Help! She's standing on the toilet seat!!

[Crazyworksituatio]

Help! I've no idea how to deal with this without offending. Since a new female employee has started working with us there are shoe prints on toilet seat. It's a corporate office but only a few females use this toilet so obvious who the culprit is. The lady is from India and new to country. She's very professional and I think this is a cultural difference but I'm horrified she thinks this is ok? What would you do??

Just get facilities to put up a sign. Tney are common in places that have multi cultural staff/students.

Most people have not sat in dog shit with their bare arse.

Could you send out an all staff email reminding people not to squat on the toilet seats for hygiene and safety reasons?

That way you're not pointing out that it is a woman who is doing it.

Toilet seats are not designed to be stood on.. before long it's going to break.

Use your imagination! In Singapore there are signs and pictures showing how western toilets are to be used.

Wow, only 4 people. I assumed this was an office of 100's. You have to speak to her, that's not just passive aggressive that's cowardly and would cause such humiliation. Someone needs to be an adult and have a conversation with this person.

The point is in some countries everyone does it and will find us weird sitting down. In her country the toilet will be a lot lower to the ground, possibly just a hole you squat over. It’s actually healthier in some ways because you get a much better ‘evacuation’ by squatting then you do by sitting because it squeezes everything out removing more toxins from the body.

Most people don’t walk around with dog shit all over their shoes either.

Would you sit on the seat after she's been standing on it?

More unhygienic than someone’s arse and upper thigh?

Are you being serious?

I would assume that someone who can hold down a job showers more often than they clean the bottom of their shoes.

I worked at a company in Sweden where they had a lot of Indians join and lots toilet issues. In the end we ended up having an informal training for new arrivals on how westerners use the toilet. It was mostly successful but we did have to re-educate people a few times.

Old habits die hard.

I can well imagine!

The signs are a good idea in public places, but I don't think you can put them up now without embarrassing her.

It will be very clear who it's targeting, or worst - people won't understand and start making jokes about it in front of her without realising it's about her.

If possible I would find someone with a higher level of cultural awareness to check-in with her and discuss some of the cultural differences. It could be HR, L&D, a DE&I representative if you have this, or maybe someone from India or other Asian country who feels comfortable having that conversation.

You can't be certain it was the Indian lady. You can buy a sign that shows a figure seated on the toilet with a tick and someone standing/squatting with a red cross. That should get the message across. I have seen those in a few places.

Irrelevant whether that poster has or hasn’t travelled outside the UK. This IS the UK and this lady needs to adhere to our way of using a flaming loo and not leave filthy footprints all over it.

I've been disgusted twice on the same thread!
Women for squatting on the toilet - WTAF
Men for leaving shitty cups in the disabled toilet!

It would be great to have some squat toilet options available. E.g. I've seen some schools abroad that offer a mix of western and squat toilets. We are multicultural.

Why do some posters on this thread think that people from other countries are too dim or ignorant or sensitive or ill-tempered to learn the correct way to use a Western-style sitting toilet?

I'm an immigrant from a country where squat toilets are still very common especially away from the towns and cities. IME most people are perfectly aware of how not to use sitting toilets. This is because we aren't any more stupid than any other population of people in the world and we don't live under a rock. At least in the last couple of decades in my home country, I've rarely encountered a toilet seat with shoe prints on it, although what is common is the signs with the diagram showing that you have to sit on the toilet.

Furthermore, remembering how I felt trying to settle in as an immigrant and sometimes not understanding how so many little trivial things worked, I'd hazard a wild guess that this lady would (while doubtless feeling embarrassed) also be very grateful for either a discreet explanation or a sign. I mean, presumably she wants to fit into her new workplace and country of residence?

There's a weird kind of racism of low expectations from some people who think they're being "progressive" and "inclusive"

I remember going on a school trip to Brittany, in the late 70s. This was the first time I’d ever been abroad. Our coach stopped outside some public toilets. I was horrified to discover they were of the hole in the ground type!

Oh hell no. Hoverers are the cause of more pee and bacteria going everywhere then just sitting. If you're a hoverer you're making the problem far worse for everyone else.

Hygiene. for a start. Also, the toilet seat isn't designed to be stood on and will break - I've seen this so many times. Hopefully the stander won't be tipped to the floor; insurance won't cover any injuries.

I don't think that poster meant the cups are literally shitty. I think they may be discarding cups they've filled with water to clean themselves after using the toilet.

Polite note / reminder from

Cleaning / maintenance

make the sign or instructions from the cleaning or maintenance staff. Then you can pretend it’s not you.