…or at least, MEN’s public bathrooms? The only answer that makes any sense to me is “a woman”. Or maybe one of those creepy dudes who likes to talk to you while you are in the bathroom. I say this because the urinal layout is always not very well thought out, to the point where men seem to be invited to violate one of the basic “man laws”.
Case in point: the bathroom at my office. We occupy a fairly large space, and therefore have a bathroom that is fairly generous in size: three urinals and two stalls. My beef is with the urinals in particular. They are lined up against one wall, two that are normal height, and one that is a “shorty”, the latter I guess being for the children that we hire to slave away in one of our many sweatshops. (Note: a joke, in case any of our HR people are reading this) The shorty is positioned at the left end of the wall, followed by the two normal ones. Most of the time, this is not an issue, since rarely is there more than one person using them at a time. But when there happens to be that occasion when there are two, the second person is put in a predicament: a) take the regular height one, breaking the man law that you always keep at least one urinal between you and your neighbor or b) take the shorty and risk making a mess, or feeling ridiculous for using what can be described as the “kiddie table” of the bathroom world. Sadly, the only real option here is choice “b”, since choice “a” is only allowed in very few situations, most notably concerts and sports venues.
Why is the shorty not positioned in the middle? If I were designing bathrooms, this would be a no-brainer. Yet I have seen this layout more often than not in countless bathrooms everywhere. If I ruled the world…
For those creepy guys mentioned earlier, do us all a favor and read up on men’s bathroom etiquitte (note #11 in particular).
There is always option c) use a stall; this is not unmanly, it simply means you’d rather go in isolation than break the urinal proximity rule. This is preferable over (b), and (a) simply is not an option. And one other option, d) if the guy at the urinal is finishing up (noted by stillness then movement, which is detectable with periphery vision), meander slowly toward the regular, unoccupied urinal — by the time you get there and are ready to do your part, he’ll be done and stepping away.
Comment by Holmes — September 10, 2009 @ 8:50 am
Um….First I will say that I had no idea there was such a thing as a “shorty” and it makes me laugh that I have lived nearly 44 years and did not know this!
However, my thought is that putting the shorty in the middle may present a problem for the unfortunate dude that must use it. He may get much more of an eye full in his peripheral vision than he intended. (or maybe I am imagining it much lower than it actually is)
hmmmm…something to ponder on my commute home.
PS – Please tell me there is a shorty sink ; )
Comment by Paula — September 11, 2009 @ 1:06 pm