The stalls at my work have zero gaps whatsoever and the door/walls (which are made of wood) go almost to the floor. There’s fairly high quality locking handles that indicate whether or not it’s occupied. It’s amazing and I don’t know of any other public restroom in my area like it.
It always baffles me that this is considered a luxury in the USA while in Germany (and I assume most of Europe) this is the absolute standard. Stalls where the door doesn’t lock properly or where the indicator on the outside is faded so that you can’t reliably determine if it’s occupied are already considered signs of bad maintenance. Gaps that you can look through without pressing your face right against them would be a “nope, I’ll never visit this place again” level scandal.
I am so jealous. My old work had stalls with gaps. The whole room was a bit tight, so you couldn’t just back up far enough to see the feet of the person in the stall. The locks were installed in such a way that if you pulled the door a little, it would open. (So a discreet soft pull on the door was not a good way of determining occupancy.)
The only way to know was to look in the gap.
I was about to go in a stall when I made eye contact with the current occupant of said stall. She just yelled out “YOU CREEPIN?”
I am of course not socially awkward at all and was completely normal when I replied back “no… Sorry.”
Actual privacy in a multi-stall bathroom would be so nice.
Why didn’t you try knocking? Knock twice 2 times, with a few seconds pause in between, if no response, then you can try the door. Going straight to looking into the gap is … creepy imo.
Edit: this was in reply to “The only way to know was to look in the gap.”. And no it wasn’t. Knock for fucks sake, have some manners.
The locks were installed in such a way that if you pulled the door a little, it would open. (So a discreet soft pull on the door was not a good way of determining occupancy.)
Starting with pulling on the door is already impolite imo. If there is no visual cue as to the occupancy of the room, then the first thing one should do is knock. If the light is off or the occupancy signal says it’s free, then sure, try the handle. Otherwise knock first, give the person who is shitting there a chance to reply with “occupied” or to knock back. But looking through gaps or trying if the door opens with the handle and then going “oops sorry”, please no.
Same goes up for offices, meeting spaces, bedrooms etc, when the door is closed and it could be occupied, always knock before attempting to enter. Less bad when someone does it, but still, one could just knock.
The stalls at my work have zero gaps whatsoever and the door/walls (which are made of wood) go almost to the floor. There’s fairly high quality locking handles that indicate whether or not it’s occupied. It’s amazing and I don’t know of any other public restroom in my area like it.
I’ve worked a couple places where the stalls were like that. There are fixtures they can add to the gaps to cut them off.
Also, places that have all-gender group restrooms typically install gapless stalls because of obvious reasons.
Really? That’s what I’d expect even in a run-down public toilet in a train station over here in Austria.
Y’all have standards. Rights, even.
-over here in insert anywhere but the US.
It always baffles me that this is considered a luxury in the USA while in Germany (and I assume most of Europe) this is the absolute standard. Stalls where the door doesn’t lock properly or where the indicator on the outside is faded so that you can’t reliably determine if it’s occupied are already considered signs of bad maintenance. Gaps that you can look through without pressing your face right against them would be a “nope, I’ll never visit this place again” level scandal.
I am so jealous. My old work had stalls with gaps. The whole room was a bit tight, so you couldn’t just back up far enough to see the feet of the person in the stall. The locks were installed in such a way that if you pulled the door a little, it would open. (So a discreet soft pull on the door was not a good way of determining occupancy.)
The only way to know was to look in the gap.
I was about to go in a stall when I made eye contact with the current occupant of said stall. She just yelled out “YOU CREEPIN?”
I am of course not socially awkward at all and was completely normal when I replied back “no… Sorry.”
Actual privacy in a multi-stall bathroom would be so nice.
Why didn’t you try knocking? Knock twice 2 times, with a few seconds pause in between, if no response, then you can try the door. Going straight to looking into the gap is … creepy imo.
Edit: this was in reply to “The only way to know was to look in the gap.”. And no it wasn’t. Knock for fucks sake, have some manners.
Maybe because of that?
Starting with pulling on the door is already impolite imo. If there is no visual cue as to the occupancy of the room, then the first thing one should do is knock. If the light is off or the occupancy signal says it’s free, then sure, try the handle. Otherwise knock first, give the person who is shitting there a chance to reply with “occupied” or to knock back. But looking through gaps or trying if the door opens with the handle and then going “oops sorry”, please no.
Same goes up for offices, meeting spaces, bedrooms etc, when the door is closed and it could be occupied, always knock before attempting to enter. Less bad when someone does it, but still, one could just knock.