Poll: Which sex's restroom is grosser? *GROSS!*

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I'm curious as to how many people have cleaned the restrooms of the other gender. I'd have thought that mostly it would have been a same-sex event, if I'm making sense.

Rapscallion

I cleaned the women's restroom during the summer I worked maintenance.

Actually, both of them. By the break room we have another restroom for employees, that is a womens restroom. It was always kept neat. Why we don't have an accompanying men's restroom is beyond me.

[SuperDan]

Yes, Raps, most companies have one person in charge of cleaning both restrooms. Unless that person is intersexed, they will inevitably find themselves cleaning the restroom of the opposite sex. There are other people of both genders around the building, but it isn't part of their assigned job duties.

In the case of my store, the cleaning of the restrooms falls into the job of the Utility Clerk. In the last seven and a half years, there have been exactly three female utility clerks, and the two that are still employed with us have transferred to other departments. We do have a cleaning position that is usually occupied by females (currently a greeter that just wasn't friendly enough so the store manager offered her the cleaning position instead), and when the cleaner is around she usually will take care of the ladies room for us, but that is only for five to (rarely) 8 hours in a day, four or five days a week. Considering we are supposed to clean our bathrooms seven times per day (spread out over a fourteen hour period) seven days per week, it is inevitable that us guys will find our way into the ladies room at least once per shift if not more.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Here's the trick to washing your hands and actually getting them clean: (and no, I am not Mr. Monk.)

Wash your hands for 30 seconds with soap and warm water.
Leave water on, dry hands.
Turn water off with your paper towel.
Open door to leave with elbow.

Actually, at my work, the water comes on with a lever...I just turn it off with elbow, too.

Hmmm...I guess my elbows are pretty nasty.

Easily, the men are nastier, in my experience. I mean, on campus here in town, there are no glory holes drilled into the walls of the ladies loo, for instance.

The unisex bathroom at Kinko's was the main reason I refused to apply for any of the assistant manager's positions. No way in hell I'm cleaning shit off the wall. They didn't pay me enough, and they WOULDN'T pay me enough. Because there ISN'T enough. Piss on the floor, shit on the wall, puke in the sink, hash in the potted plant, and foot fetish porn shoved behind the mirror.

I swear to you I'm not making this up. Maybe not all at the same time, but I assure you this is no exaggeration. We used to let customers use it, that's why.

The ladies room where I now work is very, very clean. The men, however, were every day complaining about "The Bathroom Bandit" blowing up their bathroom. "Why can't that f**ker use some air freshener? God, what is he EATING?" and so forth. Every day.

[GTBALove]

A different View

People, have some pride, take ownership, get involved! As I (reluctantly) read though this topic my disgust grew, not for the perpetuators of the “bathroom indignities” but rather for those who worked in these environs and endured it. Say something to those you work with – shame them into picking / wiping / cleaning up after themselves. Complain to your senior management. Complain to the cleaning service (if you have one). Write to your local (or national) office for health standards (I assure you they WILL be interested). Form a committee to address and correct the issue - shame on you if you allow this to continue without involvement.

That said, I must say that in my frequent visits to call centers in the U.S., England and India, I have never, N E V E R seem conditions as are described here. These visits number well into the hundreds and cover call centers as small as a 15 seat help desk as large as a 650 customer service / collections / claims center. Indeed, this should be even more incentive for you (as if you should need it) to become involved and take ownership of your workplace – it is not the norm!

Rick

[B&NGoddess]

i know i mentioned this one on the old board, but my "favorite" bathroom related story is the fingerpainter.

i'll let that sink in for a moment.

women's room. consistently. once or twice a month for 3 months.

a variation on a theme would be "take a sock, fill it with shit, cut a hole in the bottom, and spin it over your head." floor to ceiling shit.

[FlunkyMonkey]

In my experience, they take turns.

I worked front end in a discount grocery store. I was the 'go to' person for cleaning up the restrooms (both customer and employee), as I was the only one who did a decent job. Cleaning sh*t and unclogging toilets didn't bother me (this store had the worst plumbing ever, and the toilets became clogged on a daily basis). I did, however, wear those elbow-length yellow rubber kitchen gloves whilst cleaning.

One day, the mens' room would be a total pigsty, while the womens' would only have a few stray paper towels lying next to the trash can; the next day would find the womens' room completely trashed while the mens' was pristine. Some days both were just gross beyond comprehension.

[AFpheonix]

GTBSLove, it's not our coworkers stinking up the loos, it's the damn customers doing it.
Anytime you have the general public involved with anything, they will smear poop on it.

I don't have to clean restrooms anymore. At the store I was trained in on the floor initially (which I have decided is the absolute Mayberry of stores in my chain), the women's restroom wasn't too bad, usually some paper on the floor, although I did find scissors in the toilet once. Apparently Mayberry has shoplifters, too. The men's restroom however, even though it was a very new store, had already had a stained floor near the urinal from people missing, and the pee smell was overpowering to me. Gah.

At my current store, someone clogged one toilet so bad it was running over. There were little brown trouts swimming for freedom. We had to lock down the entire restroom until we could get a plumber out. Yes, they blocked it that bad. Time to examine your diet, lady.
There's the occasional drips on the seat, sometimes there's drips on BOTH the toilets, and people may or may not have flushed, so in that case I will do a little cleaning, because dammit, I gotta pee and I'm not sitting on that. I wash my hands once in the restroom and then again once I'm back in the pharmacy, too.

[wagegoth]

One morning at the Bell, I went to check the public unisex restroom, and found a hypodermic with rubber band on the toilet tank.

No, I did not touch it. That's a privilege I left for the manager.

[B&NGoddess]

also a reply to GTBAlove:

for the most part i would think circumstances as discribed here happen relatively rarely. but some places are worse than others and therefore accumulate more shit/shit stories. our cleaning crew comes once a day before we open. if anything happens in the 14 hours between their departure and when we close, it's up to us to clean it up. as soon as we hear about it, we're on the job. half the time, other customers won't tell us anything. something will happen and it will take an employee hours later to find it.

sad but true.

[HYHYBT]

Motion-activated sinks are ideal.

You mean those wondrous devices which wait until you take your hands away to turn on, then shut off again when you try to put them under the spray?

Half kidding. The ones that *work* are great. But the ones where I usually go (so to speak) are awful.

Oh, for the record, I'm male, ladies' room is much worse, for the same reasons everyone else has given.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"i know i mentioned this one on the old board, but my "favorite" bathroom related story is the fingerpainter.

i'll let that sink in for a moment."

Hot coffee hurts when it comes out of your nose.

[Blinky]

a variation on a theme would be "take a sock, fill it with shit, cut a hole in the bottom, and spin it over your head." floor to ceiling shit.

Ok, so I am trying to figure out the logistics of this one. Why would you need to cut a hole in the sock? Why can't you fill and fling from the same end?


I'm also surprised there are no "poop tank" stories in here. That would be where you drop a duce in the toilet tank. Every flush after that isn't very pleasant

[LadyMage]

I say ladies' rooms. More specifically, college ladies' rooms.

Sometimes the smell is so spectacular from the stall next to mine that I often either walk directly across the building for a different bathroom or make a good-faith effort to control my gag reflex.

Never will i forget the time that a girl redecorated the bathroom, didn't flush and walked out with a holier-than-thou look on her face.

E. Gad.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

"Ok, so I am trying to figure out the logistics of this one. Why would you need to cut a hole in the sock? Why can't you fill and fling from the same end?"

I don't know about you, but I don't think I want to be holding the open end of a sock full of shit that is being flailed around.

[Greenday]

Based off of what I've heard during floor meetings in my dorm, the girl's bathroom is without a doubt more disgusting. The most disgusting thing I've seen in the guy's bathroom was some ramen in the sink. Other than that, very rarely do I find piss on the toilets. The showers in the guys bathroom are pretty clean too. Maybe some occasional facial hair in the sink. But in the girl's bathroom, I hear girls always complaining about people pissing on the seats, etc, hair EVERYWHERE in the bathroom being sinks, toilets, showers. I'll have to ask the cleaning lady who is usually on my floor what she thinks and I'll post that up.