesh off the bones (like those machines that get the last scraps of meat off bones to make cheap pate)

hildajenniJ It's good to hear that your are so conscientious about hygiene, but I do think you are perhaps over-reacting to this. It would be impossible to monitor what every member of staff does. Having said that, I'm often surprised at the state of some toilet cubicles - toilet paper on the floor, etc. Apart from the hygiene angle, it shows a lack of courtesy.

I'm not a great fan of using lots of bleach and antibacterial products - I think they damage the environment and can irritate the skin (and airways if sprayed). I do think that this sometimes excessive fear of germs is partly the responsibility of marketing campaigns for cleaning products. There was something on the TV the other day that said research had shown that antibacterial hand washes are virtually the same as ordinary soap and probably provide little, if any, extra protection.

The latest research shows that hot air dryers spread germs all around. Not a good idea. Paper towels are best.

We [obviously] wash our hands when we've been to the loo but how many of us do the same when we've used a cashpoint or even handled money etc? Could all get very ocd if we thought about it too much . In fact, I'm just going to clean the tv remote control which [I think] I've never cleaned before....

hildajennij- hot, soapy water is sufficient for cleaning door handles and the paper dispenser. Bleach is not required for cleaning in loos.