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> The lavatories at the WeWork at 524 Broadway in Manhattan, incidentally, are terrific—enclosed stalls with clever toile wallpaper featuring a repeating print
by GreaterFool 9y ago
> The lavatories at the WeWork at 524 Broadway in Manhattan, incidentally, are terrific—enclosed stalls with clever toile wallpaper featuring a repeating print of surveillance cameras partially obscured by roses and leaves.
This. The toilet stalls in US are the worst. No privacy whatsoever. Seems like their design is meant to oppress. Hurry you back to work, grunt!
In WeWork I can go to a quiet dark room, with moody music, and take a shit, in peace.
- jdavis703 9y ago> take a shit, in peace Which is annoying, because there are only a fixed number of stalls (in my WeWork there are 7 total stalls for all the men in a 7 story building). I hate going from to floor looking for a place to take a shit. Unless you had something really sickening for breakfast or lunch, taking a shit should not take more than 2 minutes. I don't know what people are doing in the bathroom that takes them so long, but I suspect it's people taking a break from their work in privacy.
- ringwalt 9y agoAs of 3 years ago, the WeWork at Bowling Green was also tight on bathrooms, but the private stalls automatically unlocked after 5 minutes. It seemed like a genius idea, but there was still always a line of several people (and the building was so cramped that I didn't really blame other people for wanting to get more than 3 feet away from their coworkers for a few minutes).
- RhodesianHunter 9y agoThe problem here is NOT people taking too long in the restroom. The problem here is not enough restrooms.
- dingo_bat 9y agoThose two metrics are closely correlated though.
- lacker 9y agoI worked for Google back in the olden days when most people didn't have a smart phone. One holiday season, they did this really cool thing where everybody got a free Android phone. Starting the next day and continuing forever, the toilet stalls were full all the time. TLDR technology has a downside
- reledi 9y agoSounds like an office design problem if people are using the toilets as their private space. Maybe there was no other existing space for the same purpose, that is, a space where you are alone and have complete privacy.
- lacker 9y agoYou don't need a private space to waste time on your phone.
- lozenge 9y agoHow is that legal? In the UK, over 5 employees means you need 2 toilets, over 25 means you need 3.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoIn our new office, our stalls are laid out in such a way that you can make eye contact with the person shitting across from you. Aside from all the other myriad god-awful decisions that someone didn't think through, this one weirds me out the most. I know it's hard to see these things on blueprints, but it's as if these people never shit. (I know, I know - the correct answer is, "this is the cheap best-practice way of installing toilet stalls". Fuck you; I'm glad I have a private unisex bathroom I can typically use to handle private bodily functions.)
- maxxxxx 9y agoOpen plan bathrooms are great for collaboration though. What works for the office should also work for bathrooms, right?
- quickthrower2 9y agoWTF? I can't imagine what this looks like. Any link to an image? The only place I've seen adult toilets like this is in a prison tour.
- pavel_lishin 9y agoIt's through the gaps; it's not like a giant window you can stare at someone through. But the positioning is incredibly unfortunate.
- adriand 9y agoI know HN does not reward these reactions with upvotes, but: ALWP. A lot of laughter. I'm still chuckling. This is amazing. And here I thought that urinals without a divider were awkward.
- js2 9y agoI thought he was shitting me, but alas. Anyway, brings an old SNL skit to mind – the love toilet. Look it up.
- 9y ago
- sotojuan 9y agoNothing worse than the standard American corporate building restroom system - each floor has one or two bathrooms per gender and each company has to give keys to the employees when they go to the bathroom. Aside from being annoying (how many times have you wanted to go but there's no key?), people lose the keys and well, they may not wash their hands. Do these buildings do this for security? I'll never understand. In my current office we share a few bathrooms with one other company but there's no key at least.
- munin 9y ago> Do these buildings do this for security? Yes. One building we were in had a problem where people would walk in off the street, then hide in the bathroom to attack or mug people. The hope with the key protocol is that potential attackers would enter, try the bathroom door, see it was locked, then leave. Cheaper than having a security guard 24/7.
- toomanybeersies 9y agoWhere do you live that bathroom muggers are an occupational hazard? That's bizarre.
- the_jeremy 9y agowait. Other people seem to be reacting like you're serious. Are you serious?
- 9y ago
- GordonS 9y agoAgreed. I've only ever seen toilet stalls like this in the US, where the doors and walls are so low that everything from the navel up is totally on show...it's just fucking weird. Do female toilets have these kind of stalls too?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- JBlue42 9y agoAt two different workplaces there was always a 'class' divide in the bathrooms. For us workers, the standard bright lights, stalls (w/ the gaps people are talking about), uncomfortable temperatures at times, noise, etc. Then there were client bathrooms on a different floor. At one workplace, it was twice the size of the normal bathroom with the same amenities (2 stalls, 2 urinals), quieter, music, and air spray. The other workplace also had 'client' bathrooms which were two private bathrooms. Both of the latter were a mainstay for people going off to take private dumps.