Why, when using the toilet in your office...

[VannaB]

and say, there are 3 cubicles and someone has just been in one cubicle and is now washing their hands (so you didn't see which one they came out of), do you always find yourself drawn to the toilet they have just used and is still making that filling up noise?
Is the flushing action some sort of magnet that pulls you to it? Or is it only me who has noticed this? If you haven't then see what happens tomorrow at work/school/uni.

[Lonnie]

Doesn't really matter, your always going to use one that someone else has used, however, if perchance, you use the one thats just been used, it may still be warm, so sit back and be comfortable.

[warpig1]

LOL Vanna, I always go to the toilet that they definately haven't used, just the thought of sitting on someones elses butt heat, yuck! Also if there are three cubicles and the one at one end is occupied I would always go to the one at the opposite end, would never dream of using the middle on unless I had to, weird or what. Maybe we should check out if there is some sort of toilet etiquette?

[sg]

Yes it's true, you're always going to use one that someone else has used, however, if it's the one that has most recently been evacuated then you will get a sense of the aftermath which is never pleasant.
On a similar stream, if, like our work, there are five cubicles in a row and you are occupying one, why oh why would another bloke come in use the one that's next door to you? Surely that's against the unwritten rules.
Thirdly, I would like to call for the piping of music or the sound of running water into all workplace washrooms, is anyone with me on that one?

[Clanad]

I call it The Swinging Chain Complex... in line with Lonnie's post, many of us here in the western U.S. didn't have indoor plumbing in our youth. So, in the winter, especially, we ranch kids would get our chores done, catch the school bus and run into the school bathroom looking for the swinging chain (the old styles had a wooden box about 7 feet off the floo from which a chain and wooden handle hung to flush the system). One would look for the swinging chain because it almost guaranteed a warm seat. And... hey, after being used to an outdoor toilet, smells didn't make much difference. But (no pun intended) after feeding the cows in minus 20 degree F cold, the promise of a warm seat was near and dear to our hearts...

[VannaB]

sg...-how traumatic that someone uses the next cubicle. That IS wrong and against toilet law. I HATE people that do that! Do they need 'company' in order to go?
From a woman's point of view, I also dislike ladies who pee loudly, as if perched at the top of the cubicle door, emptying out a large bucket of water below, or those people who appear to have almost stopped peeing (you can't help but overhear if they are the 'lady with the bucket' type) then unleash a 2nd bucket full as if they have some sort of tag team weeing going on with an unknown accomplice.
Tisk!

[Clanad]

... and then there's the ones that talk on their cell phones while using the "facilities"... I even answered the stall next to mine when the guy said (in a cell yell voice).. "yeah... yeah... how ya' doin'? I said , "well, considering, pretty good", before realizing what was actually happening... sheesh!

[greendog]

Don�t mind using public/communal toilets if it�s a no1 � I�m male you see.

But if it�s a no2, I do feel a little uncomfortable.

Apart from the question of cleanliness, odours, residual butt heat etc. I have a thing about other toileteers hearing my plop.

My solution is to place some toilet roll in the bowl first to provide some padding - a kind of anti-plop landing pad.

Is that weird?

[warpig1]

greendog, I do that as well to mask the plop sound, ha ha, but its all the more funny when you are trying to be quite and discrete then someone goes into the next cubicle and lets out a cacophony of sounds and grunts!!! Also if the person 'next door' is leaving before me I try to time my plop to coincide with their toiet flush!

So no, not weird in my book, perfectly normal.

[Avatar]

My theory on this is that, in a row of 3 cubicles, you are drawn to the farthest fo the 3 because it has only 1 adjoinee and is somehow better than the nearest one. Other people probably follow a similar rule and this is why, when you come in and someone has just vacated, you end up going in the same cubicle.
Sometimes other issues come into play in selection criteria however. Is there enough loo roll left? Is the seat clean, not cracked? Is the bowl empty and relatively skid free?
As a by the by, the trumpeting noises let out by cubicle occupants prior to beginning their business proper are known as 'starters orders'