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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Tradespeople using the loo

464 replies

JeanneDoe · 14/07/2021 09:53

Want to canvas opinions here.
We had a man over to service our burglar alarm.
It’s an annual service provided by the alarm company.
I’m WFH and my home office is above the downstairs loo.
Heard the alarm guy walking around checking out the alarm points around the house. Then heard him in the bathroom. Didn’t think there was a motion sensor in there.
He was in there for quite a while and then I heard a toilet flush.
Turns out a rather pungent bowel movement was had.
I am a bit pissed off. I know I’m unreasonable (and a bit precious) that I hate people that don’t live in my house taking a dump in my house.
But AIBU that he should have at least asked me if he could use our bathroom?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
RaginaFalangi · 14/07/2021 12:17

Would've been polite to ask. Its a normal bodily function. No need to be a snob about it or do you shit flowers?

DerisorySnort · 14/07/2021 12:18

If having some standards means being called snobbish, I take that

Denying someone who's working in your home the courtesy of a short visit to your toilet for an essential and inescapable bodily function is not "having standards", it's being mean, thoughtless and ridiculous.

Try having standards in how you treat people.

Maggiethecat · 14/07/2021 12:19

@Summergarden
All you've said.

The pp who was concerned that many men don't wash their hands after using the loo - would you therefore deny male guests, friends, family the use of your loo since statistically some are likely to not wash their hands and then proceed to continue the meal at your table, sit in your sofa etc?

It really does smack of snobbery toward workers.

grapewine · 14/07/2021 12:23

@DerisorySnort

If having some standards means being called snobbish, I take that

Denying someone who's working in your home the courtesy of a short visit to your toilet for an essential and inescapable bodily function is not "having standards", it's being mean, thoughtless and ridiculous.

Try having standards in how you treat people.

This!
Confusedandshaken · 14/07/2021 12:23

@Lanareyrey

🤣🤣🤣 sorry OP your post made my day!!! I feel your pain and I wouldn’t like it either. One day a tradie peed all over my toilet floor. So gross!
Was it more gross than if a relation or visiting celebrity pissed all over the floor. Is a tradies wee more offensive than theirs?
FedNlanders · 14/07/2021 12:24

A tradesman used our ensuite once, which is just weird....but didn't really over think it.

pinkypink24 · 14/07/2021 12:26

Had a carpet fitter use my loo for a smelly poop. He sincerely apologised bless him. I just replied no bother we are all human, it happens & I handed him the air freshener spray. Job done. No need to make the issue any more mortifying than what it was Wink

DaphneDeloresMoorhead · 14/07/2021 12:26

Someone had a poo in a loo. Hold the front page !

Confusedandshaken · 14/07/2021 12:28

Normally if someone is working in my house they ask to use the loo. However if I am engrossed in work or an intense phone call I might not notice if they didn't ask, just used it. If I was having a bad day I might be grateful that they didn't interrupt me.

That being said, I have never, in nearly 40 years of home owning, ever responded to a request to use the toilet by asking if they are peeing or pooing and if pooing, how much their shit is likely to stink!

IntermittentParps · 14/07/2021 12:29

I would never poo in someone else’s house.

I prefer not to as well –but sometimes you just have to. I assume that's what happened here.

onlyhere, you don't have some standards, you have issues.

DaphneDeloresMoorhead · 14/07/2021 12:30

@Gameofbones

My dh is an electrician and to be honest I’m sick to the back fucking teeth of people looking down on him as though he is some kind of lesser mortal.

He is rarely if ever offered a drink when he is working on a house all day not even a glass of water and doesn’t matter how hot it is.

During the pandemic last year someone actually asked him to climb through a window rather than use the door. I told him to tell him to stick the job.

It’s a bodily function I’m sure you go to the loo in the office or shop or wherever you work.

He also notes that the more money people seem to have the tighter and more snobby they are. Particularly new money. It’s hideous.

He probably earns more than them too.

Totally agree the attitude on here to tradesmen is disgusting at times. I cannot imagine how much of a Hyacinth Bucket you'd have to be to object to someone using your loo.

Confusedandshaken · 14/07/2021 12:31

Imagine if an employer like an accountancy firm, medical facility, factory or retail outlet refused to let employees use the loo because they found the smell of their passings offensive. There would be an outcry about sweat shops and inhuman conditions. But apparently some MN users are happy to treat people they employ to work in their homes in exactly that way.

scaredofjizz · 14/07/2021 12:32

i shudder at the thought - genuinely.

tiredanddangerous · 14/07/2021 12:33

The nerve of him! Have you logged it with 101?

WaterBottle123 · 14/07/2021 12:33

The best thing about Mumsnet is the huge swath of posters getting themselves in absolute fits over bacteria whilst presumably using their smart phones, which are known to be COVERED in bacteria to do it GrinGrin

No one in real life would ever be mean enough to deny someone the use of a loo due to ALL THE SCARY BOTTOM GERMS.

Hands are far grosser but presumably you don't make tradesmen wear gloves.

Lanareyrey · 14/07/2021 12:34

I’m also not allowed to use clients toilets when visiting their homes…have an app with a public toilet search.

JeansShirtJeansJacket · 14/07/2021 12:34

I would love to hear one of these anecdotes where the tradesman does a massive, smelly shit on the kitchen floor, and when confronted they proudly say "I've heard customers don't like us using their toilet"

JudgeRindersMinder · 14/07/2021 12:35

Ideal world he maybe should have asked, but you said you’re working so he probably didn’t want to disturb you.

MN is weird about non family using their loo

comebacksunshines · 14/07/2021 12:36

My dad is a tradesperson and struggles a bit with IBS. How much of a twat would you have to be to object to someone using your toilet.
Saddens me to think of him desperately needing the toilet and some stuck up git, telling him to go to find a public toilet.
Tradespeople are not lesser human beings.

Chubbychubkins · 14/07/2021 12:37

@Lanareyrey

I’m also not allowed to use clients toilets when visiting their homes…have an app with a public toilet search.
Why not? What job do you do?
HadaVerde · 14/07/2021 12:38

If you have tradesmen in doing a sizeable job then you have a choice between letting them use your loo or paying for a portaloo on site.

If it’s a short job then allow them to use your loo.

It’s their place of work and toilet facilities should be provided.

1forAll74 · 14/07/2021 12:39

Now, there must be a lot of trades persons doing jobs in people's houses at any given time, and they are forbidden from using the toilet. What are they supposed to do if they are desperate to use the loo,and can't find any toilets around.or near the house anywhere..

Maybe people should put some buckets outside for this purpose,especially if the work people are at your house for a few days., then you will have to go and clean the buckets out when they have finally gone.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 14/07/2021 12:39

FFS using a toilet should be a human right! Only on MN would people allow tradesman to shit their pants lest they deliver a 'bowel movement' into a TOILET!!!

What do you use your toilet for, a plant pot?

Seriously, this might actually be a contributing factor to the lack of female tradespeople. On top of the needing a poo issue, maybe they, unlike all other women, should just be expected to 'ensure they finish their period before they leave home in the morning' Hmm

Tradespeople using the loo
HadaVerde · 14/07/2021 12:40

Leaving site to find a public loo is completely unreasonable and far more difficult since Covid.

DaphneDeloresMoorhead · 14/07/2021 12:40

@Gameofbones bung your DH my way, I provide endless drinks, cake/biscuits and unrestricted access to the loo to anyone working in our house 😂
I usually make the plasterer a bacon roll with his tea