First, you must see a picture.
Restroom of the damned
Taking this picture, I need you to know, turned out to be one of the more difficult things I’ve had to do recently in the name of art. There was no lock on the door, and just as I had squeezed into the corner with my camera and was framing up the shot, a gentleman burst in. We stood frozen, each as surprised as the other, for several seconds. He held the door open so that I could leave, and so I left. We exchanged no words. I came back later.
So, here we have a urinal and a toilet, sat next to each other in the restroom. There is a lock on the door. Perhaps a helpful American can fill me in on the etiquette here. Do I lock the door if I’m intending having a number two in the toilet, but leave it open if I’m having a number one in the urinal? If I walk in and someone is using the urinal, am I allowed to pee in the toilet, or is it strictly reserved for number twos? Is it acceptable for me to drop my trousers, mutter a cheery “good evening” and sit down for a crap? May I sing?
Of the various possible situations that this special restroom configuration offers, I have so far only come across one instance of dual occupancy, and that was when I was having a pee in the urinal (having left the door unlocked) and someone else came in and had a pee in the toilet. This, I have to admit, was something of a relief. Oh, and there was that time when I was taking the photo.
I treat the situation the way I treat it at work (where there is a toilet and urinal); I lock the door. If it would be awkward to share a bathroom with a pal from work it would be awkward to share it with a stranger.
The appropriate etiquette is that you should not lock the door at all. If you are alone in the restroom, you must leave it unlocked for someone else to enter. If you are not, you would be locking someone else in the restroom with you, which is clearly a distressing situation.
If you are the first to enter the restroom, you should use the toilet, regardless of what you need to do. If you are doing a #2, you are socially required to casually place your hands so as to conceal any bits that might make a later arrival uncomfortable. If you are doing a #1, you should stand at an angle to the bowl such that these bits are naturally concealed from view by a later arrival.
If you are the second to enter the restroom, you may not do a #2 at all. You may use the available facility (urinal or toilet) for a #1 provided you stand at the aforementioned angle that naturally conceals your bits. If you need to do a #2, you should leave the restroom and return when the other occupant has left.
In any case, your responsibility when entering a men’s restroom with another occupant is to clearly avoid direct eye contact with someone else’s bits, and clearly facilitate such avoidance of eye contact with your own bits. This is a remnant of the puritanical influence from the early colonists.
I obviously think too much about American social behaviors and the rationale behind them.
I haven’t seen very many restrooms like this but I would always expect there to be a lock on the door and use it.
I actually thought about this more and also thought that if another person was to be allowed entrance while someone else is in the bathroom they would have a swinging style door to enter the restroom, a door that doesn’t click and lock.
I’m an American [New Yawkah subspecies migrated to Tennessee] and I’d say adamantly that you should lock the door and be the sole occupier of the can [as I prefer to call it].
I think it may have been designed that way for a couple reasons: 1. to save on water. I suspect the urinal uses less water than the toilet. 2. to give a place for sloppy/lazy pissers to go so they won’t go all over the seat or accurate pissers who don’t lift the seat and so spray it with some splashback from the toilet.
There is no way you should share that space nor feel guilty about it. Although if that’s the handicap bathroom and there are ordinary ones around you should get out and use the normal one like a non-handicapped person should.
Far, far too much time on your hands…..
Well, you certainly should not pee on another man’s leg. So it is good that the urinal and the toilet in this particular loo have been adequately positioned to avoid this happenstance (notwithstanding a scallywag’s direct intent to employ his privates in such a dastardly undertaking).
However, I think not only should you share the room, but when you and another chap are doing #1 and the other is doing #2, if either one should loudly expel gas during their individual excretions, the other should clap very loudly in honor of this event. And take a deep breath. And smile.
I … simply don’t know. If I had to say right this minute, I would hedge and say lock the door at all times. Or not.
Etiquette, shmetiquette. I’m locking it.
Oh, and I’d probably hang a charity box outside the place, for people to donate money for a remodel. I mean, really…
One has to wonder why there isn’t a simple door separating the toilet section from the urinal section. And why on earth there’s a rail behind the toilet? Is this ficility located on an earthquake-prone area?
Or, maybe, it was designed for something else rather than simply taking a leak.
In America (Michigan at least) you would lock the door and use the device of your choice, they are both there for your preferential usage…
oh so funny, i haven’t laughed so much, this is good, thank you
In America using the bathroom is considered to be a more private ritual and while some other cultures may find this situation acceptable, I know for fact I would feel very uncomfortable if I walked in on someone using the toilet to number 2. My response would be to say excuse me and come back at another time unless I really, really had to go, then all conventions would be thrown out the window. I would then quickly go about my business avoiding eye contact, wash my hands and get out as quickly as humanly possible. I do believe there are situations where such a bathroom layout is acceptable such as in a private residence between a sibling or with a spouse.
No you are all completely and utterly wrong. The toilet is strictly for dire number two emergencies and the handicapped. The bars behind the toilet are the proof that it is for the handicapped.
The lock on the door is to be used at absolutely all times in a single occupancy.
I’ve always thought that for restrooms like those, if you came in first and you need to do a #1, you use the urinal. If a person enters and you’re using the urinal, they’re free to use the toilet for whatever purpose.
I love this post! As a woman and a Brit, I’ve not encountered this setup, not having been in any male toilets in the U.S. (actually that’s a lie – I’ve been in the gents under the bar in the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, and I suspect most women who’ve been there have as well). But I have been in a unisex toilet in France where the loos were behind doors but there was a line of urinals to negotiate before reaching them, and that was pretty off-putting.
If I walk into that type of bathroom layout and it’s empty, I won’t lock the door if I’m just going to use the urinal. It won’t bother me if someone walks in while I’m peeing. Then it’s his call whether he wants to use the toilet, wait for the urinal, or go back outside until I finish. I walked into that type of bathroom at a gas station recently with a guy standing at the sink. I hesitated at first, and he said, “It’s cool. You can come in.”, so I did and used the urinal with him standing there at the sink. It’s a public bathroom. I don’t need privacy when I need to go.
The urinal uses less water to flush… which is what a European would think of .. us Americans regularly forget these kinds of simple things.. ie: euro toilets often have two flush options… so, lock the door, and depending on your impending eco output needs, choose your weapon.