You know what I mean… those little flat tripod signs that show a guy taking a tumble, and some words like CAUTION. WET FLOOR. They always put these signs up in the middle of a busy hall or doorway, and they stick around for hours after the twelve seconds the floor takes to dry. These signs always seem to me to be an unnecessary evil, I’m willing to bet they cause more harm than good. You may think differently.
What sort of harm?
I think that the signs are there for liability reasons. If someone slips and falls they can’t say that they didn’t know it was wet and sue the store.
I personally have had a traumatic encounter with such a sign. It hid just around the corner from the entrance corridor to my office, snidely proclaiming the overwhelming wetness of the single drop of water on the floor. The drop that, I might point out, was always in that particular spot because of the slow drip of the cooling system high above. I rounded the corner one morning in my use precaffeinated daze, and the insidious yellow beast, deliberately and with malice aforethought, tripped me, sending me tumbling to the cement floor. Only my early gymnastic training, acquired before it became obvious that I was about as gymnastic as a geriatric hippo, saved me from broken bones. And there the damn thing sat, smugly shouting “PISO MOJADO” to all the world, which–as we all know–is wetfloorsignese for “Look at the clumsy dope on the floor!”
I had my revenge, though. That sign had an “accidental” encounter with some interesting solvents later that day. The only way it’ll trip anyone again is if they scrape up the puddle and smoke it.
I don’t want to pick on anyone personally, but assuming your vision is okay, how dumb do you have to be to trip over a Wet Floor sign? They’re two feet tall and brighty yellow! Water is clear and slippery.
The signs are mostly for the few times that the water doesen’t take 12 seconds to dry.
What do you expect from somone who calls himself as Balance?
** ducks and runs… and slips and falls **
[sub]I am so going to Hell for this. :D[/sub]
Simple enough–it was hiding from me. It was right around a corner I had rounded a thousand times, where there was always a drop of water that I stepped over, and where there had never before been any obstruction.
Oh, and my vision wasn’t exactly up to snuff, either–my eyes were badly dilated from my first-thing-in-the-morning eye doctor appointment. Do we have a blind-guy smiley? I guess this will do 
Keith, I prefer to think of my name as a spiritual thing. 
Don’t feel too badly, Balance, I’ve tripped over them, too. I swear housekeeping conspires to put them in my way when I’m in a hurry or juggling other things, like trying to push an ICU bed down the corridor along with all its accompanying equipment. I’m not looking down at the ground for signs, I’m looking ahead to make sure I don’t knock some poor old lady over who’s standing in the middle of the corridor, lost and trying to find the restrooms.
The other problem is, those signs cry “wolf” too much. Because the spend the majority of their time guarding dry floors, I tend to blow them off and expect that the floor is dry anyway.
I hate those things. Every time I follow the instructions, they bust me for public urination again. It says “Wet”. It says “Piso”. What do they want?!?!?
Dijon Warlock reminds me of when I was working in Slough, the company had frequent plumbing problems and the signs put outside the gents were always. “Toilets out of order, Wet Floor” I don’t think anyone ever complied fully with the sign’s orders though.
Cheers, Bippy
Piso? The ones I see always say ACHTUNG! CUIDADO! CAUTION! and have a drawing of somonme slipping.
If there’s a two-foot tall lady wearing a yellow dress, that chick is toast.
piso mojado = wet floor, not “piss on the floor”! :smack:
The one I love is when there’s a sign on the door warning you to be careful about the wet floor warning signs…
Viking —they actually have those?
I’ve probably knocked about two or three of those signs over, usually when placed in a narrow corridor between two closed doors. I don’t think I have ever seen a sign on the floor when it was actually still wet.
Granted, there was little physical harm. But emotionally, man, it haunts my every dream and waking moment.
None of the wet floors I’ve seen actually had the sign. I have never seen a janitor remove one of these signs. I think it’s a scam perpetuated on the gullible public.