We built something very similar last year. It’s a bit simpler though: Raspberry Pi near the door, two wires to the door and a piece of aluminium foil on the door. The Pi runs a webserver that makes the current status available as JSON document and via WebSockets. We just embed that as iframe into our dashboard in the hallway (and in my status bar on my PC) and now have real-time information. It’s been quite useful so far.
Working from home also solves the problem nicely. In my case, at least. Other solutions include: put in more bathrooms (which might not be possible), or getting rid of employees after implementing a hiring freeze, or both, which is totally not a situation I have lived through or benefit from in a bladderly manner in the recent past.
This doesn’t solve a contention problem: it merely notifies folks when the jakes are in use.
(A “bathroom contention problem” would probably be solved by some straightforward modelling and controlled distribution of coffee.)
We built something very similar last year. It’s a bit simpler though: Raspberry Pi near the door, two wires to the door and a piece of aluminium foil on the door. The Pi runs a webserver that makes the current status available as JSON document and via WebSockets. We just embed that as iframe into our dashboard in the hallway (and in my status bar on my PC) and now have real-time information. It’s been quite useful so far.
Working from home also solves the problem nicely. In my case, at least. Other solutions include: put in more bathrooms (which might not be possible), or getting rid of employees after implementing a hiring freeze, or both, which is totally not a situation I have lived through or benefit from in a bladderly manner in the recent past.