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AIBU?

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Original poster

People at work who do their make up in the staff toilets

144 replies

cheif · 04/05/2019 10:30

I'm pregnant at the moment so have noticed this more as I need the loo more often but these people really annoy me!

Our office has those toilets where the wall of each cubicle doesn't reach the floor, so you can see the shoes of the person next door to you.

That's off-putting in itself when you need to do a big loud wee or rustling with tampax wrappers. But there are two ladies in the office who go into the loo and spend ages at the mirror/sinks reapplying their already perfect makeup, and I can't go for a wee when they are there! It's deathly quiet compared to the hum of the office and I get stage fright and can't wee!

It's like my body won't let me so I end up just flushing the loo and coming out and washing my hands in a grump. Why the need to reapply and be in there for ages multiple times a day!

AIBU that they should do what we all do, which is usually just a quick touch up after we've been to loo and washed our hands and then leave rather than a mammoth makeup session.

OP posts:
ForalltheSaints · 04/05/2019 10:55

I'd prefer it that the women concerned did not feel the need to put on loads of make-up and re-apply frequently. Though if they do, I'd prefer it was in a relatively private place than on the tube or bus.

Assuming that the time they spend does not mean others have to do more work.

GabsAlot · 04/05/2019 10:55

i hate it too when its deathly quiet-must be worse when you know the people standing there

MarIsFiuLiomE · 04/05/2019 10:55

I don't care about make up artists in the loo.

What annoys me is people who come to toilets on a different floor (my floor) to do a poo because they're embarrassed to do a poo in the loos on their own floor.

Going to the toilet at work is fraught enough really, and they think we want unisex toilets ha.

HBStowe · 04/05/2019 10:58

you can’t be a good mother if you worry about someone hearing the sound of you weeing. Don’t be so pathetic.

Literally no need to be such a bitch, fgs.

OP - I totally understand how you feel, it’s very hard to overcome a mental block like this. Would it help if you put some paper down first to hide the sound or something?

theemmadilemma · 04/05/2019 10:58

Make up wouldn't bother me.

It's the people who use the ladies for a good half hour catch up that piss me off. There's a million other private, nicer places in the office to chat.

ProperVexed · 04/05/2019 10:58

I'm in complete agreement with you, OP. I hate it when people hang about the loos at work. I can just about manage a wee sometimes but I dread the thought of a fart or poo. I'm clearly also a bad mother because of it - bloody hell!

barryfromclareisfit · 04/05/2019 10:59

People lurking in staff loos - I once waited 45 minutes in a cubicle for two supply teachers by the mirrors to stop talking about their bloody boyfriends and let me use the loo with privacy.

BabyDarlingDollfaceHoney · 04/05/2019 11:00

You just do sound rather entitled. It's a public space and you don't have a right to have it all to yourself because you demand to have your wee in complete solitude. Your team mates have a right to use the space to to do things they want, be that put on make up, wee, whatever.

MarIsFiuLiomE · 04/05/2019 11:00

ps, and in response to the person who says that we all know women get periods, well, yes, we all know that, but at the same time there's something a bit too 'intimate' about knowing that your boss is in the next cubicle having a crap or that she can hear you putting your used sanitary towel in to the bin. Yes we've all had a poo and all peeled the wrapper off a tampon but it can be a forced fake uncomfortable intimacy to be confronted with it in the next cubicle. So it's not necessary to hand out ''newsflashes'' - it is to do with enjoying privacy. Which I do!

And actually, at home I'd shower with the door open. Old habit from having only one toilet in the house. I am not weird about my kids and not weird about nudity and my daughter will tell me too much about her period tbh, but at work I don't want to have to be confronted with the bodily functions of people who I only know from work. Don't want to hear my boss farting. But I have.

S1naidSucks · 04/05/2019 11:00

My IBS soon clears them out of there.

🤣 You are evil, but I like you. 🤣

Don’t worry OP, I’m a 51yr old woman that needs the loo more often and I still feel funny about people hearing me wee. 😁 To be fair, I usually pee like a racehorse. 😳

nelsonmuntzslingshot · 04/05/2019 11:00

I agree with you OP! I used to work with a (rather strange) woman who would go to the toilet multiple times a day (we are a small team so noticeable) always taking her handbag with her and spend about half an hour in there. If she was in there when you went in she would just be stood at the sink putting moisturiser and God knows what else on. To me it’s really bizarre.

NotACleverName · 04/05/2019 11:02

I suggest working on your issues.

HBStowe · 04/05/2019 11:02

@BabyDarlingDollfaceHoney where did she demand anything?

Lots of absolute weirdos on this thread...

Original poster
cheif · 04/05/2019 11:03

Their time spent doing make up is during work time and isn't just a quick touch up but a full on, start from scratch face of makeup and lots of perfume sprayed, hair restyled etc... its how long they are there that annoys me.

Yes the hand dryer is a good shout!

We have a weird obsession with the loos at our place where people gossip about your loo habits! Hence me not wanting people to hear me wee in case a trump comes out at the same time or something Blush

The light only turns on when someone walks in and will turn itself off after a few minutes as an energy saving measure.

The running joke is that is you're caught in the loo long enough for the light to turn out then it must be because you're doing a long traumatic number two and therefore everyone must be told about it.

OP posts:
TheInvestigator · 04/05/2019 11:04

David Mitchell made a funny point in one of his soapboxes about why we find the toilet so embarassing when we don't find eating embarassing. When we eat, we sit there shovelling stuff into a hole in our bodies, chewing, swelling. When we eat too much, we get wobbly and fat and people look down on that. When we eat too little, we get gangly and ill and people look down on that. When we go to the toilet, we expell something from a hole in our bodies. Both functions show that we're just human. We eat because if we don't we will die; that's a vulnerability which is worse than simply expelling waste product.

Why is going to the toilet such an embarassing thing we need complete privacy for, when we will happily shovel food into a hole on our bodies no matter where we are and who is watching?

It's just using the toilet! We all do it. Stop being so precious.

MumUnderTheMoon · 04/05/2019 11:06

That's so childish. Why do you give a shit (pun intended) what people like that think about your bathroom habits? Is there a disabled toilet you could use instead? If anyone asks just say the usual cubicles are making you a bit claustrophobic.

MissMary0fSweden · 04/05/2019 11:10

What’s embarrassing about the rustling of tampax wrappers?

jellyfish70 · 04/05/2019 11:10

YABU, if they want to spend time in toilet they can expect to hear and smell all sorts-their problem. Put some paper down the loo first!

TheInvestigator · 04/05/2019 11:12

Don't put paper down the toilet first. That's the most idiotic thing people do in the toilet. It just ends up blocking it up once you've done your business and then added more paper from cleaning up. Ever wonder why public toilets always have toilet paper still stuck in There? It's because people or too much in and it won't all flush. Bloody stupid suggestion from a pp. Don't do it.

PamelaX · 04/05/2019 11:13

where else are they supposed to do their make-up?

I do like my privacy, and I am lucky I have toilets pretty much to my own exclusive use - being the only female on the floor Grin , so I understand where you are coming from
BUT the other ladies are doing the right thing do.

It's would be inappropriate and rude to do make-up in public transport, on their desk or in the kitchen, what else are they supposed to do?

Ask management for a powder / pumping room (with no actual loo in it to be clear) that will work for all of you.

Glitterblue · 04/05/2019 11:15

I totally understand, I'm the same! Have you tried putting some toilet roll into the toilet then weeing? That masks the noise a little bit. The make up thing would annoy me too. Xx

mrsgandy · 04/05/2019 11:17

I kind of feel like that too . My most embarrassing moment was having to stay in the loo one day to flush the loo about 10 times as my poo was ginormous and would not go down . I was in a sweat . Lol
The water kept coming back up . Thankfully it went eventually.

Hate sharing hotel bedrooms with anyone other than husband or daughter too lol

lisamac28 · 04/05/2019 11:18

you can’t be a good mother if you worry about someone hearing the sound of you weeing

Uch away with that. Talk about exaggerating.

TheInvestigator · 04/05/2019 11:19

Bloody hell. Another one with "put toilet paper down first". And end up blocking up the toilets. I hate going into a public toilet and finding the toilet full of paper and having to stand there and flush before I can use it.

If you atuff handfuls of paper down the toilet, it doesn't always all flush when you are done. You either leave someone else to deal with your mesa or you could block the toilet up.

IHaveNoIdeaReally · 04/05/2019 11:20

I don't think anyone else cares if they can hear someone else urinate in a bathroom.

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