What colour is your pee?

Every time I walk into the bathroom at my work, I glance at a poster on the wall. It looks a bit like a giant paint chip: dark yellow rectangle at the top, slightly lighter, lighter, lighter til the last rectangle at the bottom is just a transparent box with the slightest hint of colour. At first, I didn't even register it as more than art. Something to brighten up the walls of the bathroom. How thoughtful of someone to think of it.

Today, as I was washing my hands, I looked over to see who the artist was. Oh. It's not art, actually. The health and safety department has developed a poster to show what colour your pee should be. Not as in: "it's company policy that your pee should be...(insert colour)" The poster demonstrates what colour your pee is when you are well hydrated, need to drink more water, critically dehydrated. Which, if you consider that temperatures go up to 50C in the summer and we're located in the desert, is fairly forward thinking of them. Pre-emptive urine analysis. How many organizations can count that as an employee benefit?

So now, in addition to making sure that my hair looks good, my make-up is on straight, I take a peek at the toilet bowl before I flush and match up the results with the handy guide on the wall. Yeah yeah, none of you wanted to hear what I do in the loo at work. But since I don't get a company car or an expense account, I'm taking advantage of all the perks I can get.