To think that toilets out of order means exactly that!

[TheToiletsAreOutOfBloodyOrder]

I have name changed for this as I have mentioned where I work before and I fear this would out me .

Basically I work in a cafe in a department store. Yesterday due to a problem with the pipes we had to close the toilets. We stuck signs up on all of the toilet doors which basically say "toilets out of order". We also blocked the doors to the toilets with chairs and there was also a sign stuck on there for good measure. Unfortunately today they were still out of order.

I was clearing tables with a colleague when we saw two women approach the toilets. We then heard them say "oh, they're out of order" and we thought that would be the end of that. However one of them said something else to the other one (I didn't hear what she said) but they then pushed past the chairs and went in! I did follow them in hoping to catch them before they used the loo but when I got in there they were both already in a cubicle and I didn't have the nerve to shout out that they were out of order .

Fast forward ahead to a bit later and another woman approached me and asked if the toilets were really out of order. I told her that sorry, they were. She then asked if she could just go anyway because she was desperate . Um, no, dear they're out of order. I did tell her where she could find another toilet but she then spent a couple of minutes trying to guilt trip me - "oh but I'm really desperate", "I walked all the way over here knowing there's a toilet but it's out of order" etc.

And again later on, another colleague noticed a group of maybe five or six people outside the toilet and they were talking amongst themselves, asking each other if they were out of order and if they could use them. Said colleague did put them out of their misery and told them that yes, they were out of order.

Seriously though, it's not that hard to understand, is it? Like I said there were signs on all the doors stating clearly that they were out of order and chairs blocking the doors. We don't just block them off for the fun of it so obviously there must be a reason they're out of order.

The problem is that some places put those signs up when a toilet just needs cleaning and it is nobody's job to do it. As someone who often needs to go urgently, I would rather wee in a dirty toilet than not at all.

In which case shouldn't you still ask first instead of just deciding to use them?

I work in a library and some of the stock have 'no loan' stickers on them. We still get loads of people saying 'does that mean we can't take it out then?'

Honestly when you are in danger of peeing all over the floor as you've just about made it to the loo door. There is no way I'd risk asking and being told no because as you've said above to others that were desperate - out of order means no.

It may not be right but I can sympathise with people.

I'm a cleaner and I lock the doors to the cubicles or doors to the toilet. It drives me insane people trying to use an out of order toilet.

Yep, people often ignore signs. If I was about to have an accident then I'd probably ignore it too though, so it depends really.

You'd be amazed at the signs people ignore. My DP is a road worker and so many times people have got out of their cars and moved the barriers on a road closure to drive through a work zone because they can't see the work going on, e.g a ginormous hole in the road that's been dug etc. once DP was doing a road closure and a guy moved the barriers, started to drive through and came very very close (a couple of feet close!) to getting himself and his car flattened by a tree that was being felled.

A couple of years ago DP had closed off a pavement because of a car crash and he had to close off the pavement so he could cut out the broken crash barrier to take it away and y'know, make it safe. A woman with a toddler in a buggy moved the barriers and walked through while DP was cutting the metal (so sparks flying everywhere!) and she had the cheek to have a go at DP and his colleague for carrying on their job while she walked through their work site that she'd had to move barriers to get into