Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
17% Of New Yorkers Work In The Bathroom, Survey Says
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 5, 2014
Modified Jun 5, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 5, 2014
Modified Jun 5, 2014
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Do you do work while in the bathroom? Are you guilty of spending mornings smuggling a Macbook under your shirt, sneaking past your roommate and shooting off some emails while evacuating last night's bottle of wine down the toilet? IKEA says it's possible you do, and if you don't, you might want to think about making that rent money while...making something else.
Yes, according to a new study courtesy of IKEA (yes, the same IKEA that forced you to spend an afternoon figuring out what the hell this means), about 17 percent of the 1,000 New Yorkers surveyed prefer to type up their TPS memos while otherwise engaged in the bathroom. We are not the only ones who have turned the water closet into a second office, thankfully—17 percent of Stockholm residents surveyed also pee and labor, while only 10 percent of the lazy slackers wasting their lives in Berlin, London, Moscow, Mumbai and Shanghai admitted to working aboard the porcelain throne and/or during related bathroom activity.
But there's more: according to the IKEA report, only 59 percent of New Yorkers make breakfast at home, about 7 percent less than those surveyed in other cities. Nearly half of all New Yorkers who make the time for breakfast do so with a smartphone or computer in hand. About 40 percent of New York's households are comprised of single people, shockingly.
And over half of the New Yorkers surveyed said they thought self-reflection in the morning is important, so we suspect at least a few of them spend a few moments wondering how life led them from dreaming of being astronaut to writing a blog post while emptying their bowels.
In sum, IKEA says New York is a city composed of a not insignificant number of sad, socially-defunct workaholics whose iPads are crawling with E. Coli. And those are the achievers.
Tagged
bathroom
ikea
study
toilet
Rebecca Fishbein
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Police identify 2 men wanted for stabbing an off-duty NYPD officer
D’Angelo Caraballo and Sneider Mejia are wanted on several charges, including attempted murder.
By
Ben Feuerherd
Published Oct 6, 2026 at 11:05 a.m. ET
NYC’s autumn foliage will be a fall feast this year
A rainy fall will intensify autumn foliage colors, making them last longer, too.
By
Rosemary Misdary
News
NYC’s autumn foliage will be a fall feast this year
A rainy fall will intensify autumn foliage colors, making them last longer, too.
By
Rosemary Misdary
NY officials worry migrants will skip healthcare amid fed policy change
By
Caroline Lewis
Early Addition: Spy magazine is doing a Substack pop-up
By
James Ramsay
Bronx woman found dead and infant in critical condition after balcony push, NYPD says
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .