Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Employees need written reminder to flush twice

Someone on the maintenance crew where I work has taken to affixing notices to the stalls in the men's bathroom. For several weeks now each of the two stalls has had a posted sign instructing visitors not to leave any waste or paper in the commode and to flush twice when necessary. Apparently some guys still weren't getting the hint because recently we were greeted with a new sign that reads:

Gentlemen:

Please do not leave paper or waste in the toilets. If necessary, please flush twice to clear the bowl.

Please do not leave the seat or floor wet. This is unsanitary and inconsiderate to others who use the facilities.

Thank you.

The maintenance lady, whose written English is apparently much better than her spoken English, didn't bother to take the old sign down before posting this new one. The two are just scotch taped to the wall side by side, both in large Times New Roman letters. If it had been me, I would have taped one to the inside of the stall door and one above the tank. That way regardless of the reason for one's visit, a person could still read the notice. That's just me.

I don't frequent the stalls unless someone is already at the urinal, so I can't vouch for their day-to-day cleanliness. However of the few times I have ventured into one, I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary. As a rule, I don't have lengthy restroom visits at the workplace so I might not know if the seat was wet, and because I don't have lengthy restroom visits at the workplace, I probably wouldn't care if the seat were wet. Some things you just let ride. As for a wet floor, sure it's gross but how wet can it be? A drop here and there? It's not like people are stepping knee-deep in the stuff. Step over it. Then again, if our maintenance lady is having to get on her hands and knees to unstop a backed up toilet, maybe any amount of alien bodily fluid is too much to be face to face with. Anyway, my point is that I've yet to walk into the bathroom and found that it didn't meet my expectations. Are these signs really merited? Are the men in this building really so haphazard when it comes to elimination that they need to be reminded of what you'd think is just general common sense?

I discretely removed one of the signs from the bathroom for the sole purposes of bringing it back to my cube and copying it verbatim into my blog. Holding up the sign, I then flagged down a female coworker on her way back from the bathroom to ask her if the ladies' room also contained such explicit directives. She looked at me shamedly. "Do you mean to tell me you put your hands all over that paper with everybody else's fecal germs on it?" After she wiped the look of disgust off her face she went on to inform me that indeed the women too were subject to these gentle reminders, only theirs included additional warnings not to throw feminine products into the commode. I've seen similar signs in some unisex bathrooms. Again, do women really do that? Try and flush tampons down the toilet? Even the industrial flush has its limits.

Since I now have the one sign at my desk, I have a good mind to doctor it up or rewrite it altogether before posting it back in the stall. Maybe I could incorporate a little Charmin-inspired jingle of my own. Hey there, bear, you're not done yet. You better wipe that seat. Don't leave it wet. Hmm, is that a double entendre I see? Part of me wants to come up with something off beat and put it up there like PLEASE REFRAIN FROM USING THE COPIER PAPER AS TOILET TISSUE or maybe PLEASE DO NOT LEAVE YOUR EMPLOYEE EVALUATION IN THE COMMODE. Or what about this: وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب ?

Come to think of it, maybe I should leave well enough alone. I like to think I enjoy a fairly wholesome reputation at work, and a stunt like that might jeopardize the image. Who knows how much havoc I've already caused just by taking down the one sign? Will the night watchman still know to flush twice if necessary? Besides, my coworkers have enough to worry about without having to put up with my shit.

7 Comments:

Blogger My Daily Struggles said...

I always loved a sign posted to a urinal that read: "Don't leave cigarette butts in the urinal. We don't piss in your ashtray."

In any event, you may know that urine is totally sanitary (assuming a person doesn't have a bladder infection). This is totally gross, but you can safely drink urine. In fact, survival courses teach that if you have no access to drinkable (or "potable" as they say on Jeopardy) water, you should collect your urine and drink it.

The sign in your men's room is technically inaccurate. Urine is not unsanitary. But feces . . . well, that's an entirely different matter.

Thursday, February 23, 2006 1:54:00 PM  
Blogger My Daily Struggles said...

Kevin, I forgot to mention: Drinking urine gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "Cocktails with Kevin." (also "cocktails"--no pun intended).

(Or is this just too raunchy for a family-oriented blog?)

Thursday, February 23, 2006 2:13:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You ever been to a bathroom at a tity bar? Well, it is usually 2 inches deep in piss, nasty. I go outside, Cat

Thursday, February 23, 2006 10:47:00 PM  
Blogger Blah Blah Blah said...

Your funny...you stole the sign? Took it back to your desk and thoguht about doctoring it up....what thee hell type of job do you have? Obviously, one that requires you to have WAY TOO MUCH time on your hands...lol

Like your blog.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006 12:49:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No! You can't give in to lazy internet English! Stay strong, there are still a few of us left! I remember the stories about Katherine Hepburn writing back to fans and including their letters marked up with corrections. LOVE it!

Monday, June 18, 2007 1:26:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Again, do women really do that? Try and flush tampons down the toilet? Even the industrial flush has its limits."

Yup -- and I'll tell you why. Tampons are supposed to be biodegradable. And they are smaller than most things you men dump into toilets. Plus they are just gross. To have to take it out, try not to drip, wrap it in toilet paper, tuck it away into a stained and smelly little tin next to the toilet; then to have to touch door handles and faucets before we can get to the sink to wash -- that isn't much more disgusting???

Monday, June 18, 2007 1:32:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No, urine is not sterile. It's sterile while in the bladder, but you have resident bacteria growing all up and down the urethra.

I'd recommend that you STOP drinking urine.

Monday, June 18, 2007 4:04:00 PM  

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