This topic is a bit lowbrow, but here it is:
I just used a ladies’ room and someone had “hovered” and not wiped the seat. Ugh. But that reminded me of a situation at work a few years ago….
I worked at a manufacturing site, in the admin building. The entire site had about 15 buildings, widely scattered on the grounds. About 18 women worked in the admin building with 25 men. The admin ladies’ room had three sinks and three stalls. There was very low employee turnover, so we were all used to each other’s restroom etiquette, and we were a neat group, wiping up splashes on the counter top, refilling paper towel and tp dispensers when empty, etc.
This day there was a meeting in one of the conference rooms in the admin building, and two of the attendees were women who worked in other buildings as managers, which meant they “out-ranked” all of the women in the admin building. The meeting lasted all day, taking breaks and a lunch hour. One of the admin regulars told me, as I entered the restroom mid-morning, “Don’t use the third stall! Someone “hovered” and wet the whole seat!” Wet seats never happened with our normal group, so it had to be one of the two females at the meeting. At lunchtime, another co-worker stopped by our office and said that TWO seats were now all wet. By mid-afternoon, all three toilets had wet seats. Apparently, the hover-er had moved on to a clean stall each time, until all were soiled, leaving us to either clean up her urine or hike five to ten minutes to the nearest building with a bathroom. A few of our group finally located some gloves and attacked the seats with cleaners and paper towels so we could use the bathroom.
So rude! 1113-18
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After all the stalls were ruined I’d be petty enough to splash some water from the sink on the one I’d cleaned after I used it myself. Don’t leave a clean dry seat for someone who is just going to pee on it anyway, when you absolutely know you have a pig who is going to soil it.
I actually refused to shake hands with someone who was just introduced to me at work… moments before the introduction he exited the bathroom stall (I could hear the flushing and door closing) – and immediatly exited onto the hall instead of washing his hands first.
Being close to the bathroom at work can both be a blessing and curse.
If you sprinkle when you tinkle please be neat and wipe the seat!
At my former workplace, the admin for our floor posted those kind of notes on the bathroom doors. I tore them down. Just sit on the damn seat!
You beat me to it! I put theses exact words up at work once.
Many years ago I worked at an office with a community bathroom for the entire floor. Someone found some small posters to put inside each stall – “If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie” with a picture of a cherub. I don’t remember ever having to wipe the seat after those were posted.
I hate pee in toilet seats. I admit, I sometimes do hover (I usually carry sanitary wipes, but when I don’t have one, or the bathroom doesn’t have protector sheets). But I *never* have the seat down. And always clean up after myself.
I was once at the Borders bookstore in NYC (back in the day!) and in a pretty long line for a bathroom. A woman opened the bathroom and had her young son with her. She made a face and commented that the bathroom was disgusting. I went in and found that there was pee everywhere- on the seat, floor, etc! It was so unusable that I suspect that her son had sprayed, and she did not clean up!
I actually doubt this. With a young son she likely didn’t have the luxery of asking him to wait or hold it in to find a better bathroom. Ive had to squat in a partial chair position and hold my 3 year old to help him get high enough and also help him aim in filthy restrooms before. No way is my kiddo going to risk touching some one else’s urine or feces. Could it have been his fault? Sure, but it also might not have been. There is no way for you to truly know.
@Sara- sure, I have no way of knowing for sure. But I must add that the boy seemed (both height, as well as behavior wise) more like 5-7 year old, rather than 2-3 y.o.
One time my husband and I were traveling and he became really sick on the day of the flight. He has priority status, so on our layover we were in the lounge. He went to throw up in bathroom. He came back and a few minutes later I went to use the womens bathroom. The mens bathroom was yellow taped off and someone was cleaning it. I went back to him and asked what he had done. He swore it wasn’t him, saying he had cleaned up after himself, and it must just be their routine cleaning. A few minutes a gentleman approached the lounge check in desk and asked about the mens bathroom. The person at the desk said someone had been sick in there and the whole place had to be sanitized. My husband was horrified.
He was horrified that the person at the desk told the truth? Too bad. It was him. Why should he be spared embarassment? I hope he learned to clean up after himself.
no, he wasn’t horrified that the person told the truth. he was horrified that it needed to be done. he really did think he had cleaned up after himself. and knowing how he is, I believe he did and that it really was a sanitation issue, not a cleanliness issue.
I’d be horrified too. Being sick isn’t a choice. Being a hoverer is.
The hovering thing is so ridiculous. There is absolutely zero evidence that you can catch something from a toilet seat. Plus, if you’re sitting like a normal human being, your “important” bits should be nowhere near a surface. All women do by hovering is make a mess and ruin it for everybody else.
Thank you! Just sit already!
People have convinced themselves that public restrooms are nasty (despite them being cleaned far more than the average home restroom) so they stupidly hover and make them nasty. And ever person that hovers swears they never make a mess and always clean up after themselves but if that was true we’d never have messy seats. Just sit down already. How did you get to be an adult and not learn how to properly use the toilet?!
The thing about bathrooms is that they are private. You might be able to infer, logically, that the miscreant was one of the two women who was there for the day. But you cannot know for sure. This falls under the heading of “call maintenance” or “clean it yourself”. You’d also have been within your reasonable rights to mention it to management under the guise of concern, as in “someone must have been TERRIBLY ill, I do hope no one else comes down with it after being exposed to body waste…”. Okay, it’s a stretch, but it would get your point across. Otherwise, this one sounds like an episode that’s less for analysis and more for forgetting as quickly as possible, since the offender cannot be identified and almost any effort to discuss it would probably constitute a violation of boundaries that are normally observed at work.
So rude! At that point, I would have taken the walk to a different building, and said, out loud, that it was necessary because all three of the stalls had been fouled by someone who did not bother to clean up after herself. I probably would have checked the stalls after each use too, to see who the pig was. Alternately, you could have called a janitor to clean it up. Either way, I would not have cleaned it myself. You have every right to expect a clean bathroom and every right to refuse to do janitorial work.
I hate it when people hover! It’s so unhygienic. I don’t care if it’s done in other cultures, it’s gross. Because one’s butt isn’t sitting into the toilet, that means their urine and feces spray is going all over the seat, bowl, ground, all surrounding area for other people to be exposed to. There is no excuse justifying this. If you really have such a dislike of sitting on the toilet, then use as many toilet seat covers as needed. Or bring your own if you don’t trust the ones provided.
I admit I hover. I will not sit on any public toilet seat. Regardless of whether or not you think the seat is clean and dry – it isn’t. Flushing sprays all the water and urine and feces up into the air and it will settle on the seat. That is why there are lids on your toilet seat – they want you to shut the lid before flushing. Most public seats however, don’t have these feature. I make sure I wipe the seat dry even if I didn’t get urine on it and at home I always shut the lid before flushing. This is just common courtesy. At my office there are few woman and a lot of men. The bathroom on the 2nd floor is a single room – so we use it one at a time. At times, someone will post a sign reminding everyone to wipe up the seat after using. I’m not sure who the culprit was or who posted the sign but I was extra careful after using the bathroom. I know everyone in the office – I find it hard to believe that any one of us would be inconsiderate of the rest. Sometimes it is just an oversight.
Fair enough closing the lid before flushing, but I do hope you also check afterwards to make sure the flush was effective!
I’ve lost count of the times at my work where I’ve lifted the lid and found a surprise that could have used a double flush (though not as often as my previous job, where the cistern refilled so slowly people didn’t bother waiting).
Perhaps it would be prudent, in such an environment, to ask that flushable sanitary wipes be stocked for “before” and “after”. That way, any people who “hover” can discard the evidence, so to speak. And any who inspire “hovering” by failing to be careful with lowering the lid or with other minutiae, can preemptively tidy up. Win-win, yes? Bonus points if they are quick drying, truly biodegradable and non-toxic (like vinegar or alcohol solution soaked towelettes would be).
“Flushable” wipes are notorious for clogging pipes.
I’m glad you clean up after your hovering. You are one of the rare ones. In OP’s story, this happened three times on the same day with the hoverer soiling each of the toilets in sequence. That’s no oversight. That’s just rudeness.
I do so only rarely (if the seat is, shall we say, unusable), but when circumstances do call for it, I just lift the seat first. If I’m not going to be using it, I figure there’s no reason it needs to be down.
I second the “there is no excuse justifying this.” I have seen many try to justify, but all have failed. DO. NOT. HOVER. Seriously. If you can’t be civilized, at least be responsible and bring wet wipes everywhere you go to clean up after yourself! I cleaned restrooms for a living for eleven years. We don’t get paid enough to deal with that. So gross.
I have to admit that I’m not a “hoverer” (is that even a word?), but I’m not going to tell somebody else how to use the toilet. However, I would suggest that in all situations – hovering or not – you need to leave the toilet and stall at least as clean as you found it. If your method of using the toilet means you have to carry Clorox wipes in order to wipe down the seat for the next person, so be it. This goes for parents who take their children into public restrooms, too. I’m the mother of two boys – I’m quite aware of the mess they can make, but I NEVER left the stall in a nasty condition for someone else.
This disgusts me, too. It’s mind boggling that anyone can be so entitled and inconsiderate.
I would have gone to use another bathroom elsewhere, and hoped that the miscreant needed to go again after all three stalls were messy.
I worked somewhere once where the ladies room one day was so disgusting that a manager went in to clean it because none of us were paid enough to do it as she said. It looked like someone had a very very upset stomach and completely missed the toilet. It clearly was not an accident. I was pregnant so me cleaning it was completely out of the question. At another place I watched the maintenance guys walk into the mens room with a hose and a whole lot of swearing. People are gross.
I work with all men. My bathroom is suppose to be mine, the owners and for customers but its the cleanest here so everyone ends up using it. There is ALWAYS something on the seat. Always. I never go without just cleaning it first because I’m scared even if I can’t see it that its still there.
I agree but I will point out that some toilets flush so enthusiastically that they wet the seat when you flush. I was a chaperone on a college student trip and I remember one of the women students coming out of the stall and was horrified that I might think it was here…”It’s the toilet! I swear I didn’t hover!” and when I flushed, sure enough she was right.
I agree but I will point out that some toilets flush so enthusiastically that they wet the seat when you flush. I was a chaperone on a college student trip and I remember one of the women students coming out of the stall and was horrified that I might think it was her…”It’s the toilet! I swear I didn’t hover!” and when I flushed, sure enough she was right.
You’re right about toilets generally, but not in this specific case. OP was very used to the toilets there and would have reported in the story if that were a problem.
Sometimes I think people leave disgusting messes in public places because they know they don’t have to go home to it.
It’s gross sure, but I’d rather just take the two seconds and wipe the seat with some toilet paper. Done and done.
I shouldn’t have to clean up someone else’s pee. They should clean up their own. To fail to do so is incredibly rude.
Been there. Working on a project at school once, went to use the restroom (one sink/toilet type) and found the woman using it before me had apparently hovered. We were the only ones left there, and she used it before leaving, so I could only guess. I had some cleaning to do because I had to go badly and with my little short legs, I can’t hover. What l don’t get is leaving the mess for others to deal with, I’d feel so embarrassed. What’s boggling for me is the person(s) in the OP who messed up all the seats, knowing what they caused for everyone else. Just didn’t care, as long as they had a clean one. Goodness.
I always check the seat in a public toilet and get a big wad of TP to dry it if necessary. My hands are not touching anything except clean TP. It’s usually just a few drops. If it was more, I would try to find another toilet.
This is my pet peeve! (heh. Pee-ve.) If your butt is too precious to sit on a toilet seat, clean up after yourself! It’s not that hard.
I always have to pee, my mother used to call me “The Bathroom Inspector” because I had to go at every store we ever went to.
I don’t have the luxury of finding another bathroom, when I have to go, I have to go! I just wipe it with some toilet paper and do my stuff. In my 50 plus years of life I’ve never contracted any diseases.