# What kind of pigs do I work with?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 29, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047 "2013-04-29T21:12:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/1 "2013-04-29T21:12:24Z")
The facilities management of my office has deemed it necessary to post little signs in all the mens rooms, reminding us to:
Not flush paper towels
Not throw toilet seat liners (aka “ass gaskets”) in the trash
Remember to flush.
Don’t stand on the toilet seats.
I don’t work at a highway rest stop, or a biker bar…I work in the headquarters of global behemoth, a member of the DJIA.
Apparently some of my co-workers have not been let out unattended before.
(Seriously…who would flush a paper towel?)
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/2 "2013-04-29T21:28:09Z")
Seriously. I worked in retail for the first 17 years of my working life. Now I’m more of a professional office setting.
The bathroom habits, hands down, are far worse in the professional setting. I don’t know if it’s age of what (retail co-workers were 18-mid 30s, office co-workers are 30s-50s) but the dudes are disgusting. I don’t know how many times I’ve held my tongue when sitting in a stall next to some loud grunter not to say “WTF! Are you giving birth over there!?!”
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### Author:  [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/3 "2013-04-29T21:33:13Z")
My own white-collar office is equally slobbish, so I’m unsurprised by the first three reminders. (_Flush your fucking turds, people!_)
But, I’m baffled by “Don’t stand on the toilet seats.” Why would anybody, slob or otherwise, stand on a toilet seat?
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### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/4 "2013-04-29T21:33:47Z")
> [@Hampshire](#):
>
> Seriously. I worked in retail for the first 17 years of my working life. Now I’m more of a professional office setting.
> The bathroom habits, hands down, are far worse in the professional setting. I don’t know if it’s age of what (retail co-workers were 18-mid 30s, office co-workers are 30s-50s) but the dudes are disgusting. I don’t know how many times I’ve held my tongue when sitting in a stall next to some loud grunter not to say “WTF! Are you giving birth over there!?!”
“WHO DOES NUMBER TWO WORK FOR?” x
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/5 "2013-04-29T21:37:16Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#):
>
> My own white-collar office is equally slobbish, so I’m unsurprised by the first three reminders. (_Flush your fucking turds, people!_)
>
> But, I’m baffled by “Don’t stand on the toilet seats.” Why would anybody, slob or otherwise, stand on a toilet seat?
Apparently, it’s a[problem.](http://forums.soompi.com/discussion/289520/dont-stand-on-the-toilet-seat)
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### Author:  [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/6 "2013-04-29T21:41:48Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#):
>
> But, I’m baffled by “Don’t stand on the toilet seats.” Why would anybody, slob or otherwise, stand on a toilet seat?
I’m only speculating…going out on a limb here…in other parts of the world they don’t always have our commode style toilets. If you grew up using a squat-hole toilet, occasionally you might find that the more comfortable option for you. How do you replicate the squat-hole? …by standing (squatting) on the toilet seat. It does kinda change the whole vector of your business.
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/7 "2013-04-29T21:44:29Z")
> [@Icarus](#):
>
> I’m only speculating…going out on a limb here…in other parts of the world they don’t always have our commode style toilets. If you grew up using a squat-hole toilet, occasionally you might find that the more comfortable option for you. How do you replicate the squat-hole? …by standing (squatting) on the toilet seat. It does kinda change the whole vector of your business.
I’ve speculated in the same direction. Lots of my co-workers are fresh off the boat.
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### Author:  [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/8 "2013-04-29T21:46:00Z")
Do you have a lot of employees from other countries who might not have similar plumbing systems and are thus unaware of what’s flushable, or who might be used to toilets where you crouch over a hole? (I used a public flush toilet in Italy that looked exactly like an American-style public bathroom, down to the hand dryers, except that instead of the usual toilet there was a hole in the tile with a grooved foot rest on either side. Seriously.)
(Edit: Too slow at typing!)
I gather that some American women who think that public bathrooms are germy refuse to sit their asses down and will hover or even crouch atop the toilet seat. This surely does not help the germ situation.
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/9 "2013-04-29T22:02:30Z")
We had this problem at an IBM site I was working at. The VP in charge of the place had to fire some people, and that just got the number of incidents down to the point where it wasn’t worth reporting any more.
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2013, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/10 "2013-04-29T22:20:34Z")
If you’re disgusted by what you see in a men’s washroom, you don’t want to know what I’ve found in a women’s washroom. :eek:
Seriously, were people not toilet-trained properly as kids, or what?
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### Author:  [@Sahirrnee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sahirrnee)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/11 "2013-04-30T01:49:18Z")
I’m too literal.
I came here thinking I’d learn something about hogs.
I’m better at identifying cows and horses.
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### Author:  [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/12 "2013-04-30T13:04:30Z")
> [@sahirrnee](#):
>
> I’m too literal.
>
> I came here thinking I’d learn something about hogs.
>
> I’m better at identifying cows and horses.
Real pigs are less disgusting than a lot of people out there. ☹
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/13 "2013-04-30T13:19:17Z")
Once I was using a urinal at work. A guy next to me finishes, grabs a toilet seat liner off the wall, uses it to wipe his hands, and then bunches it up and throws it in the urinal. This was in a federal government office building–not a public area.
So yeah, people are pigs. Well, at least enough of them to mess up the bathroom for the rest of us.
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### Author:  [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/14 "2013-04-30T13:24:03Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> We had this problem at an IBM site I was working at.
..does that make them irritating bowel movements..?
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### Author:  [@TXRebel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TXRebel)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/15 "2013-04-30T13:28:33Z")
Oh, I have to go with EmilyG. Women’s restrooms are disgusting! Do they live like that at home? I’m baffled by the behavior of otherwise nice, seemingly fastidious women.
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### Author:  [@Trom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trom)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/16 "2013-04-30T14:44:42Z")
> [@TXRebel](#):
>
> Oh, I have to go with EmilyG. Women’s restrooms are disgusting! Do they live like that at home? I’m baffled by the behavior of otherwise nice, seemingly fastidious women.
My first job in high school was doing maintenance/janitorial work at a hockey arena. The men’s rooms would occasionally have some paper towels on the ground. The women’s rooms were a war zone. :eek:
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/17 "2013-04-30T14:52:15Z")
As someone who used to clean public bathrooms, I can attest that women are far worse. But men can be pretty bad.
There’s someone at work here who constantly lines the toilet seat with paper towels. And then leaves them there. I presume that this is because they are too disgusting for him to remove. Why should he touch something that his ass has been on? His ASS?
And someone has been throwing some disgusting black liquid in the sink and not rinsing it out. It’s a problem because it’s usually splashed on the outside of the sink as well. I’m always afraid my tie is going to touch it.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/18 "2013-04-30T15:01:33Z")
Another workplace bathroom practice I never understood was people who did their dishes in the sinks by rinsing their leftovers down the drain. When I was a little kid, my mom taught me to use a napkin or paper towel to wipe the solids into the trash, \*then \*put the dishes in the sink. Apparently that’s becoming a lost skill.
Nothing like turning on the water to wash your hands and seeing froot loops floating out of the drain…
And dropping paper towels 3" from the garbage receptacle? Really? Your mom must be so proud… :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/19 "2013-04-30T15:03:10Z")
Speaking of the squat holes wouldn’t diarrhea be a messy problem?
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### Author:  [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2013, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-kind-of-pigs-do-i-work-with/657047/20 "2013-04-30T15:34:40Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#):
>
> Another workplace bathroom practice I never understood was people who did their dishes in the sinks by rinsing their leftovers down the drain. When I was a little kid, my mom taught me to use a napkin or paper towel to wipe the solids into the trash, \*then \*put the dishes in the sink. Apparently that’s becoming a lost skill.
The leftovers-down-the-sink crowd probably grew up with an in-sink garbage disposal, and then assumed that they come equipped in every sink in the universe. It’s surprising how little people THINK about their surroundings.
And I consider it my sworn duty to make fun of germophobes who are afraid of touching toilet seats, door handles, trash cans, and other “dirty” places.
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