I haven’t liked most of the bathroom attendants I’ve dealt with, but I actually like the guy who runs the bathroom at one of my regular clubs. He’s kind of a concierge. In addition to the typical duties (soap/water/towel), he’s slipped me concert and sports tickets and VIP/backstage passes, makes sure he stocks obscure stuff his regulars use (he carries CLOVE GUM because he knows I like it), can get discounts at nearby restaurants and hotels, knows where afterparties are… I’ve definitely gotten more than my money’s worth from tipping him.
These days, it has gotten to the point where some places will flat out refuse entry to a guy without a girl. Heaven help a group of guys who roll up to one of these joints without some ladies to balance out the ratio.
I haven’t encountered one of those guys since about 1987- back in my clubbing days- until a couple months ago at a wedding in Staten Island. This wedding-factory place was about as cheeseball as you can get, complete with 80-year old bathroom attendant. I think the bottles of Old Spice and Brut (by Faberge!) were original from back in 1973.
I stepped up to the bank of sinks, purposely approaching one about 4 away from where he was standing. He turned on the faucet at the one next to him and said “over here!” as I was turning on the one in front of me. I said “I’m OK here”. I typically turn on the water, wet my hands, then turn it off as I get soap and lather up. When I turned it off to get the soap, he said “what are you doing?!?!” and walked over to turn it back on.
I don’t know if I just pissed him off, but he seemed awfully grumpy for an attendant shilling for tips. Sorry buddy, this is my routine. If I grew up with butlers wiping the tip of my dick after I peed and assisting me with my daily ablutions, I’d be more receptive to your grumbling and scolding of my hand-washing habits. Anyway, I let him hand me a paper towel, from the basket approximately eight inches from my own hand. Unfortunately, as I was at a wedding and had been tipping the bartender for the last several rounds of drinks for me, my wife and inlaws, I only had a ten and a couple 20’s.
Barking at me and handing me a paper towel doesn’t earn you a 10-spot, my good man. Sorry, buddy.
How many telemarketers have reached through the phone lines and touched you while you were taking a whiz?
BubbaDog, my point in posting that little nugget was to point out an apparent inconsistency - that is, you can have several threads bitching out telemarketers, but as soon as you point out that a bathroom attendant is annoying, the chorus of “won’t somebody think of the bathroom attendants?” immediately starts up.
From my perspective, both telemarketers and bathroom attendants interrupt you while you’re doing something important to try to sell you something you don’t need. Sorry if I seem disrespectful.
Hehe, this had me laughing. I had the exact experience a few times in China. Stumble into a bathroom on autopilot, squat down and let my eyes adjust, then all of a sudden rapid-focus-frame (a la Battlestar Galactica) on the little old lady by the door staring at me :eek: I have a nervous bladder/bowel under the best of circumstances; I had to attain internal meditative peace the like of which the Dalai Lama has never seen to be able to squeeze my goodies out.
I always wondered what happened to all those travel agents once the internet made them superfluous. Good to know they’re still in the service industry… 
Not one. Plenty of them have interrupted my whiz, sleep, dinner, work, play just to try to sell me crap. And I can honestly say I’ve never had a restroom attendant touch me while I was pissing. If one ever did I’m sure that my quickly turning to face him while in full stream would remind him never to do that again.
And my point was to show you that your point is weak, at best. The bathroom attendant is there to attend to you and help you. If he does his job poorly by pestering you he’s still a whole lot less annoying than some asshole giving you a sales pitch from nowhere.
From my perspective, a restroom attendant is unnecessary. A telemarketer though, is just an asshole.
At least he didn’t offer to hold it for you while you took your whizz.
I actually met a couple at a party who ran a company that provided restroom attendant services. They said it was fairly lucrative and that the attendants made decent money in tips.
It’s a bit more than shilling cologne, they also try and keep things clean and keep people from doing drugs and making dope deals in the bathrooms.
I consider it worth tipping $1 to a ladies’ room attendant if she’s keeping the place clean and supplied. It’s nice to go into a restroom where the floor is not dirty, the counters are wiped dry between uses, all the stalls have TP, etc.
Was it on Letterman where they set up a guy as a men’s room attendant at a Manhattan McDonald’s?
Improv Everywhere did it.
They may have shown it on Letterman, but it was by a group called Improv Everywhere. And the guy even made some tips!
I don’t mind the ladies room attendant, either. i was totally saved once by one having a couple of tampons when I was caught short, so she definitely deserved her tip that day. But if they’ll keep the place clean, so much the better.
ETA: Dammit, and here I thought I was replying so quickly!
I always figured it was more about security, but that they figured people would react better to an “attendant” than to a security guard in the bathroom. There was one at a strip club I went to; I figured it was to keep guys from wanking. The guy was an ass - he decided to give me a lesson on how to wash my hands. He forfeited his tip right there.
There was a priceless SNL sketch once where Kevin Nealon played a restroom attendant who sat next to a patron while the patron was using the toilet, sprayed air freshener as the guy did his business, and handed him toilet paper when he was done. Really captured that feeling of intrusiveness we get from those attendants.
Yes, yes, yes… The only thing worse than the American, upscale thing would have to be the Northern-European janitor ladies.
You go in, and (not always inside, but usually in the hallway before both rooms) you’ll see an older lady sitting there with a plate with a few coins on it. Honestly I’ve only seen this in Germany and the Netherlands. Maybe France too. Not Spain or Scandinavia. You don’t have to pay, but I generally pay something if I use the toilet and nothing for the urinal. Now, granted. They are usually pretty clean, but how does this system even work? A full-time janitor for one set of bathrooms? It’s a shit job, I know, but why tip them? I don’t like being shamed into paying money to use the bathroom. I’ve done shit jobs before (I’d rather deal with bathrooms than garbage, like I did) and I never expected to get paid. On the other hand if I were doing it in my older years I’d be a bit cross too.
If you want to make fees for using the bathroom, fair enough. I don’t want to be coerced into paying through guilt.
As for the American, upscale thing? It’s awful. I feel sorry for them. But it’s a totally unnecessary job. It shouldn’t exist. I understand luxury I guess, but I don’t want a guy watching me pee.
I thought these guys only existed in the movies. Are there still buildings with elevator operators also?
All of them.
I don’t like to talk about it.
Uh, yeah, you are expected to tip them just for handing you a towel, assuming the place is clean and the towel is clean. Their job is to keep the place clean for the customers, for which they deserve some thanks if they are doing it and you appreciate it. if you are the type who pees all over the toilet and then doesn’t even use the sink, by all means stiff the guy who has to clean up after you.
Do ladies rooms have attendants? I’ve always wondered.