Dear Dáithí: Can I call out my colleague for not washing his hands after using the toilet? 

What people forget about those people who don’t wash their hands is that they can leave a trail of germs behind them, says Dáithí. 

Dear Dáithí,

I am increasingly witnessing people not washing their hands after using toilet facilities, and it is driving me crazy.

We’re not that far from a time when we were all wearing masks, staying within our 5km, and limiting how many people we could see to stop the spread of infection. And yet, somehow, it seems people have already forgotten the basics of proper hygiene.

This isn’t just something I’ve seen once or twice. It’s multiple times a week. It’s come to the point I feel more people don’t wash their hands than those that do. 

Now, I’d say something if this was all anonymous people I’d never see again, but last week at work, a colleague left the cubicle and proceeded straight to the canteen to get a coffee. 

I swear when I came out and spotted him at the coffee machine getting his latte, I was very close to calling him out in front of everyone. On this occasion, I stopped myself, but my patience on this is running thin.

My wife tells me she also sees this in ladies' bathroom facilities, and the best thing to do is ignore it, and keep my thoughts to myself. But every time I see it, I feel really annoyed. 

Would it be that terrible if I called them out or handed them a bottle of sanitiser? Or maybe I should ask HR to send an email around reminding people about hygiene.

I’m not a clean-freak or a germ-phobe, but this is just disgusting. I don’t want to get my coffee from the same machine as people who can’t wash their hands. Would it be that bad to call people out, or gently say ‘looks like you’ve forgotten to wash your hands?’

I asked my young fella one time if he washed his hands after going to the toilet, and the answer he gave me was ‘why, I didn’t pee on them’. Good answer, to be fair, but the wrong one.

Your letter gave me that feeling you get when people start speaking about head lice and, all at the same time, everyone starts scratching their heads. I had to go off and wash my hands after reading it.

Once I started thinking about it, it is very noticeable that people don’t wash their hands as much after going to the toilet, and when I say people, let’s be honest here, we are talking about men, and for all the obvious reasons. I know your wife has mentioned she had seen it a few times in the ladies’ facilities, or what she didn’t see.

You are right; everyone should wash their hands, especially in that situation.

It’s very interesting you mentioned covid and all the changes we made in response to it. Once the whole thing was explained to us, we adopted changes very quickly and understood why we were doing this. We all swore we’d never go back to the old days BC, before covid, and we were very good at all of this for a long while. 

We were so happy to have our freedom again when it was all over; it was like it never happened at all. Here we are again today in October 2026, not washing our hands even after we pee!

What people forget about those people who don’t wash their hands is that they can leave a trail of germs behind them.

For example, if you leave the toilet without cleaning your hands, you catch the door handle on the way out, you are pressing buttons on the photocopier, you are shaking hands with someone in the office... the list goes on. One quick hand wash and all that didn’t happen. 

We are coming into flu season, and we must think about those who have weak immune systems. If you work in an office, this behavior can cause problems for people.

So, what do you do? All of this sickened you, and unless we do something now, you might end up ‘outing’ this person, and we really don’t want to do that. No, you should not say you need to start washing your hands directly to his face; this will only cause tension in the workplace.

But what you could do is, the next time you’re in the toilet area with him, and if he goes for the door while you’re washing your hands, then you could say, ‘you’re not going to wash your hands?’ With a curious tone and a puzzled look, mention as well that there are lots of viruses around.

This is not a direct attack, if you like, but a bit of a shock, mar dhea, and a bit of a reminder to him to wash his hands.

All that said, I do like your idea of calling HR. They will know to be cautious in how to approach this, and they should know too how to deal with this.

They are not going to call this person into their office and say ‘you need to start washing your hands’. It doesn’t work like that. An email to the whole staff to remind them of the importance of hand hygiene should suffice. It’s good practice as well as everything else, and it’s about HR being proactive.

I wonder if there are signs up on the walls of the toilets to remind people to wash their hands? If not, they could be added; they are in most places nowadays.

All you can do yourself for the moment is to keep washing your own hands; you can only account for your own behaviour.

To keep yourself safe and feeling less disgusted about this, you could wipe down the coffee maker and other things others use.

All that said, I’m off now again to wash my hands.

And if you’re reading this and are someone who doesn’t always wash your hands, remember there is always someone watching, but it is for the greater good.

Wash your hands!