To get so annoyed by this at work?

[RadgeWeeMidden]

I work in quite an anonymous, male-populated IT department, and therefore the ladies toilets are usually pretty quiet and there's never anyone in that I know. I've noticed that a few women use the toilets as somewhere to go to have a personal phone conversation on their mobiles – either in a cubicle or outside the cubicles by the sinks. For some reason, this completely and utterly annoys the hell out of me.
I'll be sitting quietly on the loo, minding my own business doing my peeing or whatever else, whilst listening to someone yabbering away on their phone. The cubicles are pretty flimsy so not only can I hear every word they are saying, I know that they are listening to all the noises of my bodily functions whilst arranging their night out etc. Surely toilets have an express purpose, and this does not include making personal phone calls? Surely they are just for going in, doing your business, and going out. There are plenty of other areas for them to have personal phone calls..
A couple of days ago I was so irritated by someone doing this that I couldn't help myself and interrupted her call to ask her to please not use her mobile in the toilets. She locked quite shocked but went outside. Later I discussed this with my male colleagues (I have no females in my team) and they were also shocked at me. They said they never did it themselves but wouldn't dream of telling someone else not to. Are they right, am I BU?

I love a good evesdrop. Makes the day go faster.

I think it's fine. We have a side office that most people go into when they're taking a personal call that they don't want others to hear the details of job interviews. I hate someone being in the other cubicle when I 'go' though. Gives me stage fright!

Where I work there is a sign up in the toilets saying use of mobile phones is not allowed.
But if that's the only place you can get a bit of piece and quiet to make/take a call, I don't see the problem.

they go to toilets probably because taking a personal phonecall at their desk would be frowned on

tbh, I think this is fine

although I totally understand your irritation, I think if this helps some elses day in any way great.

I HATE this. And women that use the ladies toilets to have a 'chat and gossip' WTF? It's a fucking toilet. Go somewhere else, there must be somewhere else you can go.

I don't want them to listen to me, and I'm sure they don't want to hear me shitting either.

I think it's fine too but I work from home so it wouldn't happen here.

In a team meeting recently my male boss said he was amazed by how many men are at the urinals talking into a phone. I was shocked as I thought that men couldn't multi task?

It doesn't bother me.

I think if there was no rule that they couldn't use the phone in the toilet that it was strange and rude for you to tell her she couldn't.

Well I am sitting on the fence here because it would irritae the b'jings out of me too, but I kind of thing that's my problem not the caller's and it's better to make the call there than in the office where she could be disturbing people trying to work.

Not too sure about the ethics of taking time out to do this, but that's another issue like Mumsnetting during work time

irritate
think

That would annoy me too. People in our office tend to congregate in the Ladies for a chat, and that is bad enough.

Wouldn't bother me.

A few years ago I worked in an office with hardly any men so the ladies was like a personal toilet IYSWIM. However, someone would go in there for a quiet fag if he didn't fancy going outside in the rain. I never caught the person in the act but you knew it had happened because of the smell of smoke. And it had to be a he because there were at most 3 women and none of us smoked.

Don't see why this should bother you so much. I would think the loos would be a good place to go if you didn't want the whole office to hear your conversation.

Just fart really, really loudly the next time someone comes in on the phone.

That'll learn 'em.

I don't blame you, OP. Some women I used to work with used to go into one of the offices near me and have hushed/whispered conversations. The walls were pretty thin, so you could hear the whispering, but not what was being said. I found that really annoying and rude.

YANBU.

This really annoys me too.

I find it difficult to use public toilets when there's other people around, although I can generally deal with this so long as they're actually in there to use the facilities too.

Also, then I worry about them getting annoyed about me drowning out their conversation when I need to flush the toilet & wash & dry my hands. The driers in the work toilets are the super noisy Dyson ones, so no-one's going to be able to carry on a phone conversation with those going off next to them. Quite aside from the awkwardness that might arise around inadvertantly eavesdropping on private phone calls.

And OP has said that there are other areas in her office for people to have personal phone calls, so I think it's reasonable to assume that her work toilets aren't the only place for her colleagues to make a call without disturbing people who are actually working.

you poo in work

you could always try a stink bomb!