To complain about this man in the women's loos?

[FairfaxAikman]

In the supermarket and had to nip to the loo with toddler DS in tow.
After finishing up in the cubicle I open up the door to come fact to face with a male member of staff.
I'm aware they need to clean the loos, but AIBU to think he should have announced himself before entering so it wasn't such a shock or people could object?
No sign on the main door either (as I've seen elsewhere) so women entering would be unaware.
Should I mention it to customer services?

Well disabled loos tend to be single self -contained cubicles and my husband doesn't clean the loo at all when I'm using it so neither is a comparable situation Tigger

He might identify as female, if so, YABU.

I'm sure he was just as embarrassed tbh.

t I do feel a warning when entering should have been given so I didn't get a fright.

Why did you get a fright? Have you never seen a man before?

All he needs to say is "I identify as a woman".

All he needs to say is "I identify as a woman".

🙄

What's wrong with him identifying as a man doing the cleaning 🤷‍♀️

Honestly this is why I try not to use public toilets anymore. There have been cases of male cleaners putting spy cameras in them. Apparently there's a whole section of porn dedicated to watching unsuspecting women go to the loo. Men are vile.

Italianfiat are you normally so stupid? I assume you have seen one too, yet might be surprised to open your bedroom door to find one you'd never met before standing there.

@Campervan69 - so only men are sexual predators? Wake up!

Am I missing the part where Op kicked off about male cleaning staff, or said that cleaning was women's work, or that he should be fired, or that she was scared? Bloody hell.

Having male cleaning staff obviously isn't the issue. Not bothering to give customers a heads up is. It's a tiny, tiny thing for them to do (A4 poster and requesting cleaners shout 'male cleaner coming in' in exactly the same manner as nearly every business open to the public which has cleaners from both sexes) that I would also expect female cleaners to do before going into the men's. It's simple respect to forewarn members of one sex when someone of the other sex is going to be unexpectedly appearing somewhere they wouldn't be expected.

But then how would people show just how clever they are with all of their witty comments...

In case you weren’t aware, women cleaners walk into gents toilets all the time.

The difference being that blokes are stood fully visible at urinals with their tackle out.

Women also regularly wander into gents toilets in pubs, clubs etc to avoid the queues in the women’s toilets. Several times I have had pissed women check out and comment on my bits. They seem to think it’s funny. It’s really not a big deal.

Not sure that he needed to announce himself, but it would be a good thing for the standard notice to be up I would have thought.

italianfiatare you normally so stupid?

I assume you have seen one too, yet might be surprised to open your bedroom door to find one you'd never met before standing there

Now who is being stupid. It's perfectly normal for cleaners to be in public toilets. Not so normal for strangers to be outside my bedroom door.

Think about it before you go throwing insults about

There are always signs now which has been standard practice for a long time. I see men cleaning toilets all the time and as long as they are professional I don't see why they would need to announce it.

If a member of the public had to enter the ladies toilet in an emergency i imagine they would announce they were coming in.

It's not the 50's so I think it is reasonable that there are male cleaners who do a good job and are really not arsed about seeing you with your pants round your ankles taking a dump.

It's pretty much universal practice for male cleaners/staff to enter the female loos from time to time. If you can't cope with this, TBH, you need to grow the fuck up.

But even if he did announce himself, what would you have done differently? How did seeing him give you a fright?

@HaveeeeYouMetTed NAMALT amirite?

What's happening to mumsnet, seems to be a hotbed of MRAs at the moment

And I think the OP having come out of a ladies toilet has every right to be shocked to find a man standing there.

But we do seem to be chipping away everyday at women's boundaries so so it's disappointing to see people on Mumsnet speaking this way but not surprising anymore

How did you determine they were a man?

The real problem is the lack of available public toilets in general. That's what makes life difficult for women, mothers and everyone else. Not the possibility of some poor sod coming in to change the bog roll or mop the floor.

@campervan69 - no idea what you said. The point I was making is that a woman cleaner could just as easily put spy cameras in a female toilets.

Your being petty and precious , he was doing his job

It was a man doing his job, not a random man in the female toilets. So he forgot the sign, I don't think it's a big issue, certainly not worth a complaint

And I find something worrying in this constant obsession with 'protecting' women from Strange Men via a segregationist approach. I can see it backfiring fairly quickly, in that women will once again by confined to the home unless their male owner is with them because Strange Men are such a danger. (Never mind that most women who are abused/assaulted are assaulted by men they know/live with rather than strangers.)

What's happening to mumsnet, seems to be a hotbed of MRAs at the moment

lmao, standard MN response, any woman who doesn't automatically have a prob with a man cleaner in the bogs is an MRA.
Whatevs, catch yourself on, we don't all have to think the same.