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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

This has been done to death but even so - workmen and toilets

375 replies

RebeccaWithTheGoodHair · 12/09/2016 11:58

So two workmen arrive at 8.30am by 10.30am BOTH had been for a shit. And they'll have working here by 12pm. That's less than four hours when they could either have gone before they set off in the morning or waited until they left.

One is stinking the whole ground floor out and I just know there is going to be something left for me to clear up when the stench has died down a bit.

Why, why, why would you go to someone else's house for a crap.

And I don't believe workmen suffer unduly from loose stools compared to the rest of the population but every single bloody one that comes here feels the need to offload as soon as they walk through the door.

OP posts:
dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 09:30

No one wants a workman, or indeed anyone, stinking out their house. It's not pleasant, of course it isn't, but it is a natural function that we all have. I think the over reaction is from those that have issues with it. Perhaps it's time to tackle those issues head on, rather than complaining about people doing what comes naturally to all of us.

dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 09:33

What if the Queen needed to shit in your toilet? Grin

I've always wondered how she manages, especially as she's got older. Unless of course she has those iron sphincter muscles that some of you seem to have.

Original poster
RebeccaWithTheGoodHair · 14/09/2016 09:41

dowhatnow don't they allocate a special loo for her when she's on visits or is that a myth? She may have been crapping her way around the country for years and no-one likes to mention it Grin

OP posts:
dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 10:23

Imagine a fart escaping and all the stiffled laughing. Grin

MerchantofVenice · 14/09/2016 10:35

dowhatnow I actually think the over-reaction might be on both sides... It's over-the-top to prevent someone using your loo (not that anyone has actively done that?) also over-the-top to expect people to uncomplainingly clear up after a stranger because it 'only takes 20 seconds'.

I don't think it's unreasonable for the OP to react to her situation by coming on here and basically going 'Grrr bloody workmen, why can't they shit at home? !!' It's not as if she actually said anything to make the bloke even aware of her feelings. It does seem sometimes as if the worst crime you can commit on AIBU is to actually be upset by something, regardless of how you then deal with it...

Original poster
RebeccaWithTheGoodHair · 14/09/2016 10:43

Merchant - lol that's it exactly. The AIBU was really to wonder why someone wouldn't prefer to go at home. Then there was the smell and finally the evidence, so the AIBU sort of escalated!

OP posts:
dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 11:00

And nobody has said she's unreasonable about the mess. It's the smell and using the toilet in the first place, where the difference of opinion lies.

dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 11:03

And I have seen portaloos in gardens when people are having extensions done, but have perfectly fine loos they could avail to the workmen, but don't. So it does happen. I know they have had ishoos though.

Blueskyrain · 14/09/2016 11:06

People that aren't precious about which toilet they poop in, really wouldn't care whether its your toilet or the home toilet - both fulfil the purpose equally well. If you don't care which toilet you poop in, then you aren't likely to go out of your way to make sure you always poop in the same one.

I need to poop in the mornings, but because my place of work varies, where I am when nature calls is variable. So at half past 8 on the dot, I find a toilet. Its nice if that is home, but usually its at a train station, or on a train, or when I'm at work. In comparison to those, your porcelain throne would be wonderful, but regardless, if you need to go, you go.

Only pooping at home is fine, its a choice some people make, but we are all different people, and that means that some people aren't grossed out by a bodily function. They aren't the ones with a problem here.

Obviously they should leave it clean, but thats not really what you were complaining about at the beggining, given you didn't know what state it was left in.

MerchantofVenice · 14/09/2016 12:17

But bluesky why isn't it reasonable to have preferences (even if others find them a bit precious) and to have a moan about them on here? We get that we have to deal with our weird foibles and not upset workmen with them. .. but is the fact of actually being freaked out not acceptable? I think it is. We can't help how we feel any more than you can help when you poo - we each have our peculiarities. What some posters seem to be saying is 'no, OP, you aren't allowed to feel like that or talk about it on a forum so stop being silly.' Quite unfair!

Blueskyrain · 14/09/2016 12:32

If people are freaked out by poop, then maybe they need to get help for that. Its a natural bodily function.

Interestingly, if someone said they were freaked out by seeing someone breastfeed, you'd be up in arms with it, because being freaked out is THEIR problem.

Being freaked out by poop is a problem for the person freaking out, other people shouldn't have to stop doing perfectly reasonable behaviour to accomodate that.

Original poster
RebeccaWithTheGoodHair · 14/09/2016 12:34

Eh? I'm not freaked out by poo! I'm not even freaked out by the state of the khazi - I'm disgusted and wondered if I was unreasonable to wish they'd done it at home rather than at my place.

OP posts:
amicissimma · 14/09/2016 13:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

selly24 · 14/09/2016 13:42

Practical suggestions. When you have tradespeople in fit an over the bowl toilet cleaner thing that freshens the water each flush. Take out your naiice hand soap and put in a utilitarian industrial strength antibacterial wash. Stick a now was your hands and a no smoking sign Bob the mirror/ wall. Remove all towels from the allocated bathroom and instead provide a stack of cheapo napkins /paper hand towels for hand drying.and an open top bin to throw them in....?

Wombat79 · 14/09/2016 14:17

I don't care if workman use the toilet as long as they clean up properly. I seem to attract workman that can't actually get their pee in the toilet. They leave spray all over the floor and up the walls😱
Our builder (cowboy and a whole other story) even painted over the mess on the walls. Fine but now the paint is all blotchy where he did it. I can't even ask him to re-paint as he walked out on the job. Sigh

MerchantofVenice · 14/09/2016 16:52

bluesky Uh-oh... you do realise you just compared breastfeeding to taking a shit? Very uncool.

Thing is, it is definitely weird to be repulsed by breastfeeding because it's a normal, natural process of eating. Our weirdness about it is culturally inflicted.

That is profoundly not true for shit. We are biologically programmed to be repulsed by it. Some people are more affected than others. But it's normal to find shit repellent.

I was simply arguing for the OP's right to vent about the sheer frequency with which she finds that this natural but unpleasant process is brought to her attention. She didn't have a go at the bloke for a natural bodily function, but she did find it annoying and shared it with an, ahem, sympathetic audience.

BTW perhaps 'freaked out' was too strong - but a level of horror at poo is normal. It's a sliding scale - some people cope better with mucky/smelly jobs like cleaning up someone else's skids. Weird that some posters think we should all be identical in our reaction...

Blueskyrain · 14/09/2016 18:16

You are still saying it's OK for someone to be freaked out by some bodily functions and not others. That's not cool.

MerchantofVenice · 14/09/2016 18:41

Noooo. I conceded that 'freaked out' might be taking it too far.

But yes, I am proposing that it's a biological fact that humans are repelled (to varying degrees, obviously) by the smell and/or sight of faeces and that, biologically, we are NOT peogrammed to be repelled by breastfeeding. Those two facts are essential to the survival of the species I guess. Are you disputing this?

dowhatnow · 14/09/2016 18:49

i like the breastfeeding analogy. They are both natural functions. Ok one not so nice smelling, but still not worthy of being so freaked out horrified by.

Rattusn · 14/09/2016 18:49

A very strange post op.

Not everyone can shit on demand, like yourself. I do feel sorry for the poor tradesmen, who spend all days in people's houses, and therefore have no choice but to use their toilets.

JustDanceAddict · 14/09/2016 18:49

When we moved into our newly built house I found a turd in one of the loos upstairs. It seemed it had been there at least a day (ie, wasn't a removal man).
Nothing wrong with a workman using your loo as long as they ask & clear up afterwards. It's a natural bodily function. I poo at work - so do they.

Luluandizzy · 14/09/2016 18:51

Workmen are human beings, not machines who can poo on demand...if you need to go then you need to go. What on earth are loo's for? And if they've flushed the chain and not poo'd on the floor then why would you need to clean it up?...think you need to get a grip.

Mynestisfullofempty · 14/09/2016 18:58

Luluandizzy I assume you didn't see the photo the OP posted. It did need cleaning up.

GinAndOnIt · 14/09/2016 19:12

Where's the photo?!

Mynestisfullofempty · 14/09/2016 19:19

The photo was posted @ Mon 12-Sep-16 15:57:27