Recently I was facilitating a small group of bankers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago- an iconic old building with magnificent architecture, soaring columns and lots of marble. But of course, the inside is modern; our meeting room had every electronic audio and visual convenience- the best of everything. During a break, I went to use the third floor restroom and upon entering the toilet stall, I see something.
While I was facilitating the next segment of the meeting, my mind kept circling back to that metal flange on the sidewall. What was its purpose?
On the next break, I practically ran back to the restroom, entered the stall and fully examined the metal bracket. It was on a very weak spring, allowing it to be pulled down to a 90 degree angle, but would slowly spring back up when released. I had a half empty cup of coffee with me, and when I set it on the shelf it stayed down.
Since I was there for “Official Business” and not just examining the bracket, I thought about how useful this really was. For whatever reason, I often have things in my hand with no useful (or sanitary) place to put them when using a restroom. There’s usually a shelf, but sometimes you forget your items when you leave. In this case, you literally cannot open the stall door without taking your items off the spring shelf and letting it retract. I even tested it; I pushed my head as far forward as possible to see if my head would hit the shelf (it didn’t, it’s as if they strategically measured to ensure this was not possible).
I have never seen these spring shelves in any other restroom, but then again, I was at the Federal Reserve Bank office where everything is top notch and first-rate. But now that I have experienced the efficacy of the spring shelf, I want them in every restroom, especially at airports and other busy places. The next time I am at the Fed in Atlanta, I’m going to see if they have the same spring shelves as Chicago. I’ll bet they do.
By the way, the Fed is not perfect. They installed low water flow attachments to the faucets, which I am sure is a great way to conserve water, but when the water comes on automatically as you put your hands underneath, the resulting mini-jets spray water at a force strong enough to peel paint.
And the result is your sleeve getting baptized at every hand washing…