I'm sorry for the foul nature of this post, but why are so many people so filthy and otherwise discourteous in public bathrooms?

Do they urinate on the seat at home?

Do they leave without flushing at home?

Do they throw toilet paper and towels on the floor at home?

Do they leave the water running at home?

And why do they think it's okay to have a conversation while people are on the can? Or, much worse, have a cell phone conversation while they are?

All of this disturbs me. Should I really have to put a note in the bathroom to flush the toilet before you leave?

Wow, I was just complaining about this to a fellow male member of the staff here. We share a bathroom with the rest of the floor, and it used to be absolutely disgusting. Forget the seat, every day I had to decide which of the three urinals had the least piss on the floor. That's just sick. Are these people trying to aim from four feet away or something??

Oddly, though, there was an incident that caused the building company to lock the bathrooms and require the businesses on the floor to have keys to get into them. Now the problem has been cut to less than 25% of what it was. I'm not sure why, though. Are people holding it until they get home? I actually suspect it's because delivery men, usually in a big rush, no longer use the bathrooms and wait until they get to a building where they can.

There's also a story relating to one of your pet peeves. For a while, we'd go into the bathroom and right at the door there would be a pile of used, crumpled up paper towels. This was odd and an bit annoying. Finally the same male staff member mentioned earlier saw a guy leave the bathroom and throw a towel on the floor. My co-worker stopped him and asked why he was doing that. The guy said it was because most people don't wash their hands when the leave the bathroom (true, though) and he didn't want to touch the handle to the door. The point was made that his practice was almost as rude, and the simple solution was the take the damn towel with him back to his office and throw it away there! Duh.

As you can see, Bitt, I'm also a man with pet peeves Hell, I started a huge thread about the idiosyncrasies of people in relation to butter storage

Funny thing is, Bitt... There have been multiple times in the recent past when I wanted to pose some of those very same questions... to my coworkers.

Something I read the other day said something like less than half of the peole using a public restroom wash their hands afterwards. I've noticed nearly everyone at work here does, at least when someone else is in the restroom at the same time. But do they wash their hands when they are the only one in the restroom???
And I agree with every issue Bitt raised, WTF is wrong with people?

This is apparently a good solution to lazy urinal users - give them som interest!

http://www.urinal.net/schiphol/

Gareth

that is brilliant.

And why do they think it's okay to have a conversation while people are on the can? Or, much worse, have a cell phone conversation while they are?

I don't think these two issues are really as severe as the others -- in fact, I'm not sure they're problems at all. I've worked at companies where overheard conversations in the khazi were the only way non-smokers found out anything about what the company was doing...

Peter

Do they urinate on the seat at home?

Do they leave without flushing at home?

Do they throw toilet paper and towels on the floor at home?

Do they leave the water running at home?

You think thats gross, I noticed while at the urinal the other day at my workplace that some freak had decided to wipe his nasal excrements on the wall. Not one, not two, but about 5 huge nose goblins, the most disturbing of which had a gigantic hair in the mix.

Damn, there goes lunch.

On a side note, that reminds me of one of my biggest pet peeves of all: gum under tables and desks. Anywhere, really. Under the arm rests in theaters, too. Why the hell can't those people throw their damn gum out? Thank goodness I'm out of school, so it's less frequent these days, but it's still an incredibly disgusting thing to do.

so it's less frequent these days

Unless you work with the nose goblin guy which I forgot to mention also spits his chewing gum in the urinal every day, so after about a week starts piling up and eventually clogs the urinal. Apparently the cleaning people are too disgusted to touch it (which I don't blame them). Some day I'll catch the freak in the act and expose him!

I can't stand to see people hold the side of a urinal as they're doing their thing. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING!

I think other then what I've already posted, the other thing that disturbs me at work is the amount of people I see leave the bathroom without washing their hands.

to my coworkers

That's what I'm talking about.

Or even better, Urinal computer games, which we talked about before.

I don't think these two issues are really as severe as the others

No, I suppose not. I recognize those as pet peeves, but I think most people would like as much privacy as possible, illusory or not, with one of the more personal acts of the day.

BTW, that's the first time I've ever heard ``khazi''.

Great post! I work in a two story building and often I walk into our bathroom and it just REEKS of . . . well . . . it smells bad. Anyway, I never stick around. If I'm remotly uncomfortable I'll just walk back out the door and go to the one downstairs (which never seems to smell bad).

I refuse to even go near the bathroom at work - it stinks. Badly. I'd rather go in my pants.

And why do all froms of "personal space etiquette" go out the window in a public restroom?

It's VERY simple: If there are three available urinals and I'm using the left-most one.... DON'T USE THE ONE NEXT TO ME!!!! Start at the right!

The same goes for the toilets. Leave neutral ground when doing your business.

Wasn't there some kind of test on the web to see if you picked the correct urinal at a bathroom?

It's VERY simple: If there are three available urinals and I'm using the left-most one.... DON'T USE THE ONE NEXT TO ME!!!! Start at the right!

The rule my friends and I always called the "1 5 3" rule. If there are 5 urinals, the proper order to fill them is 1, then 5, then 3. Then you start filling in 2 and 4 if absolutely necessary.

It gets a little complicated when there are 3 toilet stalls and the one on the far side is one of those handicapped jobs. They're uncomfortable for a lot of people to sit in because you're on a giant throne, plus it's always good to save that one in case an actual wheelchair person comes in. (This has never come into play in my experience, however.) So with this setup (like we have at work) a lot of people who would normally take crapper #3 when crapper #1 is in use decide to take crapper #2 instead. So #1 becomes the most sought-after location.

Wasn't there some kind of test on the web to see if you picked the correct urinal at a bathroom?

I was hoping for a "pick the pisser" Flash game, but this is all I found:

http://www.millan.net/funp/100/utest.html

If there are three available urinals and I'm using the left-most one.... DON'T USE THE ONE NEXT TO ME!!!! Start at the right!

We only have two urinals here at my office, I always go to the one on the right... As for the other business end, the handicapped stall for me, taller throne... Except when it's too stanky, then I go to the third floor. It's like heaven up there, flowery smelling, and I've never seen anyone up there... Well except for that hostage situation last month...

So, does anyone read while in the other office? What do you do with the book/magazine/newspaper afterwards?

This is an interesting subject.

One word: eBooks.

...and the one on the far side is one of those handicapped jobs.

At this point a judgement call is in order.... Are there any "insert PC term here-challenged" people working here?

No - It's fair game (and the one thats always occupied.)

Yes - see if there are any devices that can simulate a wheelchair (at least from an under-the-stall view.)

At my company we don't have any handy-capable people so the stall is usually occupied or where the reading material is left.

That's perfect!!!

Now alls I have to do is find a way to send this to the offenders without necessitating any involvement from HR.

There are a couple of weird urinal-use behaviors that I've noticed and wondered about over the years.
They seem, at least to me, to be fairly widespread and totally inexplicable.
Details to follow.

note: if any of you dear readers happen to have any of these odd habits I apologize in advance for making fun.
On the same note though maybe you could help explain.

One of them is the spitting thing.
Why when your at the urinal micturating away would you feel the need to spit into your own urine?
It could perhaps just be a need to spit, and I guess I find a urinal a more appropriate place, then say the sidewalk in front of where I'm walking (a whole other rant).
But this kind of spitting doesnt seem to be an out of necessity kind of spit. Like a removal of beard hair spit or bad flavor spit. Its an intentional long drawn out gross spit. And sometimes theres more than one.
Most of the time it seems pretty unnecessary.

The second thing is the multiple flushing thing.
I usually give the urinal a flush when I'm done (or when I get there depending on the state of the urinal), but dont really see the need to flush it 3, 4, or even 5 times while I'm peeing.
Maybe it stems from a concern that the urinal will fill up and spill over onto your shoes?
Maybe its just boredom, something to do while your waiting for you bladder to empty?
Or maybe its just to make room for all the spit....

...then I go to the third floor.

The third floor at my place is "Mahogany Row". And yes the restrooms up there also smell of pretty flowers (the logical assumption is that corporate officers are too "tight" to crap at work. )

The trade off is that if I'm seen up there I will be forced to fix every computer annoyance that any of the executives has ever endured.

I just had a men's room conundrum a few minutes ago with this thread fresh in my mind. I went in to drop a deuce, and saw that all 3 toilets were available, which is a rare occurrence. As I opened the door to crapper #1, I saw that there was a streak of doo-doo on the toilet seat. This is in the bathroom of a frickin' IT department within a Fortune 500 company! How does someone who can't control their own feces get hired here? Unbelievable! We have those tissue paper toilet seat thingies but I just can't get used to using those. I was so repulsed that I decided to hit the urinal instead and drop the kids off at the pool later.

Maybe my company needs a 3 day training class on how to take a shit properly.

My girlfriend was amazed when I attempted to explain the personal unspoken urinal rule. I find that on the most part it's a commonly understood rule. Still, I sometimes see those morons who, with an empty bathroom, will go straight to the middle of three urinals. Idiot!

And why can't more places install those simple dividers between the urinals?

Maybe it stems from a concern that the urinal will fill up and spill over onto your shoes?

Dunno about that, but I can tell you that Mrs. Walker at Hudson Elementary School did not like it when John Contreras and I did the overflowing urinal thing for fun... My ass hurt from the swats we got later... And that damn dude, that was the second time I got a swat hanging out with him, he was a bad influence. Of course playing hooky in first grade was kinda dumb...