Unisex toilets in new office - dread going into work

Hey we haven't had a toilet post for a while!

You report every comment. If you don't know them you follow them back to their office and report them, I'm pretty sure the comments will soon stop.

I refuse to believe any company would point blank refuse to deal with this issue

Despite agreeing those comments are inappropriate. It really has nothing to do with shared toilets.
If someone makes a comment as in OP it doesn't matter if it is in the office, a tea room or a toilet. It needs reported.

Sorry, but I wouldn't use them and I would make sure HR was fully aware of the comments made to you. Bang out of order. Are top management using same facilities? Is there potential to reinstate male and female toilets?

Our office had unisex loos until an anonymous employee satisfaction survey revealed that some female employees were not using the toilet at all during their working day as for religious reasons they couldn't use the same ones as the men, and there were no others. The loos were then quietly segregated, with one left as unisex for anyone who can't make their mind up. Maybe something to think about?

Always the poster who brushes off the sexual abuse of women as being the fault of the woman being abused.

Guess why the UK public toilets were designed to have single sex spaces and doors which were nowhere near each other??

But yea modern building with a basic and obvious designed fail for cheep fitout while failing comply with the law so a landlord / business owner can save a few pounds what could go wrong.

Fine with unisex toilets - I’ve worked in and gone out to places with them for at least the last 20 years and it’s never bothered me. However, in all those years, I’ve never come across behaviour like that, even in the seediest of nightclub unisex bathrooms. It is entirely unacceptable and I don’t care that they’re young. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t know how to behave decently around other people.

Make an absolute stink about it (pardon the pun). Get names, take photographic or video evidence. Build a dossier and tell the other company that if they don’t discipline their staff, you’ll consider a civil suit. And tell your own bosses that their inaction is causing you to operate in a hostile working environment and you’ll be escalating your concerns.

Honestly, I would be losing ten types of shit over this.

A quick google brings up this:
Key points about unisex sinks and toilets in UK workplaces:
• General Rule:
Separate toilet facilities (cubicles with WCs) for men and women are the norm. 





• Unisex Sinks:
Handwashing sinks can be unisex if they are in a lockable, single-user space, like an individual, fully enclosed toilet cubicle. 





• Unisex Toilets:
If the unisex toilet is a fully enclosed room with its own washbasin, it's permitted. 





• Signage:
Clear and appropriate signage is crucial to indicate whether a facility is single-sex or unisex. 





• Privacy:
Unisex facilities should offer adequate privacy for users. 





• Larger Workplaces:
In larger workplaces, providing separate male and female facilities is still the best practice.

Can you club together with other women and document every time you felt unsafe or an inappropriate comment was made, and by whom.

Basically bombard the office manager with evidence all females need a single sex toilets area.

Things like 'Id give it five minutes' though crass, is something either sex might say to cover embarrassment about smells. But the other comments you've mentioned sound awful.

There should be adequate ventilation and air fresher in each cubicle though.

I hope you get them to change it to single sex.

I would definitely raise this with the company simply refuse to go into the office until this is resolved. As they are breaking the law they will be fined at the very least. I'm surprised the building has been rented on that basis. If you are seeking legal advice, check your home insurance cover if you have legal cover as it may cover you for employment issues.

• separate facilities for men and women, except where each toilet is in a separate room lockable from the inside

People keep quoting the HSE guidance above but it doesn’t actually say that the sink facilities need to be inside each room.

OP - you have said cubicles but do you mean fully enclosed floor to ceiling rooms with shared sinks outside, or cubicles as in standard toilets?

Schools have fully enclosed ‘rooms’ but shared sinks so I wonder if this is possible in a workplace. It written in an ambiguous way IMO.

Report to HR every time there is a sexist, misogynist or sexual comment made. You are legally entitled to be safe from sexual harassment, sexism and discrimination at work and so if you’re regularly experiencing these things your HR department need to be dealing with it. If they can’t change the toilet set-up they need to contact the other organisation who need to discipline and manage their workforce.

As an employment lawyer I am in actual pain reading this. What was your employer thinking!

The issue isn’t the toilets, it’s the immature misogynistic attitude of the staff. Your hr manager or owner needs to be lodging an official complaint to their manager copying in the building owner. It’s not acceptable.

'I can look after myself, as should every fully functioning adult. I don’t waste time and energy whingeing on social media that childish men are being mean to me in the office loos. And I don’t need to resort to ad hominem insults to make my point.'

Aw clever girl! Why are you referring to sexual harassment as 'being mean'?

'Oh, for goodness’ sake! I assume you are a grown woman? Just deal with it. Tell the oikish twerps to show a bit of respect and get on with your life. The human race somehow managed to survive when whole streets shared outdoor loos. I’m sure sharing cubicle toilets in a modern building won’t kill anyone.'

No, you just used an emphatic dismissal and hyperbole to attempt to shame OP for seeking support with an unreasonable and law breaking employer. And are still doing it.

You don’t ’waste time and energy whingeing on social media’ yet here you are, spending time on this thread castigating OP for her problem.

Why do you assume that? Because office workers are so well-behaved? The men she shares a building with have already proven they are not well-behaved. They have also shown that they see the shared toilets as the perfect excuse for a bit of sexual harassment, and "who cares if you suffer regular sexual harassment while using the loo, as long as you don't get raped" should not be the bar.

Absolutely. So much wrong OP you must raise it formally.

It's such a backwards step for women to have to start jumping through hoops for a space where they won't have to encounter this when it was all already done. 'Get over it's doesn't cut it.

I’m glad you feel so safe that you can afford this attitude.

Many women should feel safe in all sorts of places of work, like hospitals for example. Are you aware of how many rapes and sexual assaults that take place by male staff in hospitals? Their jobs would presumably be at risk if caught (and convicted - which, as only 1% of reported rapes even get charged, let alone convicted, is low), so that’s clearly not reliable deterrent. Even if they don’t commit rape or sexual assault, they are deliberately making OP feel very uncomfortable in her place of work.

Why do you think she should have to put up with that? Are we in the 1970s? This isn’t ’hypersensitivity’ or a lack of common sense - this is OP expecting basic legal provision of toilet facilities in the workplace.

If you want to share with men, you're welcome to. However women deserve our own space where we get privacy and dignity. You can't give that away for anyone else. Also some blokes are mortified by sharing too. You're being insensitive.

I think these loos are illegal and you should have single sex ones

I can look after myself, as should every fully functioning adult. I don’t waste time and energy whingeing on social media that childish men are being mean to me in the office loos. And I don’t need to resort to ad hominem insults to make my point.

No. Report it in writing every tine it happens.

Every time this happens go across to the company and report the behaviour.

She's being sexually harassed at work. Why should she just ignore it?!