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The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

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Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#21

Post by teuobk »

voidlogic wrote: post #8
turar wrote: post #5

Gender inequity in tech has one downside if you are a male -- lack of bathrooms. If there is one male and one female bathroom on the floor, and male-to-female gender ratio is 5:1, then you're gonna have a bad time. :)

Men cycle through a bathroom much faster than women when urinating (ever been to a sports event?). I imagine someone must have urination vs defecation stats. I'd like it be like 30:1 or something.

It's more like 6:1, though I don't have a good citation handy.

However, some people seem to have a strong reluctance to defecate in public bathrooms, so the ratio in an office bathroom might be much higher.

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#22

Post by mc32 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

> it's unease around the gap between the door and the partition Why is this a thing in the US? I legitimately don't understand it. As to the article overall: This is an interesting topic that is rarely discussed. I often see embarrassed bathroom patrons utilise the disabled-accessible bathroom because it is it's own room (i.e. not stall-separate, wall-separate). I have no issue with gender neutral bathrooms, but from…

Just make them all unisex. What's wrong with unisex bathrooms, so long as they have partitions and not troughs or heads out in the open and have the urinals sectioned off at one end.

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#23

Post by VLM »

lobotryas wrote: post #7
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #3

Everything about the stall door was irrelevant. They are made so cheap and with such gaps because, they are cheaper that way. They won't go down to the floor because, that would be 12" more material cost. They won't ever fit closely because, they sag and bend because they're cheaply installed. All the blather about how they could be different is ignoring the cost factor, which would be large. ON a different note, I v…

I never understood when a place has two single occupancy bathrooms with one marked Men and the other Women. Maybe there's a law that requires this in some places or are they just catering to social expectations?

Womens rooms have sanitary napkin dispensers etc. In the old sexist days only womens rooms had a baby changing table.

There are also social issues, is a one stall / one urinal a single occupancy or not? Technically there's two holes.

Also you'd be surprised architecturally how many are precisely arranged such that a strategically located adjacent closet could be sacrificed to double or triple the bathroom size at a later date, if it because necessary.

(edited to add, if you assume the massively dominant cis, the labeling is to prevent office romance trysts, along the lines of joining the mile high club on a plane but without the plane)

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#24

Post by jsprogrammer »

zimpenfish wrote: post #12

We have two (2) cubicles and two (2) urinals for probably 200 males. One cubicle currently has a broken seat and the other is frequently (at least once a week) blocked with toilet paper and filth (properly splattered all over, of course). It's the worst office bathroom situation I've ever encountered.

That is grossly out of code [0]. With only two urinals, there should be a minimum of six full toilets.

Management should be alerted to the violation ASAP so that they can take immediate corrective action, followed up by a complaint to OSHA.

[0] https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_tab...

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#25

Post by dominotw »

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

> it's unease around the gap between the door and the partition Why is this a thing in the US? I legitimately don't understand it. As to the article overall: This is an interesting topic that is rarely discussed. I often see embarrassed bathroom patrons utilise the disabled-accessible bathroom because it is it's own room (i.e. not stall-separate, wall-separate). I have no issue with gender neutral bathrooms, but from…

>Why is this a thing in the US? I legitimately don't understand it.

People are less ashamed of such mundane things. US being a new country is not bound to the same social taboos that you see everywhere else.

Also practical reasons like, easier to see when its empty, ease of cleaning, ventilation ect.

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#26

Post by VLM »

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

> it's unease around the gap between the door and the partition Why is this a thing in the US? I legitimately don't understand it. As to the article overall: This is an interesting topic that is rarely discussed. I often see embarrassed bathroom patrons utilise the disabled-accessible bathroom because it is it's own room (i.e. not stall-separate, wall-separate). I have no issue with gender neutral bathrooms, but from…

"But it would be interesting if companies starting doing a "private bathroom" as a perk again"

Given decent wifi coverage, that bathroom would then have better working conditions than the stylish but low productivity open office, raising lots of questions, so its not possible until after open offices are no longer trendy.

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#27

Post by JoeAltmaier »

VLM wrote: post #23
lobotryas wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never understood when a place has two single occupancy bathrooms with one marked Men and the other Women. Maybe there's a law that requires this in some places or are they just catering to social expectations?

Womens rooms have sanitary napkin dispensers etc. In the old sexist days only womens rooms had a baby changing table. There are also social issues, is a one stall / one urinal a single occupancy or not? Technically there's two holes. Also you'd be surprised architecturally how many are precisely arranged such that a strategically located adjacent closet could be sacrificed to double or triple the bathroom size at a l…

Those dispensers cost ~$10. Cheap to have them in every bathroom. The guys are not going to have a conniption fit if they see them. So there's no longer a good reason to mark individual bathrooms as far as I can see.

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#28

Post by fluxquanta »

josinalvo wrote: post #16
fluxquanta wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Irrelevantly, they were marked Male and Female. Anecdotally, my office has about 60 employees and 8 individual bathrooms. They're fully enclosed with sinks and their own heavy closing doors. They also are all equipped with a white noise machine that's connected to the ceiling light switch. I guess we're pretty lucky to have this setup. About two years ago, however, someone complained that all of the bathrooms were b…

> Therefore, three of the restrooms are now women only, while the remainder are unisex. It seems a bit unfair, but nobody has cared enough to complain. Even if today nobody complains, the company might have suffer a lawsuit in the future, by a disgruntled employee. Better to fix that now, perhaps

I could say something, but my boss (the company owner) isn't the most receptive to suggestions like this.

It took nearly three years of my complaining to finally get an End User License Agreement for our product, for example.

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#29

Post by JoeAltmaier »

fluxquanta wrote: post #10
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #3

Everything about the stall door was irrelevant. They are made so cheap and with such gaps because, they are cheaper that way. They won't go down to the floor because, that would be 12" more material cost. They won't ever fit closely because, they sag and bend because they're cheaply installed. All the blather about how they could be different is ignoring the cost factor, which would be large. ON a different note, I v…

>Irrelevantly, they were marked Male and Female. Anecdotally, my office has about 60 employees and 8 individual bathrooms. They're fully enclosed with sinks and their own heavy closing doors. They also are all equipped with a white noise machine that's connected to the ceiling light switch. I guess we're pretty lucky to have this setup. About two years ago, however, someone complained that all of the bathrooms were b…

60 employees, weekly cleanings?! Should be every night.

Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom

#30

Post by settsu »

Are so many adults that insecure and self-centered that they think everyone is focused on their bathroom activities? I'm certainly not paying that close attention. That said, I flush for noise and smell out of courtesy but not because I'm ashamed of something that I largely can't control.
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