Blokes avoiding the urinals and peeing all over the toilet seat instead. Is this a thing now ?

[Peter Mugridge]

You want a nice wooden seat.

I am not fitting any kind of heavy seat here - I can guarantee you that someone here ( not me ) would slam it down and crack the pan within days.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not a question of exposure, more a bit of a faff in buttoning back up - I find it easier to do that in a cubicle!

Er, how is that the case, the process is the same whether at a urinal or cubicle?

 

[Temple Meads]

Years ago, my mother had a job as a cleaner in a block of offices.

Although cleaning the men's toilets sometimes had its challenges, apparently it was nothing compared to the women's.
And the aftermath of the office Christmas party would turn your stomach.

A friend who works as a HR manager confirms this dichotomy has not changed in the 21st Century.

As someone who does exactly that job now, I have to say that the female toilets are in a far better state than the male ones by the end of the working day, with the exception of a lot more unused paper being dropped on the floor in the ladies.

It helps that sanitary bags and bins are provided, I suspect!

 

[AndrewE]

Er, how is that the case, the process is the same whether at a urinal or cubicle?

Do you remember seeing old signs saying "Please adjust your dress before leaving [a public convenience]" - or something similar? A friend at work used to mix 2 notices and intone "Please adjust your dress before leaving... A refusal often offends!" For the younger readres here, some pubs used to have signs saying "Please do not ask for credit, a refusal often offends!"

Hate to break it to you guys, but women can be disgusting too. Peeing on the seat isn't male preserve, nor is not washing your hands afterwards.

I remember travelling on trains coming out of Yugoslavia: I think the local population were accustomed to "squattee" toilets and hence squatted on the seats - with the obvious consequences for the plastic - and the rest of the compartment surroundings! Also imagine (or preferably don't try to) the consequences on their aim in a rough-riding train...
The first station in Austria had a very extended dwell time and cleaners (with arms full of bog rolls and soap) were still on the train as it progressed west!
However I have to say that as I approach my 3 score years and 10, "Sitzpinkling" is getting a lot more attractive - and requires less wiping up afterwards too...

 

[Meole]

Many years ago I learnt that peeing on the seat was a sign of a posh education after following the then DPM into a lavatory and finding in a disgusting state.

 

[Cowley]

Many years ago I learnt that peeing on the seat was a sign of a posh education after following the then DPM into a lavatory and finding in a disgusting state.

We’re all friends here.
Who was it (just give the years if you want)..?
Did he have a choice of Jaguars to use?

 

[trebor79]

We’re all friends here.
Who was it (just give the years if you want)..?
Did he have a choice of Jaguars to use?

I don't think that one had a posh education!

 

[Cowley]

I don't think that one had a posh education!

Good point.

 

[DarloRich]

I would never dream of using a urinal. But surely if we're using a cubicle we sit down?? Thick headed society we live in if not.

It used to be the case that urinals would have privacy dividers. Now they usually don't. I think this may be part of the cause, and I also think the dividers need reinstating.

Why? What are you worried about? That another man may look at your equipment?

Perhaps a combination of liking the privacy a cubicle delivers, but just a bit too lazy to bend their legs, just to sit?

I always cover the seat with toilet paper, just to be uber safe.

WTF? why?

When it's already wet from someone else, people won't want to touch it to lift and there's not point anyway as it's already wet.

Use your foot if it is a such a big problem!

You could just "hover" a couple of inches above the seat?

Erm................................

 

[Bletchleyite]

Why? What are you worried about? That another man may look at your equipment?

Well, yes, some people are. Not for sexual reasons, but because they just want their private parts to be, er, private.

One thing I've never understood is why you feel that just because you seem to be someone who lives life very much in public (which is fine if that's what suits you) why others should not be desirous of privacy?

As for putting paper on the seat, I've never entirely understood that. The immune system is pretty good and you can't catch STDs from a bog seat, there has AIUI never been a single case of this happening as the viruses can't live outside the body for any significant length of time.

 

[DarloRich]

Well, yes, some people are.

One thing I've never understood is why you feel that just because you seem to be someone who lives life very much in public (which is fine if that's what suits you) why others should not be desirous of privacy?

it is a urinal for goodness sake! We have been using them for years. Personally I am not worried about the state of my equipment nor am I interested in the equipment of another man. One person in a million is there to check out your equipment and if they are good for them. Why waste energy worrying? I just don't get it. I really don't. People here seem to have hang ups about such minor things that i wonder how some survive the real world.

Personally, I am more worried about that seemingly endless moment ( but is in fact only a second) we all have when you use a urinal and nothing will come out. THAT is uncomfortable.

BTW: Try going to the match and see how quickly you end up using a urinal.

Anyway the rules of urinal use are clear: Eyes forward, always leave one urinal empty between each user, no talking, get the job done and get out.

 

[westv]

It used to be the case that urinals would have privacy dividers. Now they usually don't. I think this may be part of the cause, and I also think the dividers need reinstating.

100% agree with that.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Yes...it happens all the time, notice it every day when I go swimming....and don't get me started on men not washing their hands....

What would happen if you did get started?

For what it's worth, I'm not sure the 'always wash your hands' thing is so clear cut: If you've just used the urinal, then presumably the only things you've touched are... yourself, and your trouser zip/buttons. However, if the toilet has taps that you have to physically touch to operate, then washing your hands means you need to handle a tap that's already been handled by - maybe, hundreds of other people since it was last cleaned. And those ones that you have to press down and which only let the water flow while you're pressing them down are even worse, as those mean you have to press firmly for several seconds, exactly where everyone else was pressing it - and continue pressing with at least one hand after you've finished washing it. I wonder whether, depending on what kinds of taps the toilet has and how careful you were when you were peeing/doing up your trousers/etc., washing your hands might actually be a lot worse for hygiene than not washing them.

 

[ac6000cw]

Actually, urinals (even without dividers) are an upgrade from typical gents loos years ago, where commonly there was just a long trough with a splash-back (which got rinsed occasionally if you were lucky). Some heritage railways still have working examples...

Personally I quite often find the urinals are in a better state than the cubicles - I just don't understand why some people think it's OK to just leave their mess for 'someone else' to clear up.

 

[DarloRich]

For what it's worth, I'm not sure the 'always wash your hands' thing is so clear cut: If you've just used the urinal, then presumably the only things you've touched are... yourself, and your trouser zip/buttons.

Exactly. Is touching the outside of your, erm......................................... sausage ( not sure if the actual word or colloquialisms are allowed) very briefly really that different to touching, say, your arm? I get if you have had a sit down toilet session you are going to want to wash but I am not sure that merely using a urinal necessarily needs a vast hand washing ritual thereafter. I do wash my hands but more out of habit than anything else

 

[trebor79]

Of course you need to wash your hands after using a urinal. There will be possibly splash back and unless you achieve perfect tangential meeting between stream and urinal wall, very fine droplets of other gentlemen's wee wee on your hands.

 

[DarloRich]

Of course you need to wash your hands after using a urinal. There will be possibly splash back and unless you achieve perfect tangential meeting between stream and urinal wall, very fine droplets of other gentlemen's wee wee on your hands.

from a foot away? these droplets are very active! How close are the urinals that you use?

 

[BluePenguin]

I would never dream of using a urinal. But surely if we're using a cubicle we sit down?? Thick headed society we live in if not.

Why is that? Just curious, if worried about hygiene then surely the urinal is cleaner as you don’t have to touch anything?

 

[BluePenguin]

I disagree.

I have noticed that this is seems a thing with the younger generation. My son has always had an aversion to using a urinal since a young age and always went for the privacy of a cubicle which I could never understand. I then started noticing that many young people in places like train stations and motorway services would queue for cubicles even when urinals were free.

Is he unable (or not learnt/taught to) aim well perhaps? One of my friends picked up on this the other day. On the plus side, more free urinals makes going to the toilet easier when in a rush

 

[BluePenguin]

It used to be the case that urinals would have privacy dividers. Now they usually don't. I think this may be part of the cause, and I also think the dividers need reinstating.

Is anyone really that bothered though? Personally I don’t anyone is ever “looking” as such. People want to empty and go.

 

[headshot119]

it is a urinal for goodness sake! We have been using them for years. Personally I am not worried about the state of my equipment nor am I interested in the equipment of another man. One person in a million is there to check out your equipment and if they are good for them. Why waste energy worrying? I just don't get it. I really don't. People here seem to have hang ups about such minor things that i wonder how some survive the real world.

Personally, I am more worried about that seemingly endless moment ( but is in fact only a second) we all have when you use a urinal and nothing will come out. THAT is uncomfortable.

BTW: Try going to the match and see how quickly you end up using a urinal.

Anyway the rules of urinal use are clear: Eyes forward, always leave one urinal empty between each user, no talking, get the job done and get out.

I'm glad to see someone has raised the correct urinal etiquette in this thread.

 

[BluePenguin]

Exactly. Is touching the outside of your, erm......................................... sausage ( not sure if the actual word or colloquialisms are allowed) very briefly really that different to touching, say, your arm? I get if you have had a sit down toilet session you are going to want to wash but I am not sure that merely using a urinal necessarily needs a vast hand washing ritual thereafter. I do wash my hands but more out of habit than anything else

Well, put into plain terms some men do touch their sausage roll to give it a little shake whilst others give it amore vigorous shake if their meat is more covered up than normal to remove excess urine. Hygiene depends on these factors. If not covered at all say, only zips and trousers need to be touched of course.

My biggest gripe is men not retracting who otherwise should due to their poor aim. Being splashed by someone else’s urine is not at all pleasant. Don’t get me started on the ones with phimosis. I did avoid urines in college for a while after that incident

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

What would happen if you did get started?

For what it's worth, I'm not sure the 'always wash your hands' thing is so clear cut: If you've just used the urinal, then presumably the only things you've touched are... yourself, and your trouser zip/buttons. However, if the toilet has taps that you have to physically touch to operate, then washing your hands means you need to handle a tap that's already been handled by - maybe, hundreds of other people since it was last cleaned. And those ones that you have to press down and which only let the water flow while you're pressing them down are even worse, as those mean you have to press firmly for several seconds, exactly where everyone else was pressing it - and continue pressing with at least one hand after you've finished washing it. I wonder whether, depending on what kinds of taps the toilet has and how careful you were when you were peeing/doing up your trousers/etc., washing your hands might actually be a lot worse for hygiene than not washing them.

Take your point...but I did spend over 35 years in Nursing and so I will always be conscious of infection control! I do understand that there are many different kinds of taps and the 'press down' taps are the worst, but there is evidence from what I recall that far more germs are spread by not washing hands than washing them....especially for those who have just used toilet paper for wiping themselves.
Trains used to have clear signage in the toilet...'Gentlemen lift the seat'.
Allied to the question posed by the OP....the gym/pool that I have used for 15 years have very recently converted two of the communal showers into cubicles, probably following requests, so there might be a developing trend. Mostly, it appears, they are used by young people (can't help noticing when I am enjoying my communal shower!)

 

[trebor79]

Of course you need to wash your hands after using a urinal. There will be possibly splash back and unless you achieve perfect tangential meeting between stream and urinal wall, very fine droplets of other gentlemen's wee wee on your hands.

from a foot away? these droplets are very active! How close are the urinals that you use?

They will travel several metres in certain circumstances actually. It's not the drops you can see, but the barely visible and microscopic ones.

 

[ashkeba]

It used to be the case that urinals would have privacy dividers. Now they usually don't. I think this may be part of the cause, and I also think the dividers need reinstating.

And stop installing all the urinals at knee height! Some men are tall! Bring back full height troughs with dividers!

 

[ashkeba]

However, if the toilet has taps that you have to physically touch to operate, then washing your hands means you need to handle a tap that's already been handled by - maybe, hundreds of other people since it was last cleaned.

And all of them will have touched it last with a clean hand to turn it off because few public toilet sinks have plugs! And taps are mostly metal so things don't live on them much.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

And all of them will have touched it last with a clean hand to turn it off because few public toilet sinks have plugs! And taps are mostly metal so things don't live on them much.

How clean their hands are depends on how well they washed them! Would you want to put your trust in that hundreds of strangers washed their hands well enough not to leave something nasty to infect you? The point about metal is interesting, although I'd have thought that in a well used public toilet, the taps would be being handled so often that they would be constantly slightly damp - which I would guess would make it easier for things to live there? (Just speculating... obviously I'm not an expert. Although if as @Arglwydd Golau says, there is research confirming washing hands is better, that's obviously relevant.

For what it's worth, like @DarloRich I do almost always wash my hands out of habit, but I do wonder about the arguments for doing so.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

I just don't understand why some people think it's OK to just leave their mess for 'someone else' to clear up.

I think Boris Johnson and Teresa May would agree with you!

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Perhaps a combination of liking the privacy a cubicle delivers

I tend to prefer cubicles to urinals if one is available, and on occasions have queued for a cubicle even when urinals are free. The reason is a combination of: Generally prefer privacy; cubicles have toilet roll - which is sometimes useful for wiping away the last drops, and depending what trousers I'm wearing, it may be more comfortable to pull them down a little rather than just opening the zip - which would seem a bit inappropriate if I'm not in a private cubicle.

Does this thread need an 'X' rating or something?

Totally agree with those commenting about people leaving toilets in a mess. I do really think that if you're using a public toilet, you should at least try to leave to toilet in the same state that you found it.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

...and depending what trousers I'm wearing, it may be more comfortable to pull them down a little rather than just opening the zip - which would seem a bit inappropriate if I'm not in a private cubicle.

Trouser manufacturers don't help in that respect; in many cases the zips they provide now are too short to be of real use. There have been complaints of that nature in newspapers, so it seems to be fairly widespread; probably cost cutting - presumably shorter zips cost less and multiply that by the millions of pairs of trousers sold each year...