New office space - unisex toilets

[Redruns]

I am charged with finding new space for the small organisation I work for. We need to stay in the trendy part of London we currently work in/for (our building is being demolished) and cost will be a big factor in the search. I've seen some truly awful places and only really one that meets requirements.

It's a social conscience type organisation, lovely building which seems well run, all the facilities we need and more....but all the toilets are unisex. Proper individual cubicles with floor to ceiling partitions and sinks in the cubicles, but seeing men and women going into the same "room" (ie there's still a toilet block off the corridor from which you access all the cubicles iyswim) made me feel uncomfortable.

Something you'd get used to?

I worked as a cleaner in some very fancy offices years ago.

We used to argue over who would get the Men's Toilets, as they were a doddle to clean, compared to the absolute filth and biohazards strewn and smeared everywhere in the Women's.

Yes I can when they're completely self contained rooms as the OP has described.

I can believe that. Our ladies loos are often closed because they are blocked or a mess.

Men never bother putting the toilet seat down in unisex toilets.

Women have to touch male urine when they go to the loo. Gross.

Plus risk of a man walking in on you if you forget to lock the door. This happened to me once when I was changing my sanpro.

Unisex loos = lose-lose for women.

Who forgets to lock the door?

I have not properly locked toilet doors many times over course of my life! Especially when rushing, traveling or in between meetings etc. Some toilet locks are weird mechanisms or a bit clunky or stiff. It happens.

I've used loads of unisex toilets in all sorts of buildings, from Churches, to Community Centres, to Universities, to the Theatre, to a work place I go once a week, to a shopping centre. I've never found them in any worse condition than Ladies toilets.

I'd prefer the more private top-to-floor cubicles, to a traditional women's-only toilet where you can hear / smell everything. Just as a personal preference.

I would have hoped the cleanliness would be okay in this setting too? As office loos get cleaned regularly ime, and men presumably make less of a mess at work, than at a pub or whatever. I think this aspect would be fine.

So how do you manage in people's homes ?

Sounds a bit like victim blaming. So if the door doesn't lock properly it's the woman's fault if she gets a man barging in? What if the lock is faulty like one of the cubicles in our single sex block at work?

What kind of people, and there's a few on this thread, actually defend making women feel uncomfortable and statistically less safe?
Why?
It's all so strange.

I had zero issues with unisex toilets until someone pointed out to me that it's also where you go if you spill something on your blouse and need to clean/ dry it which involves being beside a sink and a dryer. If all of those things are contained within each cubicle then I have no issue with it. But if you need to use those things out in view of everyone else in the toilet then I think it's better to have two seperate bathrooms plus an accessible neutral bathroom.

In my last few work places the bathrooms have been unisex but the sinks have been in with the toilets so it's been a non issue. They were always clean and never smelt. And often the guys were cleaner than the women (I used to clean them) .

Probably got men in them then.

wouldn't bother me at all. I share all other spaces with men, don’t see toileting as any different.

Then tell the maintenance people to sort it.

The latest government guidance says buildings should have single sex toilets plus the type of unisex cubicle you describ opening off a common area like a corridor. These aren't retrospective but you can consider this gold standard.

So think about why this is.

A few people the set-up you describe differently wont work for:
Women whose religion forbids them being in an enclosed space with men they are not related to - since your loos are contained in a room
Women who are triggered by the smell of men - predominantly rape and male violence victims
People who do not like to have to clean pee off the seat before they sit down - disproportionately affecting women
Anyone who has been the victim of or is concerned about spy cameras.

I like the individual cubicles, but only if they are also single sex. I do not want to be cleaning up or wading through pee, worrying about my privacy or even just trying to pee listening to male voices outside the door.

There has also been an issue in a neighbouring office where a woman was deemed to be the victim of sexual harassment because a male colleague would make sure he went into the toilet after her every single time. It took a huge amount of evidence and observation from her colleagues to get anything done about it.

In short, nothing unlawful about those toilets but they're really not suitable for a workplace.

The womens loos at work often have piss on the seats. You only have to read MN to see how many women hover and spray piss all over the seats,

Where I work, women are outnumbered about 8:1, so there are more male toilets…..and they stink to high Heaven even though we have a cleaner daily. It almost burns your eyes as you walk past. They are outside toilets where the door is always propped open, so plenty of ventilation - imagine what they would be like if they were indoors? I wouldn’t want to share toilets with men. Well, not the ones I work with anyway.

@StarSlinger I see you've chosen to ignore the examples of men hiding cameras in toilets. Why is that?

Because I doubt Colin from accounts does it on a regular basis.

That's not my experience where I work. The staff women's toilets are cleaned twice a day. No piss on the Sears and they always smell fresh.

Not sure where you've been hanging around.

Because I doubt Colin from accounts does it on a regular basis

Just because it's not every man doing it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

Why are some people pretending mens loos are cleaner than women's?

That's just laughably untrue.

So you'd feel ok about it if it happened to you? Or to your daughter? Because it doesn't happen on a regular basis so no harm done?

Are the mens loos not cleaned twice a day then?