16 April 2013

Ends without means. Images of Canberra

| EmpressC
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toilets

Was quietly minding my own business (as you do) whilst visiting the amenities in a local Australian Government building when I actually paid attention to the sign on the back of the door.

Good to see that all areas of government can offer useless bits of advice without actually giving you the tools to fix the problem.

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Is the sign part of an “aspirational” govt goal for cleaner toilets?

I recall seeing similar toilet signage elsewhere, with more instructions. Something like:
“Please ensure the toilet is clean after use. Use brush if necessary after use”

IIRC, the original was more verbose!

johnboy said :

Plus as a very wise man once said to me:

“There’s nothing so satisfying as taking a dump on company time”

St Sorbent’s Letter to the Poonicians?

(Yes, someone just had a boozy lunch.)

Children who don’t flush and parents who nevertheless think junior is old enough to use the toilet unsupervised. Again, I doubt it would happen at home.

My building signage includes “Ensure sanitary products are only placed in the receptacles provided”.
In the male toilets. Are blood stained dressings sanitary products? Of course, the only provided receptacle is for the used paper towels.

As for cleaning up, with what? I could borrow the brush from the kitchen sink. Thats the only tool provided.

poetix said :

This thread reminds me of why I like working alone at home.

You have to clean your own toilet at home 🙁
Also, pooping at work saves you like 20c on toilet paper per roll…..

Plus as a very wise man once said to me:

“There’s nothing so satisfying as taking a dump on company time”

This thread reminds me of why I like working alone at home.

Interestingly, my organisation has tiolet brushes in an interstate office but not in the Canberra one. Sometimes it would help; if only they were used.

I was a cellarman in a previous life and pub closing time taught me that women don’t look after the bogs as well as men. Although for some of the blokes the pub toilet was used more than their home one so they tended to look after it very well indeed.

Have to say though, the only thing worse than going in to a pungent WC is looking at the state of the bowl in some of them.

gentoopenguin9:42 am 17 Apr 13

Tetranitrate said :

magiccar9 said :

People who are hired by Government departments are fully grown adults.

[Citation Needed]

But jokes aside, the biggest issue, particularly at universities and in public places frequented by tourists (eg Sydney CBD) are mainland Chinese who simply refuse to use the toilets as designed and try to ‘squat’ on top of them, with predictable and disgusting results.

+1 And also Indians. The toilets in the IT department at my work are disgusting. You wouldn’t go near the toilets unless your bowels were about to explode. All the seats are broken off their hinges from bearing weight at awkward squat angles and there are footprints all over the seats.

Before anyone PC jumps in, this is not a stereotype or racist – these are the toilets habits of certain cultures.

Jethro said :

KB1971 said :

Mmm, you people are quick to judge the Public Service……..I was in SA doing a compliance audit on a manufacturing company earlier this year & the toilet had more signs in it that you could poke a stick at……..wash your hands, dont pee on the seat, put the seat down…….there was even a colour chart for your wee to make sure you were not dehydrated.

People in South Australia are a little slower than the rest of us. They tend to pee on their hands and not wash them afterwards.

Often they do this because they’re dehydrated from serial killing.

:P:P

KB1971 said :

Mmm, you people are quick to judge the Public Service……..I was in SA doing a compliance audit on a manufacturing company earlier this year & the toilet had more signs in it that you could poke a stick at……..wash your hands, dont pee on the seat, put the seat down…….there was even a colour chart for your wee to make sure you were not dehydrated.

People in South Australia are a little slower than the rest of us. They tend to pee on their hands and not wash them afterwards.

Often they do this because they’re dehydrated from serial killing.

How very interesting to see a sign on here that I see every single day (multiple times a day) of the working week…….. You have no idea of what some (I’ll give some of it away) females are capable of in a public, yet work environment toilet, really quite horrible (gross) and sad…. 🙁 As some others have implied, how do these people treat their own toilet at home??? A real worry……

Mmm, you people are quick to judge the Public Service……..I was in SA doing a compliance audit on a manufacturing company earlier this year & the toilet had more signs in it that you could poke a stick at……..wash your hands, dont pee on the seat, put the seat down…….there was even a colour chart for your wee to make sure you were not dehydrated.

All in the name of WHS……..

There’s a government building in Canberra where the staff are very compliant around using toilet brushes, which are provided in every cubicle … may be coincidental, but there is a high proportion of boarding school alumni there …

I have it on reasonable authority that toilet brushes were a staff request at deewr during a particularly painful period of staff consultation where the big wigs tried to look like humans who cared about practical office improvements. Maybe it was actually a kind hearted attempt to make up for what seemed like 2 years of redundancies but in the end the toilet brush suggestion never saw light of day .. instead we were delivered … another committee! Maybe toilet hygiene could be a standing agenda item? One really does wonder sometimes.

Madam Cholet5:31 pm 16 Apr 13

God yes! Everyone has one of these stories. We have had one of these unhygienic people who think that they can leave the toilet in the most disgusting state. I wouldn’t even do at home what this person does at work. And I might add that they probably should visit the doctor as their insides must be rotten.

When I enquired in our office years ago about getting brushes, it was declined because it was thought that the brushes would then be unhygienic to have sitting around. I really do fee for the cleaners who have to tidy up after these people.

A very odorous topic indeed.

In my building, the problem does not appear to be with people from other cultures who attempt to adapt the bowl to their traditional toileting posture. Rather, it is with people who don’t seem to understand that flushing is done to get rid of waste and one should be sure all the waste is gone (and even, if necessary, flush again!) before exiting the cubicle. They seem to think it’s a feng shui water feature or something, I guess.

Some people have a tendency to turn in to five year olds when they enter the cubicle.

Tetranitrate3:10 pm 16 Apr 13

OP’s picture isn’t quite as amusing as
http://imageshack.us/a/img855/79/anuo.jpg

Tetranitrate3:04 pm 16 Apr 13

magiccar9 said :

People who are hired by Government departments are fully grown adults.

[Citation Needed]

But jokes aside, the biggest issue, particularly at universities and in public places frequented by tourists (eg Sydney CBD) are mainland Chinese who simply refuse to use the toilets as designed and try to ‘squat’ on top of them, with predictable and disgusting results.

GardeningGirl2:51 pm 16 Apr 13

I’ve seen signs in a government building reminding people to wash their hands. Sadly I have seen some who think the area with the washbasins and mirror is simply for doing hair and reapplying lippy when you exit the cubicle.

Passive Aggressive signage is the natural product of Government Offices. I have some pearlers! My personal favourite is someone suggesting people not put tea leaves, coffee grounds or ANYTHING down the tearoom drain.

The sign was removed when a smart-arse wrote “What is your view on water?”

What a sad society we live in when we need these sorts of signs in workplaces.
People who are hired by Government departments are fully grown adults – if they need a sign to remind them, then frankly they shouldn’t be allowed out of the house.

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