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Kathryn Asked for it - **TMI** Bathroom Question
Ok...so I've always laughed at people who are paranoid public poopers, but now I feel your pain! My old office just didn't have much traffic in the bathroom, and it was a bathroom shared with a whole floor of a building where only 2 other people were actually my coworkers. I don't give two shiits (hah!) if random lady from the law office down the hall smells my poo. Now I'm sharing a bathroom with a floor entirely made up of people I work with! I can't be the new girl who poos at work. CAN NOT.
Problem is that coffee makes me go, and coffee at work is a neccessity. So...what do I do? How do you shy poopers not go at work? Do you spend all day pinching it back? Do you retrain yourself some way? How does this work?
Or do I just brazen it out and make "everybody poops" my new mantra when I see my cube-neighbor's shoes go by my stall?
Yeah, that's right. I just wrote a whole post about poo. You're welcome Kathryn.
Re: Kathryn Asked for it - **TMI** Bathroom Question
I dont' go at work. I hold it all day if I have to go. I've gone twice at work in the almost two years I've been here, and both times were basically emergencies. I wish I was one of those people who could just blithely go at work, but alas, I am not. The combination of the noise and smell makes me too self-conscious.
FWIW, I used to have little shame, but for some reason it's gotten worse in recent years. I don't even like to go at other people's houses or in hotels or whatever, so when we're traveling it's uncomfortable and H yells at me lol.
It depends on how urgent it is. If i can hold it I do, if its making me uncomfortable to sit at my desk then I push it out.
my dh will not go at work. he has been known to leave mid day and come home and poo.
Same thing for me coffee + me=poo, fortunately there are 2 bathrooms on our floor with about 10 stalls in each so it's not reallly an issue. Here are my suggestions; I don't know how realistic this is, but could you get an unscented neutralizing spray (like Oust or something similar) and either take it with you when you go or leave it in the room for everyone to use? You know you aren't the only one who probably worries about this. And whenever I'm somewhere that I need to go and can't hold it and I know someone is waiting or will come in soon after me I go fast, like really fast and immediately flush, then clean up and flush again, that way you can at least limit the time the odor has to disperse around the room.
My BFF and I have spent way to much time talking about #2ing in public.
Yeah if I have to go I will go. No if, and or butts about it. LM A O. Oh I did it again. I crack myself up. Okay. I need to stop.
If I am somewhere with a bunch of stalls and I need to go I flush several times as I am doing my doody! That way there is less smell and no noise. I used to try and hold it but I went to OC one time for a week and something happened where I just couldn't go. At all. That was painful. Took me 1.5 weeks to finally release. If anyone says anything just buy the book Everyone Poops and display it in the bathroom!
It dates back to me getting the idea from somehwere back in preschool that you weren't allowed to poop at school. I don't know why I thought that, but I started holding it then. Usually it is not an issue.
On the rare occasions that I must go outside of the house, I seek out the lesser used bathrooms. This worked well in college (tons of bathrooms), at the when worked at the drs office (there was a common bathroom down the hall), and when I taught I just timed it so I knew most people were teaching. Now, at the restaurant where I work there is a tiny 2 stall bathroom, I just hold it.
DH laughs at me because often the first thing I do when I walk through the door is poop. Usually, I don't even feel the need to go until I am about 5 mins away from home. So I guess my body is trained.
This very scenario is actually why I have always had my coffee first thing in the morning at home to let it kick in before going to work. I really have issues going anywhere but my nice cozy private bathroom.
If that is not an option then you just have to be as discreet as possible. Scope out the bathroom til no one is in the vicinity, swoop in, do a courtesy flush, and get the hell out of there.
Pregnancy presents its own challenges in going to the bathroom on a regular basis so I have had to get creative in finding lonely forgotten about bathrooms.
I'm really lucky because the past two places I have worked have had private bathrooms (no stalls) far enough away that I don't have to worry about noise or smell...and there's spray in there just in case. I used to be embarrassed about going and then using the spray but I've realized I have at least one co-worker who public poos more often (and much stinkier) than I do, which strangely makes me feel better about going at work. I don't like to go at work b/c I answer the main office phone so it's really obvious when I'm away from my desk for more than two minutes, but especially since getting KU I don't have much shame anymore. When you gotta go...
I absolutely hate the feeling of holding it in all day so if I were you I think I'd just suck it up and go...but that's easy for me to say in my situation, lol.
LOL Jade--I needed that this morning!!
I go to a bathroom on my floor that nobody really goes to so I can just let it go withouth worrying about other people. I definitely couldn't hold it all day. Well I do have to hold it while I'm busy putting ten layers of toilet paper on the seat!
I'm thankful that my work has those seat covers. I usually just grab one of those and you do my business, flush several times, then run out of there before anyone knows it was me. And yes, sometimes you can't hold it.
I go to a different floor.
I try to avoid it at work, but eh, I'm not going to kill myself about it all day either.
If its still quiet or busy and I need to go, I just do the repeat flush thing.
I do notice that even when I go in a bathroom at work and can tell someone's just made a stinker (and then see them) I rarely remember who/what happened for more than a minute or two after I leave the bathroom.
I have such a hard time going in public. I've worked in the same building 8 years and I have never pooped in the bathroom even though each floor has several stalls. I don't think I could even if I really really needed to go bad. I usually hold it until I get home or there is a hotel across the street with the best bathrooms so I just go stink up theirs. These bathrooms are awesome! They're marble, always clean, there's never anyone in this particular set of stalls and the door goes all the way down to the floor so even if someone comes in they can't see my feet under the door.
I've known I've had bathroom issues but to see it in writing really makes me sound like a freak.
I'm baffled by how many people refuse to poop at work.
I've never avoided it. If I gotta go, I gotta go. My current building's bathroom sees very little traffic and it is shared by a whole floor of businesses, so even if a female comes in, there's no guarantee that she's one of the two from my office.
The company I was with last year (and for a long time) had private in-our-office-space restrooms and I used them regularly. Anyone who came in was someone I worked with, and occasionally someone I recognized from their shoes. If I was having an upset stomach kind of day I might try to hold it until I was in the bathroom by myself, but eh, if I had to go, I had to go.
I'm tempted to buy everyone in this thread a copy of Everyone Poops.
Too funny.... poop is always a interesting convo.
One thing you can do is not go right before meeting times (5 mins before the hr or 5 mins before the 1/2 hr). This cuts down on the people going to meetings and catching you pooping. You could also try another floor or a different area of the building....
DE IVF #1= 04/11 - BFP
I used to be too...now I kinda wish that I'd trained myself that way all along. I go when I gotta go because the thought of holding it all day just sounds crazy, but I now cringe like crazy when somebody comes in the bathroom when I'm in there.
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!
DH hold is all day. I don't know how he does that--I would be so uncomfortable!
If there are bathrooms on another floor, you could try that.
For me, I would just wait until no one else was in the bathroom. Even then, sometimes someone would come in but it wasn't a big deal. Think about it the other way--would it really affect you if one of your coworkers was pooping in the stall next to you?
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home D
Excellent point. And no...it wouldn't. I'm just being weird because I'm new here and I don't want that to be anybody's first memory of me...
But since I really can't imagine holding it, I'll just stick with extra flushes and call it good enough.
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!
I couldn't go at work if I wanted to. My body just doesn't cooperate away from my own house. It makes vacationing...difficult.
That said, one of my favorite things about working in rural Japan was the ladies rooms. There were always these buttons that you could push to make this ungodly loud sound that drowned out the sound of any and all bodily functions. Even the sound of pee was drowned out at the source. It was awesome.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d
That's so cool! The japanese really know how to do bathrooms...
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!
I am not a work or public pooper. I frequently would come home when I was working to go. My poo issues extend so far as when we went on our honeymoon, I didn't really go for 12 days. I tried everything. And just couldn't do it. It's not pleasant. When I was working I typicially only pooped on Thursdays, my day off. Sometimes on Sundays. But for the most part it was just Thursdays. And that is NOT pleasant. Now that I am not working, and no one is home all day I go multiple times a day, and life is much better!
Also, I can't deal with someone pooping in a stall next to me. It's less than three feet away, and it grosses me out.
the bathroom at my office is huge - like 10 stalls and 5 or 6 sinks, plus a little entry area w/ a make up mirror. And its SILENT and the water is on a timer. I hate used that bathroom - I don't know why people don't design buildings to have white noise machines in public bathrooms. It would make life so much better.
I think public bathrooms should also have industrial strength fans automatically running, that would take care of 1) smell and 2) noise in one swoop.
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d -- BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
Decorate This
The range in homes was ridiculous. I lived with several different families while I was there. One had a separate building that you had to walk to to use the bathroom. The "bathroom" was a dirt hole in the ground. Then I hiked to a different building to watch their great grandfather inhale a bowl of fermented soybeans for breakfast.
Then again, one of the other families had a massive bath - like the tub was the size of a small pool and the shower took up the rest of the room. The toilet there was in a separate area and sported "lady style" and "family style" fountain/blowdry options.
I preferred the second one. A lot.
lovelylittleworld
BFP#2 1/12/12 ~ Missed M/C 8w2d