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The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
41–50 of 63 posts
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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.
> easier to see when its empty Is a little dial connected to the lock saying "engaged/vacant" or green/red that difficult to see?
We don't have those on American bathroom stalls, but it would be useful.
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#43> 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…
In the US most women feel men's bathrooms are nastier, and refuse to use them in general. Hovering & "seatpissing" is highly regional; almost none in the midwest of the US, while much higher (70% of seats?) in some parts of Europe (I am afraid in my experience Portugal is worst). Can't remember but the coasts are worse than the Midwest in the US and regions in California also differ.
It's partly a result of how clean you expect things to be to start with: if you don't trust that seats will be clean, you won't sit, and then you'll guarantee they're not clean. If you expect them to be clean, they'll remain clean(ish).
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#44Everything 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…
>They also are all equipped with a white noise machine that's connected to the ceiling light switch.
That is most likely a ventilation fan. The white noise is a side-effect.
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#45I remember having been immediately struck by differences in office bathrooms between California and UK/France/Germany (where I worked). The offices were usually nicer overall in the US (roomier, more recent), except for the bathrooms. Small, low quality, like 2 stalls in a 600 persons building. Usually pretty far away from work stations. Turns out labor code enforces much higher standard for bathrooms in most Europe…
I work at a company whose office gets a fair amount of press for being cool and "stylish." What you don't see in the press is the half of the office whose only natural light is a 1 sq ft porthole in the corner. It's a dark, depressing work environment that shouldn't be legal. The other half of the building is "open" and "stylish." I seriously wish we had those German laws to prevent situations like this.
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#46Earlier 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…
>They also are all equipped with a white noise machine that's connected to the ceiling light switch. That is most likely a ventilation fan. The white noise is a side-effect.
Nope. Actual white noise. The company owns the property and built the building.
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#47> 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?
Cheapness. A door with bigger gaps requires less maintenance. Same reason they use partial/floating walls. They're easy to remove for maintenance, easy to replace when damaged, easier to clean, etc. Public bathrooms are an unwanted expense to most building owners.
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#48Earlier 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…
There's still no good reason for the labeling. Take Starbucks for example: two individual gendered bathrooms. When someone is taking a long time in one bathroom, invariably someone of the 'incorrect gender' will use the next available room, because there's a single line of people in a crowded space that all need to go and nobody cares who uses a single person water closet.
And before anyone mentions cleanliness, my anecdotal experience (from experiences like the Starbucks) is that both men and women's toilets are dirty at about the same rate. I would love a janitor to give their observations :)
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#49> 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…
Oh if only US restrooms were like those in Japan. Even run of the mill ones in Japan are great.
Re: The Office of the Future Will Still Have a Terrible Bathroom
#50> 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…
Oh if only US restrooms were like those in Japan. Even run of the mill ones in Japan are great.
I'm just glad they're not like some French bathrooms. Essentially a drain hole in the floor. Try to hit it.