DM: Women avoiding new gender neutral toilets in the home office because men can't close the door

What a waste of time and money.

Didn't think trans people wanted gender neutral anyway. Thought the whole point was the validation of using the opposite sex toilet

And this has to mess things up for other protected characteristics

I hope they are happy paying out for wasted hours. With urinals gone and twice as many people now waiting for cubicles and people waiting for men to leave it must be having an effect on the working hours/productivity

They should be disciplined and if need be escalated to being dismissed or if done with intent to expose Police action taken

Well, they clearly have been reported to someone who then dealt with the situation by posting a paper sign on toilet doors. That whole 'report it if there's an issue with someone behaving inappropriately' mantra doesn't really amount to much in reality does it?

£8000 for 10 signs....are they gold plated?
Misses point of thread

I'm not sure the sign will be effective. If they're already not thinking about whether they might be making someone else uncomfortable with their behaviour, this won't change it. Telling them it's potentially going to lead to disciplinary action might.

It's normal for loos to be provided in roughly the right proportion for users (leaving aside the common lack of understanding of why women take longer so need more). For instance, DD's girls' school had few male loos; her uni engineering dept. has more men's than women's. So, gender neutral loos should be provided, but in proportion to the number of people who need them. If they're properly designed unisex loos then there can be more for those that don't mind them.

I know why they don't want to shut the door and it has nothing to do with intimidation.

They don't want to have to hug the sanitary bins to be able to get into cubicle and shut the door.

Welcome to gender neutral people, you'll now find out what females have put up with for years.

I can’t see how gender neutral/unisex toilets benefit men or women. Men want to walk in, have a wee, then walk out, they do not want to queue for a cubicle, they do not want to be bothered shutting and locking the door, and the majority, in my experience, don’t bother washing their hands either. The majority of women I know do not want to share space with men because of privacy, mess and smell, and safety concerns. How many people exactly are clamouring for these unisex facilities? Are the users of these facilities being consulted before they are switched to gender neutral/unisex? And how the fuck does a sign cost £8000, has it got diamond lettering or something?

Most of the comments were of the 'WTF' type; one which wasn't included: 'I am sure that women also leave the doors open. '

The only times in all my 57 years I've seen women's loos being used with the door open is when the user is a small child. So never in a workplace.

It is a stupid waste of money when there are other things that need funding.

The thing that I am not surprised about at all is here is clear proof that women stop using loos when they're uncomfortable. They don't necessarily always hide their discomfort and get on with things although I appreciate many are socialised to do that. But A significant number will just avoid tending to their basic needs. Sitting at work all day and not feeling able to use the loo is dreadful. We should all want better for women as a society.

This was a huge waste of money, £8'000 for a SIGN FFS.
Were any employees asked if they wanted gender neutral loos-bet not. Women do not want or need gender neutral loos. Why not have some men only, some women only & a few gender neutral-that way everyones catered for

They should be disciplined and if need be escalated to being dismissed or if done with intent to expose Police action taken, In my work environment we have mostly single sex toilet but in work areas unisex as space is a premium, If we can manage to close a door I'm sure the men in the Home Office can.

We have an equal number of unisex loos to male and female ones here, there were 2 female loos to every male loo but in order to support the transgender employees there are none, the female employees lost exclusive use of their loos . There are probably a third more females to males in building.

I don't use the unisex loos, preferring to use loos that don't have urine on the seat and floor and that don't stink. The male loos also have urine on the seat and floor and stink. The female loos do not.

We had gender neutral toilets at my old work and I never once saw a man leave the cubicle door open They were small cubicles with just toilets and the sinks were shared. Once I’d got over the initial surprise of seeing a male colleague at the sinks they were absolutely fine.

Funny how the mantra is for toilets to be 'inclusive' They should be offering the users privacy, dignity and safety.

This was my experience of the unisex loos we used when we were on holiday in France. They were very busy with a big queue and several men peed without closing the door. I wasn’t too happy as I had DD with me. Also there was pee all over the seat.

( and they're not exposing themselves! )

In busy single-sex male loos, it is common to use a cubicle to pee in if the urinals are all taken. Standing up, back to the door, door open.
It's if anything more private than using a urinal.

I've seen this happen at airports, concert halls, theatres, etc.
So the men may not be being deliberately intimidatory.

Exposing themselves in public...that may be a way to turn this around.

These will be the guys who like to sit with their legs spread and show their crotch. Yes, we know you're male and no, we don't want to look, however much you want us to.

Can't close the doors? Or won't?

I find it bizarre that this has been an issue in a professional work environment

This.

Yuck the thought of sharing toilets with men the mess, the smell.

If they've got the space then they should have a room with a urinal then a strip of unisex toilet cubicles. That'd save men tying up cubicles and reduce the peeing on seats. I personally think unisex cubicles are a good idea - especially in offices with mainly female or male teams.

Christian Concern chief executive Andrea Minichiello Williams... is a highly litigious person also from the Christian legal centre. The causes these organisations are for and which they pursue legal cases against are very far from women-friendly or LGB- friendly issues, typically.
However, even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day etc. I have to say that I agree with that quote too which is a lifetime first for me so there we go.

Separate rooms being unisex shouldn't be an issue, provided they are regularly cleaned. I would assume that a series of small separate unisex loos is actually much less space efficient than two large multiple cubical male and female loos. But in this case we are talking about multiple cubical unisex loos, so basically just relabeling the door of the male and female and opening them up to everyone. I've heard of this being done at other workplaces and staff deciding to use them as if they were still male/female. I would have thought that most people would prefer a single sex environment for a shared bathroom really.

Separate cubicles with sinks would be ok, as long as the doors were weighted to shut automatically. Small cubicles with just a toilet in are easy for men to quickly pee with the door propped open without even thinking about it.

The theory that gender neutral toilets makes people more comfortable only applies to the male people. Of course.