I agree that vinyl composition tiles aren't appropriate for a wet area. They're slippery as he11 when wet.
VC tile floors are at their best when they can be regularily maintained and the company wants to put forward a "clean" or "ship shape" image, such as grocery stores (except wherever the floor can get wet), car dealership showrooms, or any kind of establishment where the flooring normally stays dry. The beauty of VC tiles is that if they're properly maintained, your shoe never actually touches the tile. It treads on the floor finish mopped down over the tile, which if the floor is properly maintained, is regularily replaced. So, asking how long a VC tile floor can last if you maintain the floor finish on it is no different than asking how long the floor in a restaurant will last if you keep replacing the carpet. But, this is a wet area, so they're out of the running.
I'd agree with the idea to consider synthetic rubber floor tiles. However, the kind of tiles I'm thinking about are normally glued down.
If most people in the office wear casual (rubber soled) shoes to work, rubber on rubber is one of the highest coefficients of friction that you can get. Also, you can get rubber tile flooring that's heavily textured so that it maintains good traction even if the floor is bloody well underwater. Synthetic rubber is tougher than rhino hide, and you could drop one of those 500 pound barrels of soap on it without doing more than leaving a mark on it.
Johnsonite is the biggest name in synthetic rubber flooring in the US and Canada, probably all of North America:
http://www.johnsonite.com
They have a specific flooring for wet areas called "Safety Stride". It's specifically meant for any places where water on the floor causing the floor to become slippery is a concern:
http://www.johnsonite.com/en/FlooringSystems/SpecialtyApplications/SafetyStride.htm
Rubber floor tiles can be ordered in many (48 I think) different colours, and each colour can be "marblized" or "speckled" or both with any of the other colours. Also, there are about a half dozen different textures available that you can order the plain, marblized or speckled tiles in. Any textured rubber floor tile will provide good traction if the floor is only wet, and doesn't have standing puddles of water on it.
I think all of the different synthetic rubber tile floors can be found on this page:
http://www.johnsonite.com/en/flooringSystems/rubberflooring
And I think all of the different colours and textures available can be seen by downloading this brochure:
http://www.johnsonite.com/NR/rdonly...DC1-D1837E1F071A/0/JOH2217_Rubber_Singles.pdf
Synthetic rubber flooring is very expensive. Also, just like ceramic tile flooring, it tires out before it wears out. That is, people replace it only because they get tired of it and want something different.
But, rubber flooring is also very expensive.
Synthetic rubber flooring is about the only flooring you can get that will stand up to people walking on it with ice skates and spiked shoes on, but the kinds of rubber flooring meant for those situations is much thicker and harder than the stuff they make synthetic rubber floor tiles out of.