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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Toilet at work left in a disgusting state: aibu to send a general email?

82 replies

Cherrysoup · 27/01/2017 20:28

A poo thread!

Between 13 staff (rising to 18+ over the next couple of years), there are two unisex toilets, one either end of a long, long corridor. Every single day, one toilet is left with sloppy poo all down the inside, truly horrific! We know who it is, he goes into a clean loo, it's disgusting when he comes out. We left a very polite 'please clean up after yourself' note and bought a loo brush. No change. Premises/building manager have been called several times when it was really horrific.

AIBU to send a general email as the note has made no difference? I don't want to approach the guy, he's senior to me, really lovely (bar his shitty toilet habits) He must know we know, tho! Does he not clean up at home and check before he leaves?! He's started putting down the lid so at least the poo is hidden from first glance. (Not sure if I should be grateful about that Confused Should I start leaving some Branflakes on his desk? Or some Fruit and Fibre?!

It would be good to have two loos available, we mostly use it at break/lunch, so time is limited.

OP posts:
ImNotWhoYouThinkIAmOhNo · 27/01/2017 21:23

Customary I thought squatting was meant to provide a more efficient angle for emptying the bowels - less straining required, but am happy to be put right.

Original poster
Cherrysoup · 27/01/2017 21:23

Leave him a note on his desk anonymously saying "please do not leave your signature in the toilet. The loo brush is to the side, kindly clean up after yourself

I'm liking the anonymous note ideas. I said to the original note writer that we should leave one at his head height on the inside of the loo door along the lines of: Name! Stop! Please clean up any mess you have left in the toilet, it is unfair to leave it in this state for others to have to clean. And a googly eyes picture so he knows we're watching!

It would be easy to pop a note on his desk (will just check that there's no CCTV!) I'm appalled that a grown man does this. He is not from a culture that squats. My DH encountered this, poorly aimed poo on the floor, along with shitty toilet paper in the bin when he worked in London. Ick!

OP posts:
glueandstick · 27/01/2017 21:24

Get a temp in. Plant one if you have to. Get them to call him out. Then they can leave. Someone earns a few hundred for the job, poo loo is sorted. All win.

TheFormidableMrsC · 27/01/2017 21:24

Can't he put some toilet roll round the side before expulsion? Then it just flushes away...then bleach it...I cannot understand how anybody could leave the toilet in that state in a public place. Mind you, I don't go anywhere other than home, it's just a physical impossibility...

Stormwhale · 27/01/2017 21:25

Well thanks, every day really is a school day! I never knew. There is even signs!

TheCustomaryMethod · 27/01/2017 21:27

You may well be right, ImNot - it was happening where I work and that was the explanation we were given, but I don't have first hand knowledge (thankfully Grin).

Original poster
Cherrysoup · 27/01/2017 21:28

I would check that the toilet is clean. I would follow him when he goes, wait until he finishes, as he walks away, check again. If any evidence is left behind, call him back and tell him to clean

Bar calling him back to clean it, this is how we know it's him. There is usually me, my friend and him on the floor before anyone else. Rooms have outward facing desks and mostly glass doors, so we can see colleagues walking past.

OP posts:
orangeterry · 27/01/2017 21:28

We had one girl at work who used to shit on the floor
She got caught doing it and didn't come back the next day
It was really bizarre as she was only about 20 and always dolled up , she was the last person I expected to shit on the floor Hmm

beargrass · 27/01/2017 21:30

A general email will not work. We had this at my office a while ago.

Can you get the keyboards tested for turds?? Seriously. If you can, perhaps a general email mentioning that this test will take place next week might do the trick.

Your HR rep will have kittens Grin

Elledouble · 27/01/2017 21:30

Just rip the plaster off!

"Oi! John, you dirty bastard! Come and sort out this mess you've left in the toilet!"

OhtoblazeswithElvira · 27/01/2017 21:33

We have regular emails about the state of the loos at work and they are very very blunt
Go on then, give us an example Grin It's Friday night and we have a poo thread!

SoEverybodyDance · 27/01/2017 21:38

An anonymous but humorous post it note, stuck to his computer screen for him to come back to when he's finished...

Original poster
Cherrysoup · 27/01/2017 21:38

Just rip the plaster off! "Oi! John, you dirty bastard! Come and sort out this mess you've left in the toilet!'

I thought this would be better from one of his managers-he has two people to whom he answers, one at my level, one at dizzying heights. She probably wouldn't flinch!

Go on then, give us an example grin It's Friday night and we have a poo thread!

I knew the timing was right! Grin

OP posts:
scoobydoo1971 · 27/01/2017 21:39

Your manager should take responsibility for dealing with this problem. A staff meeting should include toilet discussion and fact cleaners have 'complained'. Surely this is a public health issue and employees have rights not to be exposed to a potential vehicle for e-coli, worms and hepatitis. Personally I would not be thriled with unisex toilets. Since you have two toilets, can the clean staff just used the one and get the manager to instruct mr nutella to save his special signature for one bowl at least. Needs to be handled sensitively sadly, the guy may have irritable bowel syndrome and feel picked-on if he singled out as the offender.

Blondeshavemorefun · 27/01/2017 21:41

Why has no one told him directly

I would

A shitty loo is horrid

MrsSpenserGregson · 27/01/2017 21:42

I let a customer use the loo in my shop once.

She looked a bit shifty as she was leaving, but I put it down to shyness.

She left runny shit smeared all over the loo seat, the outside of the loo, the floor, and up the walls.

Now, when customers ask if we have a toilet they can use, I tell them that's it's broken, followed by a hard stare. (The cheeky buggers then invariably ask me where I go when I need the loo, so I tell them that I go across the road to the pub).

Well, it is Friday night and this is a poo thread..,,

carabos · 27/01/2017 21:46

He may well have IBS, but that doesn't prevent him from cleaning up after himself. Far more likely is that he has no idea that toilets aren't self cleaning because he's got someone at home who does that job. He probably thinks that the act of closing the lid causes some cleaning act to happen as if by magic, and indeed the fact that the loo is always clean when he enters it would reinforce that idea.

Dirty bastard.

scardeyy · 27/01/2017 21:46

I couldn't work somewhere with only 2 toilets Shock I just couldn't. We must have 100 odd. But this guy is a slovenly. He has the means to deal with the mess, why wouldn't he? Then again I often encounter some sights in our toilets & out and about Envy

AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered · 27/01/2017 21:47

the guy may have irritable bowel syndrome and feel picked-on if he singled out as the offender

^ Tough shit (Grin) I have IBS, I never leave nasty surprises in loos. I use loo roll to wipe and then wash my hands thoroughly.

Emmageddon · 27/01/2017 21:48

She left runny shit smeared all over the loo seat, the outside of the loo, the floor, and up the walls.

I can appreciate the woman probably had diarrhoea but wtf is wrong with someone, leaving a toilet in that state? There are some disgusting people around.

TheCustomaryMethod · 27/01/2017 21:51

In a way, you're lucky you at least know who it is. It's a far more difficult problem in a huge office where you've no way of telling who's responsible.

TheFormidableMrsC · 27/01/2017 21:53

Oh God that reminds me. I went to quite a posh hotel in Colchester once. Went to the loo in the bar, there was shit EVERYWHERE, all down the toilet, on the door, the walls, the seat. I still, to this day, cannot imagine how ANYBODY could get themselves into that much of a state that they had to decorate the entire cubicle. How, anybody?

Original poster
Cherrysoup · 27/01/2017 21:56

To add to the horror stories, I once did a coach trip to Barcelona. Someone complained to the driver at one stage in deep France that the loo was in a bad way. I went to look (because I'm nosy, OK!!) and the entire cubicle was smeared with shit. I offered to help the poor driver, but he insisted on cleaning it himself. He puked several times. Poor bloke.

I don't know (or think it's relevant) if he has IBS. He is a grown man with a wife who is physically able to clean up after himself. I do wonder if his wife has mentioned his foul toilet habits. I know my DH would tell me had I left a mess (it was dark, I was drunk, in my defence Grin)

OP posts:
Kernowgal · 27/01/2017 21:58

We have a phantom crapper at work. No idea who it is. Regularly leaves shit splattered all over the bowl or floaters bobbing. I want to put up posters with ideas for adding fibre to their diet.

It's fucking minging. But given the state our communal kitchen is regularly left in, it's sadly unsurprising.

tigermoll · 27/01/2017 22:00

Smearing shit on the door/cistern/walls is a purposeful act. It's not that this has somehow happened by accident and then the person hasn't bothered to clear up. A friend of mine worked in a centre for troubled girls/young women and she said it was a reasonably common form of destruction/acting out/expressing the rage that the person was experiencing.