He's no gentleman
I have recently moved into a new rented office, which is in a reasonably new business centre-type building. I only mention this because it's a clean and well-kept complex, used by a large number of people, and I have just been to the gents and found an unflushed toilet. All squeamishness aside, this is an unedifying sight. Now, the flushes on the toilets are quite gentle in here, but this person - and I think we may assume it was a man - had clearly not even attempted to flush. He must have just walked away, in the full knowledge that his work would still be visible to the next person who went in that cubicle. This sort of behaviour baffles me. Even if, say, the toilet had to be flushed when he went in due to the bad form of the previous occupant, and the cistern was still refilling when he was ready to leave, you only have to wait a minute or so for it to fill back up, ready to be flushed. But no, this gentleman was just too busy to wait, and felt it was perfectly acceptable behaviour to leave his business unflushed. It was late on in the working day - perhaps he felt that a cleaner would flush it for him. (Because that's their job, isn't it?) Or perhaps he thought his mum would come and do it for him. I didn't write anything about toilet etiquette in my seminal Manners Manifesto in January, mainly because it's all so self-evident: leave the place as you would expect to find it; have a bit of respect; it's a public space. The slovenly, antisocial behaviour of men constantly amazes me. I wonder if he washed his hands? I know being embarrassed about toilet habits is a bit English, but rather that than this.
posted by Andrew Collins @ 6:30 PM
39 Comments
Contact
Andrew at
39 Comments:
Funnily enough I had a similar experience today. The only difference was that it looked like he may possibly have tried flushing. It didn't look like it was going anywhere any time soon though and I needed to go home so I left it. Had it been mine though I'd have done the decent thing. (It's not really a decent thing and it's certainly not one I relish, but I'll do it if I have to.)
What never ceases to amaze me is how many people at work (although I can only vouch for the men) not only attempt to throw their paper towels into the bin, but then just leave them on the floor when they've missed (as they inevitably do - it's a software house).
Here's a related etiquette question for the ladies: do women also leave towels on the floor or bench in the gym changing rooms, even though it is just a few short paces to where the used towels actually go (ie. a big receptacle right by the door)? Again, it amazes me how often I have to pick other people's towels up off the bench/floor and dispose of them for these obviously disabled gym-members. Unless, of course, they're just arrogant idiots, but what are the chances of any men falling into that category?
If someone has been just before you, then you can't flush right away. However, you can a couple of minutes later, so no excuse really.
AC said: "do women also leave towels on the floor or bench in the gym changing rooms, even though it is just a few short paces to where the used towels actually go?"
Only really nasty, lazy women, Andrew. The majority of woman are a LITTLE bit tidier than most men (but there are always exceptions).
I'm equally baffled by this sort of disgusting behaviour.
I like the way that you discuss how it's wouldn't be ok even if it wasn't the fault of the person who did that particular plop, because he may have had to flush on entry due to a previous offender. It still leaves the open the problem of the original offense, and it's not as if you named them.
I have no basis for comparison, not being one of those cheeky ladies who will run, squealing, into men's toilets when the queue for the ladies' is simply unmanageable, but women's toilets are often, well, gross. I always seem to be cursed with female colleagues whose bowels simply explode upon contact with a porcelain seat. However, as I seem to be the common denominator here, perhaps I should review my own role in this.
As for gyms, yes, the towels are also a problem. I, too, find this inordinately annoying, particularly as the bloody changing room is littered with signs asking people not to leave towels lying about. There's also a woman who insists on hawking up massive goobers, as it were, in the shower cubicle. One can only stand in mute horror, gazing at the floor, praying that it doesn't creep under the adjoining wall and gently swirl around your foot. I think I'd die.
If you were a bus driver who'd had a heavy night the night before, getting so pissed that you couldn't think, then you probably wouldn't have the capacity to flush. Thus you could potentially ruin a nice stand-up gig and then someone's toilet experience within 24 hours.
on a recent visit to my local library, when I used the disabled loo, a (presumably 'the') previous user had left a female hygiene product in the handbasin. There was, of course, a suitably designated receptacle in the corner.
As with Andrew's example, one assumes this behaviour must be deliberate, and designed -- no pun intended -- to inconvenience fellow users, but the reason is unfathomable.
As I'm writing this, in the background on the radio Crossing Continents has just come to a close. Yet the continuity announcer, has, as usual pronounced it as 'cross incontinents', which seems strangely appropriate . . .
Isn't flushing after pee pee a waste of water? Or are we talking solids? Leaving solids in the pan is really not cricket - but pee pee I can tolerate.
What's worse, as with my work, is people leaving huge, all encompassing skids on the pan. And sometimes on the toilet seat. I have no idea how people actually manage it.
My own comment has put me off my breakfast.
Re; hand washing
I once saw a man in a motorway service station toilet use the urinal, then head straight for the hand driers without stoppin gin between to wash his hands.
Enpdsueeeeeuuww!
It's the chaps who don't wash their hands who get me. What is wrong with them? Do they think that, unless they ACTUALLY do a little widdle on their hands, they don't have to wash them?
My squeeze paid a visit to the loo at work last week, and found it chock-full of fresh male jobbie. He sent an email to all the other blokes in the office reminding them of the correct technique for flushing a toilet, sat back, and watched for who went reddest first. The culprit unwittingly identified himself within seconds.
Harder to do in your situation, perhaps, Andrew?
I didn't want to get into specifics, Swineshead, and you're right that to save precious water, flushing after a wee is a bit of a bourgois luxury, but there are urinals for that in a gents loo. I was referring to the other toilet-based activity.
Funnily enough, in our office toilets there are signs on the inside of the cubicle doors that ask you not to stuff too much paper down - which is fair - and advising users to flush twice - once during, once after - if usage is heavy. Quite how that interprets in the mind of our culprit as "never", I do not know. Just shows that people who work in offices are not necessarily clever. (I used to be disgusted by the state of the toilets in my halls of residence - and, again, realised that being in higher education doesn't make you clever either.)
Ah - yes - the urinal, was forgetting about that. We don't have them at work.
And the courtesy flush is often a necessity. Not necessarily in terms of 'heavy load', more damage limitation regarding air pollution.
Are women as bad when it comes to certain bad apples not flushing properly? Or is it, like serial murder, generally the preserve of the male?
Freud would have a field day.
It's disgusting. I go off someone if I see they don't wash up after 'going'.
When I worked at a top tabloid newspaper, one of its name writers used to wee all over the seat, not flush and not wash his hands. I couldn't believe anyone could be so vile.
Then again, because of who it was, I could.
The worst thing ever: people who shit on the seat and leave it there.
*throws up*
Oh, and no, whoever it was, but flushing after a wee isn't a waste of water - it's a mark of common decency. I don't want to see and smell your rancid piss, thank you very much, especially if left for a "wee" while to develop an oily film across the top. Maybe in your own house with your own understanding relatives (although, I'm glad you are not a relative of mine), but not out in public.
And I am suspicious of this whole "shortage of water" nonsense anyway. It's not like, by leaving stale wee unflushed in a public toilet, that some African baby somewhere is getting the benefit of clean fresh mountain spring water. You are not depriving anyone by flushing away your bodily products.
AND, AND... I despair at anyone who has to read a NOTICE and be told that it would be preferable to make sure all of their faeces have been flushed, even if it takes two flushes. Do we really believe that a faeces-leaver is the sort of person who will read and obey a notice? I don't know if the faeces-leaver imagines hiumself to be a bit of a rebel, who loves not to confrom to society's madcap social niceities about expelling your waste, or someone whose time or energy is to precious to waste on yanking the chain, or is just a dirty bastard, but none of the above strike me as being able to be reasoned with by the medium of A4.
I'm glad this subject enrages others. I wasn't suggesting wee should not be flushed in a public facility, Michael, by the way. I'm all for sending it away, wheresoever it may fall. Saving water is a good idea though. Put a brick in your cistern and turn the tap off when you're brushing your teeth and use a shower instead of a bath. It's worth it for when the water really runs out in the future.
Michael - I was only asking. I tend to flush myself.
If you change your mind though, I'll let you have a pint of my rancid piss at a rate of 50p (bottle included).
If it's yellow let it mellow
If it's brown flush it down
...or something
I sympathise...when I worked at a large animal charity (and you would have thought charitable people may know better) two colleagues and I had a 'poodunit' chart as a female kept leaving a large deposit in the ladies loos...by the powers of deduction, we whittled it down to one of three suspects by 'logging' (sorry) the time the floater was spotted and who wasn't in that day...genius I tell you. Shame we never found out who it was.
I also don't like people who wipe bogies across toilet walls and roll holders - whyyyyyyyy!
Ms Bickers
Actually a month or so back I came across a "hygiene" notice in a ladies washroom which I thought (at the time) was totally unnecessary + would have been of more use in the Gents.
Above the cistern in every cubicle the notice read:
“Customer Advice: Toilet Flush. Press button and release to flush the toilet.”
And I thought – well, how many other ways are there of flushing a loo? Did they expect me to stand on the lid and sing to get it to flush? Was it one of those new fandangled "fart and flush" models?
I don’t understand companies who feel the need to put up signs like that because if they are expecting their average customer to be educationally sub-normal and not know how to flush a toilet, what the f..... makes them think that their average customer can read?
(However since AC's blog and all the above comments, perhaps I took the wrong view?!)
ahh the bogs in Ralph West Halls of residence were something to put you off your breakfast.
Funnily enough it was particularly bad on the floors where it was 'mostly girls'. i also remember the fashion students leaving all the washing machines full of dye - unlucky if you wanted to do a whites wash...
Are there also design faults here? I believe EU water-saving regulations have led to weaker flushes - and therefore MORE flushes and more water wastage. And isn't possible to design loos that don't block so easily? I'm sure everyone would pay to use one.
So many people literally talking sh*te!
First, well done to ishouldbeworking for a well placed "jobbie". Not heard that for a few years.
Second, my sympathies to you Andrew. I can tolerate most things from my high IQ colleagues but cannot understand why a visit to the gents seems more like a trip to Whipsnade.
Top three culprits at work:
1) Ciabatta man, who can consistently leave items the size, shape and for all I know texture, of a "Taste the Difference" Italian bread - sans paper of course.
2) HP man, who leaves Pollockesque "happenings" which under other circumstances could only be replicated by forcing HP sauce through a lawn sprinkler.
3)Pimpernel man who not only renders his own cubicle unusable but leaves the entire room eye-wateringly malodorous and, with little more than a cough, exits, does not pass "Go", does not wash his hands and, in my worst imaginings, heads straight to the canteen to rifle through the cutlery trays.
Eddie Mair posted the following story on his (b)log a while back. Andrew as a former BBC employee (Radio 6 wasn't it?), would you be able to shed any light on its provenance?
The story of the CNN anchor who left her mike on in the loo and talked all over a live address by President Bush reminds me of a (perhaps apocryphal) story about a well known TV and radio presenter. Older woman. Butter wouldn't melt sort of image. Lovely woman by all accounts.
The story goes that in the "mixed" toilets (of which there are a few at Broadcasting House), the said TV star was seen entering a cubicle. Several others were occupied. Presently, from one of them came the most almighty, appalling, shocking stream of noises. You know. Just awful, apparently. Endless rasping and associated parps. It went on and on for what seemed like an age, according to the witness. What must the poor person have eaten? Was he or she OK? Who could survive such an outpouring??? On and on it went, sounding like something from the depths of hell.
When it finally, finally stopped there was a ghastly hush. An eerie, becalmed silence.
After a moment, the TV star could clearly be heard enquiring: "is that you, Maureen?"
Never heard that story, David. I've never come across any mixed toilets at Broadcasting House, though. Maybe it was the Olden Days.
Women are just as bad as men I've found in my work. Poos and used sanitary towels all left lying around for all to see, plus period blood dripped all over the floor. I don't understand what is going through their minds when they do this.
We did also have a phantom poo-er at work who every couple of weeks or so would do a poo in the corner of the toilet cubicle and leave it there, all curled up. In the CORNER!!! Of a ladies toilet! In a nice upper class solicitors' office!!!!
And don't even get me started on the horror I have witnessed at the Glastonbury and Reading festivals.....
Zoe
AC said: "Funnily enough, in our office toilets there are signs on the inside of the cubicle doors that ask you not to stuff too much paper down..."
I recall reading a similar blog (about signs / tissue paper) of your mate Herring's in the 2004 archive of his blog:
http://www.richardherring.com/warmingup/warmingup.php?id=745
It seems the MORE insignificant and mundane the subject -- the more pointless, tedious and humdrum (and relevant to our daily ablutions) -- the GREATER the response you get!
Write about something of serious importance to the world, and less people seem to notice or feel the need to comment!
Blimey, maybe he had a lot on his mind and forgot.
"didnt your mum teach you to wash your hands"
"yes but she also taught me not to piss on them"
sometimes you have to judge the toilet cleanliness. Just think -- you have to turn the tap (which is clearly diseased from everyone else touching it), wash your hands, then turn off the tap with your now clean hands - which renders them dirty again. The same for the door handle on the door to get out....
If it's an infra red system then great - if it's a filthy hole in the floor effort that stinks then my bits are definitely cleaner than the taps!
You can get a little bit OCD about this
Tell me Andrew - did you wash your hands in the infamous bogs in CBGBs? (just reading TMITC)...
Maybe he was just proud of what had just come out of him and wanted others to admire "his work"?
Maybe he was just proud of it and wanted to leave it for others to admire?
Stephen
Poo poo be doo.
Deb Holt
"If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie, wipe the seatie"
Was on a pub door in Cornwall!
Oh Andrew! For the first time ever I have logged onto your blog FIRST, rather than Herring's and what I'm looking for is not here yet.
What I was hoping to see was your review of last night's episode of The Apprentice. I have comments to make about my true love - Simon Smith - of course!
If you have given up on The Apprentice, I will have to try Swineshead's TV review blog or somewhere else!
Heartbroken Mrs Smith
Alice - I'm sure I've seen that too! Maybe in Helston?
But then, surely women never sprinkle - they don't have the sprinkler system installed. I am confused.
Sharon - you should always come to my blog first. And feel free to comment.
*poaches readers*
In the age of feminism and stuff, let's not discriminate - women are just as bad as men when it comes to leaving the toilet in a bad way.
There used to be someone in our office who never left the toilet clean. We never found out who it was, but we had a good idea. That was until it happened on a day she wasn't in!!
I can't understand it, nor can I understand when people leave without washing their hands. Especially when it is in dirty public toilets.
An building at my work had a toilet door poster reading "Make sure you wave your friend off to the coast".
It's a tough jobbie..but someone has got to do it!
sorry, slinking away now...
AnonoNick
Post a Comment
<< Home