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??

I was in a road services on M4, I approached the toilets and there was water and poop flowing into hall coming from the men’s toilets. There was 2 bus loads of men from not-UK who had used toilets and pooped on the floor and were then washing at the sinks or urinals. There was so much water. The cleaning woman was in tears (I did ask her & know what happened). She was just standing looking at the mess with mop & bucket which was not going to be the solution.

No one could use the toilets, male or female because it was flowing out into common hallway.

you need one of these

This. I think the best angle would be to explain that the design of Western toilets means that she is risking serious injury to herself should she slip and fall and - God forbid- hit her head for instance. There's a kind constructive way to tackle this. It is also entirely possible to hover over a Western style loo should she be grossed out by the prospect of sitting. Or perhaps also make sanitiser wipes available for everyone to wipe the seat before and after use.

Disgusting 😡🤬😡

Thanks for your response. I was hoping to get some nice advice from people that understand what it's like to be a immigrant to a new country.

If your arse isnt significantly cleaner than the bottom of your shoes, you're doing something very wrong.

My uncle worked in Ford's Dagenham plant many years ago. I recall him saying that they used to find cups from the canteen in the gents and used to break them and dispose of them.

I've seen a few accusations of racism on this thread, so I'll add that my uncle was mixed race.

When I was a student in Moscow, the cleaning lady was begging girls not to take bottles and cups of water into the cubicles, because water was being left all over the floor. (It was an international student hostel.). That was 1980. My uncle's experience was much earlier.

Yes, that's what I took from it.

Similar happened when I was in Moscow.

I agree with this. However, if that’s the case why is a sign needed then?

I'd say it's because people from everywhere have a range of education, intelligence, exposure to new situations, powers of deduction and so on. My observation that most people in my home country are easily able to work out how to use a different design of toilets doesn't negate that there will be some who might require additional information to help them get the message. And that we ourselves have migrants/visitors from countries with even less experience of Western toilets.

@Crazyworksituatio you are welcome!

i've been in plenty of toilets where there are pictorial signs of what not to do (in the UK and elsewhere) in a toilet cubicle, I think i was in Kings Cross when i had to take a photo of the sign not to put a fish in the toilet (included were pictures of an apple core, a nappy, feminine hygiene products and a person squatting with feet on the seat)

Would a sign like that help? If you only see it when you're in the cubicle, then it won't be that embarassing? possibly.

If squat toilets are healthier then we should start introducing them and learn to use them

If squat toilets are healthier then we should start introducing them and learn to use them

Many people would not be physically able to.

i find them completely inconvenient (due to lack of practice, i suspect) in terms of keeping my trousers or skirt off the floor etc

Err no thanks.

As an alternative, not as the only kind. Just a few here and there.

More people would stay physically able if we didn't use the seated position so much in everyday life; it's so unhealthy.

Correct.

They're no use for the elderly or those with mobility problems

My relatives in ex-Yugo installed a western flush toilet whenever possible.

In the countryside, when it reached the stage that the old folk could no longer use the squat toilet (where there was no plumbing) they'd install a wooden box seat. If you remember the programme Little House on the Prairie - or some Western films - the field toilets were set up like that.

Your legs are not the same as your arse. Legs / thighs or sides of buttocks are the only parts that touch the seat. The actual arse is positioned over the bowl, otherwise you couldn't use the loo.

Some elderly people are very flexible. My friend's great grandparents who emigrated from India were well able to squat on western toilet seats and did so. What we consider normal is deeply unnatural in this rigid society.

Or maybe just buy a squattie pottie and use it if you prefer...

I've used them in East Asia no problem...

My elderly great-aunt and uncle in ex-Yugo were very flexible. However great-aunt's osteoporosis was not.

So some will use them and some won't. But a mix of seating everywhere not just in loos will keep the population as a whole bendier and more heart-healthy.

2 bus loads of man all needing, and doing, a shit at the same time?

come on now

OP, just some practical advice - if signs are going to be put up, make sure they are on the back wall of the cubicle so they're visible when people walk in. Don't put them on the back of the cubicle door or out in the sink/ dryer area.

Also, from experience, you may need to provide a sign showing or saying not to flush tissues, tampons, or pads, and that bog roll should be flushed.