6 ms·

I never understood why this is bothering anyone, it's part of life! A bit like those toilet sprays...stuff stinks that's it. For me this is a solution for a non

by aquir 5y ago

I never understood why this is bothering anyone, it's part of life! A bit like those toilet sprays...stuff stinks that's it. For me this is a solution for a non-existing problem.

k_ 5y ago
Especially since I kinda doubt said sprays are good for our health. At least they're not better than what they're covering...
- zimpenfish 4y ago
  There was a story recently about someone having blotchy face issues which got better when they were WFH during the plague but almost instantly came back when they were re-officed. Turns out (via an allergy test) they were allergic to some industrial chemical that, surprise, was one of the chemicals in the toilet air freshener and were basically being pepper-sprayed every time they went in. [edit: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/skin-irritated-red-blotchy-years-23682100 https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/skin-irritated... ]
rco8786 5y ago
That's silly. Wanting privacy during our most vulnerable moments is deeply ingrained into our psyche, all the way down to our lizard brains. This is a very real and very legitimate problem to be solved. Surely, you must feel perfectly comfortable walking around naked, having people watch you defecate, or having sex in public? After all, it's part of life!
- moron4hire 5y ago
  I honestly don't give a shit if someone knows I'm taking a shit.
  - oceanplexian 5y ago
    It's all fun and games until you have explosive diarrhea and your coworkers are making Taco Bell jokes for the next 6 months.
    - moron4hire 4y ago
      I don't work at a tech company or with other programmers anymore, so nobody is that juvenile.
- clint 5y ago
  Won't reply to all the strawmen at the bottom of your post, but I and lots of people don't care what people HEAR while we're using the bathroom.... its a bathroom for god's sake! Everything happening in there is normal and I'm not sure why you are imagining yourself to be "vulnerable" inside a locked private room.
  - newman8r 5y ago
    This is probably an interesting way to group people - those who care vs those who don't. I tend to be very conscious of the noise I'm projecting - I always prefer for people who I can't see to not be able to hear me. I'm not just talking about the restroom - this also includes talking loudly in public, playing music loudly around others, etc. I feel it's like a privacy thing to me. I'd prefer people not to notice me unless it's intentional.
  - jasondigitized 5y ago
    I’m willing to bet 50% of people in the U.S. get anxious when having to do their business in a public bathroom. Doing your business next to a stranger in Tevas with hobbit feet and a serious gastro intestinal issue is nightmare fuel for me.
    - outsidetheparty 4y ago
      It's funny how people tend to assume their own characteristics are global phenomena, or at least common; isn't it? Looks like the actual number is somewhere closer to 2.8% - 16.4% of people [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28554367/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28554367/]. (This study was specifically about "shy bladder" but that seems a pretty close proxy)
      - jasondigitized 4y ago
        Not shy bladder at all. I’ll let it rip. Doesn’t mean I or others enjoy the experience.
      - rco8786 4y ago
_bfhp 4y ago
I am highly sensitive to not bother anyone but I agree with this. This reeks of the tech mentality of trying to overcome nature and separate everyone into neat little pods. Eventually we are going to have to face and accept our natural human bodies as a species. For hundreds of years the market has offered us escape from them, with new technologies to plaster over our "faults" every decade. If only we had listened to the hairy armpit feminists when they were shouting this at us in the 60s and 70s...
Karawebnetwork 4y ago
I can offer a perspective: being a woman in tech is already very othering. You can be the only person on an entire floor to use that bathroom. Having your coworkers hear what is going on inside can be very distressing (especially when we consider existing taboos). Some neutral bathrooms that share a room between genders can amplify this, for example where I work there is a shared sink but cabins have wooden doors that go from floor to ceiling. Great to hide from eyesight, not so great for sounds. Exiting the cabin and noticing that a coworker of another gender was in the same room hearing everything you have done can be anxiety inducing. People with health conditions also come to mind. IBS for example can result in some violent evacuations. Not everyone wants their coworkers to be aware of their health conditions. People expect privacy, that's it.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Graffur 4y ago
Bathroom sharing is not "natural". I visited a slum in India and was told a story about how shared public toilets were installed because people didn't have toilets and had to go outside. Guess what? People didn't want to use the toilets because they thought it was disgusting! That was a bit of a mind opener for me.
autoexec 4y ago
It's not a problem everyone has, but it's a real problem for some. the Japanese Sound Princess is another product that exists just to solve it.
mythrwy 4y ago
Those toilet sprays just stink and don't actually mask the oder, correct. But there is another series of products, you drop a few drops in the toilet before pooping and it's remarkably effective at eliminating the after stink that wafts out smelling up the building. First one (which I could never find again) was called "Whoopsie Poopsie" but there is also one called "Just A Drop Before You Go". Both were very effective and there are probably other brands that do the same thing. https://prelamshop.com/en/ https://prelamshop.com/en/ Passing along because I wish I'd known of these a long time ago they would have saved a lot of discomfort and embarrassment.

by aquir 5y ago

I never understood why this is bothering anyone, it's part of life! A bit like those toilet sprays...stuff stinks that's it. For me this is a solution for a non-existing problem.

k_ 5y ago

Especially since I kinda doubt said sprays are good for our health. At least they're not better than what they're covering...

zimpenfish 4y ago
There was a story recently about someone having blotchy face issues which got better when they were WFH during the plague but almost instantly came back when they were re-officed. Turns out (via an allergy test) they were allergic to some industrial chemical that, surprise, was one of the chemicals in the toilet air freshener and were basically being pepper-sprayed every time they went in. [edit: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/skin-irritated-red-blotchy-years-23682100 https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/skin-irritated... ]

rco8786 5y ago

That's silly. Wanting privacy during our most vulnerable moments is deeply ingrained into our psyche, all the way down to our lizard brains. This is a very real and very legitimate problem to be solved. Surely, you must feel perfectly comfortable walking around naked, having people watch you defecate, or having sex in public? After all, it's part of life!

moron4hire 5y ago
I honestly don't give a shit if someone knows I'm taking a shit.
- oceanplexian 5y ago
  It's all fun and games until you have explosive diarrhea and your coworkers are making Taco Bell jokes for the next 6 months.
  - moron4hire 4y ago
    I don't work at a tech company or with other programmers anymore, so nobody is that juvenile.
clint 5y ago
Won't reply to all the strawmen at the bottom of your post, but I and lots of people don't care what people HEAR while we're using the bathroom.... its a bathroom for god's sake! Everything happening in there is normal and I'm not sure why you are imagining yourself to be "vulnerable" inside a locked private room.
- newman8r 5y ago
  This is probably an interesting way to group people - those who care vs those who don't. I tend to be very conscious of the noise I'm projecting - I always prefer for people who I can't see to not be able to hear me. I'm not just talking about the restroom - this also includes talking loudly in public, playing music loudly around others, etc. I feel it's like a privacy thing to me. I'd prefer people not to notice me unless it's intentional.
- jasondigitized 5y ago
  I’m willing to bet 50% of people in the U.S. get anxious when having to do their business in a public bathroom. Doing your business next to a stranger in Tevas with hobbit feet and a serious gastro intestinal issue is nightmare fuel for me.
  - outsidetheparty 4y ago
    It's funny how people tend to assume their own characteristics are global phenomena, or at least common; isn't it? Looks like the actual number is somewhere closer to 2.8% - 16.4% of people [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28554367/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28554367/]. (This study was specifically about "shy bladder" but that seems a pretty close proxy)
    - jasondigitized 4y ago
      Not shy bladder at all. I’ll let it rip. Doesn’t mean I or others enjoy the experience.
    - rco8786 4y ago

_bfhp 4y ago

I am highly sensitive to not bother anyone but I agree with this. This reeks of the tech mentality of trying to overcome nature and separate everyone into neat little pods. Eventually we are going to have to face and accept our natural human bodies as a species. For hundreds of years the market has offered us escape from them, with new technologies to plaster over our "faults" every decade. If only we had listened to the hairy armpit feminists when they were shouting this at us in the 60s and 70s...

Karawebnetwork 4y ago

I can offer a perspective: being a woman in tech is already very othering. You can be the only person on an entire floor to use that bathroom. Having your coworkers hear what is going on inside can be very distressing (especially when we consider existing taboos). Some neutral bathrooms that share a room between genders can amplify this, for example where I work there is a shared sink but cabins have wooden doors that go from floor to ceiling. Great to hide from eyesight, not so great for sounds. Exiting the cabin and noticing that a coworker of another gender was in the same room hearing everything you have done can be anxiety inducing. People with health conditions also come to mind. IBS for example can result in some violent evacuations. Not everyone wants their coworkers to be aware of their health conditions. People expect privacy, that's it.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Graffur 4y ago

Bathroom sharing is not "natural". I visited a slum in India and was told a story about how shared public toilets were installed because people didn't have toilets and had to go outside. Guess what? People didn't want to use the toilets because they thought it was disgusting! That was a bit of a mind opener for me.

autoexec 4y ago

It's not a problem everyone has, but it's a real problem for some. the Japanese Sound Princess is another product that exists just to solve it.

mythrwy 4y ago

Those toilet sprays just stink and don't actually mask the oder, correct. But there is another series of products, you drop a few drops in the toilet before pooping and it's remarkably effective at eliminating the after stink that wafts out smelling up the building. First one (which I could never find again) was called "Whoopsie Poopsie" but there is also one called "Just A Drop Before You Go". Both were very effective and there are probably other brands that do the same thing. https://prelamshop.com/en/ https://prelamshop.com/en/ Passing along because I wish I'd known of these a long time ago they would have saved a lot of discomfort and embarrassment.