About toilets at work?

[HalloweenIsEveryday]

My workplace is now operating with a skeleton staff, which means there are only 3 women working and a lot more men (probably around 15-20).

There are men's and ladies toilets, each with 3 cubicles in each - standard public loos with 'gaps' at the front and to the side so the walls are not down to the floor.

It has been proposed that the men can use the ladies loos too, and to make all the toilets unisex. This is apparently to minimise risk from too many men using the same loos.

The thought makes me feel violated. I'm on my period at the moment and I hate the thought of it. Apparently they are allowed to make the loos unisex but it doesn't feel right to me?

Maybe I'm being precious about it - I know it's a workplace which is different to public loos but even so.

They probably mean a lock on the outside of the door? I don’t know why it’s not a one in and out policy?

@Qwertywerty3

Absolutely do not allow this to happen. It’s a slippery slope.

To what? Preventing men from catching corona?

@JenniferSantoro toxic femininity?

What @cologne4711 said. Oh no, the poor menz have to queue to poo, we can't have that can we Women put up with this kind of stuff and it's tumbleweeds all round, but the minute it affects men people fall over themselves to make it all better (and bonus points for pissing off women)

I second do not let it happen.

You will never get those toilets back. Ever.

Its not about covid . Civud is being used as an excuse to break the law remove sex segregated spaces.

We have one toilet so it's used by all.

I dont understand why pp are saying that men poo at work and women tend not to, and that this hasnt been questioned..??

I poo when i need to poo, sometimes im at home, sometimes im at work. Surely its not healthy to hold it in for the length of.a working day amd waiting till you get home?

Its not like i smear it up the walls or anything, its literally using a toilet for what its there for...

Ask for 'one person at a time' instructions on the outer door.

One in, one out, for social distancing- then you have solved your problem, surely?

Simple solution is to provide cleaning spray and a roll of paper, ask the men to spray and wipe after themselves. Wear their masks while using the loo. Ensuring they wash their hands

Oops. Realised now how that just couldn’t happen.

OP YANBU though

because their wives don’t let them poo at home.

Wtf? Who are these dictatorial bullies ? If men were doing that to their wife there would be cries of abuse

All our toilets at work are unisex but it's a self contained thing so only one person in at a time.

If it's a toilet block I'd be less keen.

Is it that they are changing so that only one person can be in the toilets at any time?

Ours have got 2 cubicles in but now the outside door says only one person at a time, please knock first (in all honesty we leave it ajar if noone is in there)

In which case you aren't at risk of someone seeing you in the cubicle (and where I work it's the other way round far more women than men - so I used the men's yesterday on the basis of they are now individual rooms - I wouldn't have if there was a chance of someone else in next cubicle)

BTW men's toilets were just as clean as the women's - signs up saying after you use the toilet please wipe seat and flush using antibacterial wipes, then wipe sink, taps etc

[quote Georgeoftheinternet]@JenniferSantoro toxic femininity?[/quote]
No, just my own experience of thirty years in that environment.

Didn’t Robert Jenrick recently say this was against UK regulations/law? That there need to be separate toilets?

Maybe, I don't know, your workplace could just hire more women. Seems that would just solve so many more problems, not just equalizing the number of people who need to use each loo...

Don’t see a problem personally

I dont understand why pp are saying that men poo at work and women tend not to, and that this hasnt been questioned..??

I poo when i need to poo, sometimes im at home, sometimes im at work. Surely its not healthy to hold it in for the length of.a working day amd waiting till you get home?

Its not like i smear it up the walls or anything, its literally using a toilet for what its there for...

Baffles me too, how many women there are who refuse to poo - in a toilet inside a cubicle, nobody's asking them to use an old ice cream tub outside the entrance to Asda - at work, in public or even at home if anybody else might possibly hear them or smell the evidence that they are, in fact, human. I've no idea who was the first one to start woman-shaming women for doing what all women - and men - have no choice but to do. What's next - being expected to hide the fact that you regularly need to eat or sleep? Anybody expressing disgust at another person for having gone to the toilet in a toilet must be really very simple indeed.

I don't see why a men's toilet designed to facilitate 50% of the normal workforce is suddenly inadequate for a small proportion of them - even if some cubicles or urinals are taped off. It's outrageous that women should be expected to give up their privacy and dignity just to save them waiting a couple of minutes and I would definitely take this crazy decision further. 'Unisex' does usually end up meaning 'designed around men as default, but women are allowed to join in as long as they don't start to feel entitled to it and inconvenience the men'.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

I dont understand why pp are saying that men poo at work and women tend not to, and that this hasnt been questioned..??

I poo when i need to poo, sometimes im at home, sometimes im at work. Surely its not healthy to hold it in for the length of.a working day amd waiting till you get home?

Its not like i smear it up the walls or anything, its literally using a toilet for what its there for...

Baffles me too, how many women there are who refuse to poo - in a toilet inside a cubicle, nobody's asking them to use an old ice cream tub outside the entrance to Asda - at work, in public or even at home if anybody else might possibly hear them or smell the evidence that they are, in fact, human. I've no idea who was the first one to start woman-shaming women for doing what all women - and men - have no choice but to do. What's next - being expected to hide the fact that you regularly need to eat or sleep? Anybody expressing disgust at another person for having gone to the toilet in a toilet must be really very simple indeed.

I don't see why a men's toilet designed to facilitate 50% of the normal workforce is suddenly inadequate for a small proportion of them - even if some cubicles or urinals are taped off. It's outrageous that women should be expected to give up their privacy and dignity just to save them waiting a couple of minutes and I would definitely take this crazy decision further. 'Unisex' does usually end up meaning 'designed around men as default, but women are allowed to join in as long as they don't start to feel entitled to it and inconvenience the men'.

The normal workforce is 85% men. It’s to help social distance. Just like if it was 85% women, wanting to use the toilet.

@DaddysGirlForLife

That's so wrong. Go to HR

Be a HR professional, they said.

See the world, they said.

Understand organisational psychology and human behaviour, they said.

They forgot “spend 87% of your time explaining that you aren’t responsible for the toilets.”

We only allow one person in the toilet area at a time... Suggest you implement that instead.

No the is wrong you need to fight it but carefully.

That's not on. Send your thoughts to whoever is in charge.

There is a shared toilet at my office and it's splashed with wee, wee on the floor. Skids. Water splashed all over the floor by the basin. Men taking ages pooing, meaning noone else can use for ages. That's what a unisex toilet looks like.

They cannot leave the Male only toilet (with urinals?) and remove the female only toilet (making it unisex).
This is sex discrimination.