Monday, October 1, 2007

Bathroom Etiquette

This is a post I've been meaning to write for a long time. I'm sick of people not following proper bathroom etiquette. I work on a floor of an office building that has part of a major corporation on it. We share the bathroom on the floor. There are 8 stalls, so no shortage of them. Most of the time, the bathroom is empty, but there are times when it fills up. Here are a few items of concern that my co-workers and I are absolutely disgusted with and want to demand women of the world to change. I can't vouch for the men's restroom, but it could be the same with them too.

1. Please don't  choose a stall next to someone else if there are other stalls available. Let us have our privacy, as much as we can.
2. Do not talk on your cell phone in the bathroom, and especially not in the stall. Again, let us have our privacy and not be forced to hear your conversations. I WILL flush the toilet...
3. If you have bodily functions that produce noises you cannot prevent (and I'm not talking about blowing your nose) please use the "courtesy flush" technique to drown out the noise.
4. I know most of the time you can't help it, but if something is upsetting your stomach, don't eat it every day.
5. Please, please, please... wash your hands... with soap! It doesn't work to turn on the water, wet your hands for half a second, dry them, then touch the door handle that we all have to touch to leave the bathroom. My bathroom doesn't have disposable towels, we have the cloth ones on a roll (which is another pet peeve of mine by the way), so I've resorted to using toilet paper to open the door, especially when I see something like that. Gross!
6. Wait till you're in the stall to undo your pants. Close the door before you sit down. (Yes, I've actually seen this, it's disgusting! We've deduced that this woman has a bladder problem or something, but I don't think that's much of an excuse to not close the door.)
7. Eating your lunch in the bathroom is just nasty. Yes, there are couches separate from the stalls, but that's still nasty.
8. A bathroom is for just that, going to the bathroom, not napping. We've had people sleeping consistently on the couches, even bringing up an alarm clock to wake them up in time. These people are just weird.
9. Please keep your legs to yourself. If you need room to sit down, please don't put your legs into my stall. Use the bigger, handicap stall.
10. Don't make a mess for everyone else on the sink. When your hands are wet, shake them into the sink before grabbing the towels. If there is a puddle on the sink, grab a towel (if the bathroom has one) or toilet paper and clean it up. A lot of people on my floor are very well dressed and don't want to lean into a puddle and ruin their clothes.
11. If the bathroom has paper towels, make sure they go into the trash can when you leave. If it is full, use your paper towels to push down the rest of the pile as best as you can. I'm not saying to flatten the towels to the point where there's a dense brick at the bottom, but enough for a few people to throw away their trash. Don't leave it on the floor either, if it falls. That just creates more work for the person cleaning the bathroom. Would you rather they refill the toilet paper or pick up your towels? Think about it.

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