Office Shower Politics
They are installing showers in my office building. As the one that bikes to work, everyone is eager to know my thoughts. “Are you excited?”, “Will you use them?”, “Aren’t you glad they’re accommodating you?”
Meh… I don’t care about the showers.
It’s only 4.1 miles to work and I can’t go terribly fast due to traffic, potholes, stop lights, and avoiding devil buses. I don’t really sweat (except for August or “wet-wipe-season.”) Turning it into a true shower-requiring-workout would be extra nonsense. I imagine a personal trainer hovering over my shoulder:
Plus, moving my shower routine to the other end of my commute would be… uncomfortable.
Yeah, no thanks. I’ll just get dressed at home.
But if they want to give me a closet to hang up my “emergency clothes” (ready in case of downpour or mud) I will take that. That and better coffee. Otherwise I’m all set.
I used to have a 45min bike commute, and in the Summer it was oppressive to fight murderous suburban commuters only to sit in an office with no A/C (I normally hate A/C, but this building was located in Hades, and Cerberus’ barking was already enough to drive you insane). Fortunately, I was able to offset any complaints about my soaked clothes by explaining that I was embodying our mission of environmental stewardship.
For the record, it was a fantastic gig in every other way, and my co-workers and I still bike into town to hang out.
A lot of the comments–including from cyclists–seem to reinforce the idea that there is one way to bike, and that one ride fits all.
As Bikeyface qualifies it in her post (er, sorry for 3rd person), her commute is calm and not very long, and she doesn’t need to shower at the end most of the time. Therefore she is not the type of person who would need shower facilities at the end of her commute.
Even more obvious, though, is the fact that Bikeyface already commutes by bicycle, i.e. without shower facilities. It’s obvious that that wasn’t a dealbreaker for her commute, and that’s why she was irritated by everyone asking her what she, as a token cyclist, thought about them. The point of adding shower facilities is not for people like Bikeyface who already commute, but to encourage the people who don’t currently bike to work to do so.
Frankly, it would be a waste of the employer’s money to add those facilities without expecting them to encourage a behaviour change (i.e. reduced costs of providing parking, reduced health care costs through healthier employees, etc). Existing cyclists continuing to cycle is not a behaviour change.
I agree that it depends largely on the length of your route, as well as of course the climate where you live. Some people also just sweat more than others.
All that said, many non-cyclists in my acquaintance DO tend to assume that you sweat all the time, probably because (1) that’s what their out-of-shape selves would do, and (2) they have a monolithic image of “cyclist” as the athletic lycra warrior who always pushes themselves as hard as possible, so they assume that’s how you ride too. (Even if they never see you in lycra!)
Deodorant…!
Thats why we have deodorant. There are strengths of deodorant & perfumed deodorant types these days for all tastes & body types. If I had a shower every time I ride to the shops, ride the kids to school, ride to work etc… I’d spend 1/2 the day in the shower. This is an incredible waste of time & water. I’d rather be on my bike. In the heat I often ride in, it only takes a few minutes to build up a sweat. So I use deodorant, sometimes carry a fan & take a change of clothes, especially a shirt. This avoids the office politics of who’s lining up to perve at who…not that it really matters if some people like more attention than others. So perhaps deodorant can become the new ‘politically correct’ item of baggage for cyclists. With increasing demand for deodorant & profitability of deodorant companies, may I suggest these companies start exporting it free to some of the 3rd world or poorer countries I have visited, where they don’t have the luxury of regular showers and certainly don’t use deodorant.