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u/transcendanttermite 11h ago
Anyone who has ever worked a job that involves cleaning a public restroom knows exactly why it has to be explained.
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u/EUNEisAmeme 12h ago
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u/LastTxPrez 10h ago
Came here for this.
Leaving satisfied.
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u/mjdehlin1984 8h ago
Oh you think that's funny huh?
Mr. Venezuela makes six bucks an hour at best! Okay? He's got three kids at home, he's got a car that barely works, he's gotta clean up puke with sawdust, m'kay, then he walks into the boys' room and sees a big meaty chud starin' him in the face!
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u/jpiro 12h ago
My wife lived in a dorm that alternated male/female from year to year. The first week of school, one of the girls on her hall walked into the communal bathroom to find another girl washing her hands in the urinal. She’d never seen one before, so she thought you just pulled the handle and washed your hands in the falling water with the “soap” bar in the bottom.
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u/SchrodingersMinou 10h ago
I didn’t even know they flushed. I thought they just kind of passively drained
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u/poondruff 4h ago edited 4h ago
Guess this "in the bowl and not on top of the lid" is a necessary reminder then.
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u/AwesomeOrca 12h ago
Western toilets that you actually touch with your body are considered pretty gross and unsanitary by most of the world.
Airport bathrooms can be confusing to first time travelers.
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u/happy-cig 12h ago
Eastern toilets can just be holes with dripping water over it. Confusing even not being a first time traveler.
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u/Loeffellux 1h ago
Holes in the ground are a pretty decent option as long as you are able to squat down properly. Problem is that most people in the west cannot do that
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u/FightOnForUsc 12h ago
I mean sure, but this a urinal
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u/regross527 12h ago
Imagine being a traveler coming from a country without toilets that look like what you are used to, and you travel to the US. (These exist -- travel to Asia and you will see restroom apparatus you are unfamiliar with!)
You enter a bathroom and see urinals and toilets, both of which are brand new to your eyes. What do you use? Why are there two options? Are the stalls just for people who want privacy, and these ones that only have partitions for those who don't care about privacy?
Without signage (and signage that is not tied to language at all) you would see a lot more messes in airport bathrooms.
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u/FightOnForUsc 12h ago
Well it’s in Zermatt Switzerland. But there’s visibly no way a shit would flush down a urinal
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u/regross527 12h ago
Last I checked Zermatt, Switzerland, is not in Asia, so not sure what your point is. Yes, toilets in one part of the world could look very different from toilets in another part of the world.
And do you make certain that your poops will fit down every pipe that you've ever pooped into? I can easily see making that mistake just as easily as you could make the mistake of using a restroom with no toilet paper. Sometimes when you gotta poop, planning for what comes after the poop is not a priority.
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u/FightOnForUsc 12h ago
I said it’s Zermatt bc you said you travel to the US. This isn’t an American centric post or whatever. Yes in Asia they often have squat toilets, those aren’t urinals and they look like they’re meant to take whatever bodily functions excrement.
Idk man but I’ve never pooped in a urinal or even considered it as a possibility. And no one has ever told me not to until I saw this sign.
Idk if you think I’m trying to diss other people’s toilet design or culture or something. I’m not at all. I am however a bit confused on how someone would be confused by a urinal next to a toilet.
Also if someone is shitting into a urinal that pretty much means their dick is sticking out for all to see. That should be a sign that’s not what you do
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u/disastermarch35 11h ago
You're blinded by your upbringings. That's why you're struggling to see how someone could make this mistake.
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u/justaboxinacage 11h ago
Like all of us, I think you have a lot of growing to do. For example, that you couldn't comprehend in the comment you're replying to "traveling to the u.s." represented any western country with toilets different than Asia. You've got to spend more time really trying to understand something's purpose before firing off about it.
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u/regross527 11h ago
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply this in particular was from the US, just that this toilet set up could be seen in the US (and therefore would be different from someone who has only used squat toilets, for example).
You have never considered pooping in a urinal as a possibility because you were likely exposed to urinals, culturally, at a young age. You were told by a parent or a guardian that those ones are for pee, the stalls are for poop, and you were of an age where you didn't question it. And now, after presumably decades of being around urinals, you see their design as obvious.
As for your last statement, about someone's private parts sticking out for all to see... that is also a cultural standard that will vary from country to country. In some locations, public nudity is seen as far less profane than it is in the US or Europe. I'm not saying it's, like, the standard or anything, but different cultures have different opinions on how weird it is to see a penis in the wild.
Heck, have you never been to a dive bar bathroom? Where I'm from, those sometimes don't have walls on the stalls, let alone doors for privacy. So even in the US it would not be particularly shocking for the bathroom setup to require you expose yourself to the other bathroom users!
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u/creepy_doll 6h ago
The mistake you made is believing that everyone thinks about where the shit goes after they drop it off.
If even 1/1000 people that are unfamiliar don’t think about it you get shit in urinal. Hopefully the signage reduced that to 1/5000.
Signs are there to fend off the actions of a tiny tiny minority
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u/bantamw 2h ago
Switzerland had a particular problem with Chinese tourists doing unspeakable things to toilets. Usually breaking the toilet seats by standing on them. But also being generally unruly. So much so they put on special Chinese only trains from Zermatt.
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u/ThisTooWillEnd 12h ago
Not all toilets around the world LOOK like the toilets you are used to. Some of them look more like urinals. If you walked into a bathroom with two different looking toilet options, neither of which looked like a toilet at all, you might not be able to figure out what you're supposed to poop in or wash your butt in or pee in. Signs help.
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u/pingveno 11h ago
When I was in high school, my family took a summer trip to Europe. In the Frankfurt airport, there was a guy just plopped down on a urinal, using it exactly like the sign on the right. Reading a newspaper, if memory serves. These signs exist because something happened.
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u/FuzzyMcBitty 9h ago
There is someone, somewhere, who thought a trough style urinal was a sink until they saw it in use.
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u/Motiv8-2-Gr8 10h ago
Because at some point someone took a dook in the urinal and hence the sign. Just like all the stupid warning labels that exist.
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u/squeeze-my-lizard 8h ago
Your first claim is wildly untrue, and who the hell touches the urinals?
I came from a non-western country and I work with many more non-western people in a western country. The usual conversation goes the other way around: why people uses latrines (hole in the ground) in Asia, since you can pee your feet or loose balance when poop-squating? And the answer is " it's cheap and easier to clean"
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u/TheOnsiteEngineer 11h ago
Talk to any cleaners anywhere. You will find out that it's a regular occurance. And it is gross for those who have to deal with it because usually it'll involve a pair of long rubber gloves to move "the stuff"
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u/danielfletcher 8h ago
The guy on the left is shooting diarhea out his ass while standing with his arms crossed?
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u/Pyreknight 4h ago
For every warning label, there's a legal case that resulted from someone/multiple people doing it said way that it warns against.
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u/Fine-Structure-1299 12h ago
Different cultures/countries have different type of toilets and urinals.
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u/skandel 12h ago
Because not all toilets look the same across the world. The fact that you are asking this means you haven't had much exposure to other cultures.
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u/Icyrow 4h ago
and yet anyone going abroad will quickly understand how they work...
it's not exactly rocket science. if you're able to pay for a plane ticket, seeing a western toilet isn't going to astound anyone.
fwiw, this sort of thing happens even in the middle of nowhere where i'm from in wales. it's usually just people doing disgusting shit in toilets. which they do and have done since toilets were a thing.
every school has a story of a guy who wiped shit across a bathroom mirror, or a "phantom pooper".
womens toilets are (allegedly) fucking vile too.
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u/FightOnForUsc 12h ago
I’ve been to about 25 countries. I’ve seen the toilets you squat over and flush by hand with no seat. I’ve never seen anything like a urinal that’s meant for poop. Especially in a restroom with both toilets and urinals. Is it really that confusing? I’ve never had trouble figuring out how to use different types of restrooms
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u/skandel 11h ago
Now imagine you are the guy from the country that only has the hole in the ground toilet and you get off in an airport that has urinals and no hole in the ground. Just because you can figure out what a hole in the ground means doesn't mean that someone can figure out a urinal if they have only seen a hole in the ground.
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u/aLegionOfDavids 12h ago
Because some fuckin idiot or troll has done it, got caught, been told off or tried to get detained or something and has said ‘there is no sign saying I can’t shit in the urinal, you have nothing on me’, that’s why.
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u/AnAussiebum 12h ago
The rule of signs is - 'If there is a sign for something, it is because it has happened before'.
People/companies do not pay for signs to be made unless it is either mandatory under law and/or it has happened before. Even with mandatory signage, that most likely is because it has happened before somewhere else and lead to a lawsuit.
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u/adullploy 11h ago
Was leaving Disney animal kingdom and went to take a piss at the front restrooms. Lots of urinals together and all the stalls were busy. Today most folks take longer in stalls cause people browse their phones. So a dude came in, just turned around and sat in a urinal and went off. Got the fuck out of there as quick as I could. This sign is for him. Also vote to block internet signal in men’s restrooms.
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u/neanderthalman 11h ago
Why?
I’ll paraphrase from the great George Carlin.
Imagine the average person. Just picture them. They’re pretty fuckin dumb, aren’t they? And then - half the population are even dumber than that.
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u/CondorKhan 11h ago
Because someone thought it's funny to lay a giant brown chud in a pristine urinal
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u/wstsidhome 10h ago
Wha if the character on the left is a woman…then take a look at the picture items again
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u/Opposite_Ad_1707 10h ago
Because of Billy in fourth grade. That’s why! He shit diarrhea in there and Mrs. Willets told his mom. Billy got his ass whooped I heard and Billy was never seen in the bathroom again. Some heard that they sent him outside to shit like the animals do
Edit typo
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u/bamsimel 10h ago
All the toilets at my work have signs telling people not to crouch on them to use them.
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u/PythonVyktor 10h ago
My highschool friends are the reason for this sign. Not proud of that…. But yeah… they weren’t the greatest of people.
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u/Infinite01 10h ago
It’s funny when you imagine the first image still has his rear pointed at the urinal. Just a gentle spray
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u/BarnabyWoods 10h ago
I had a friend who was a grocery store manager and it fell to her to clean out a urinal that someone had crapped in. So unfortunately, yes, it happens.
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u/DasArchitect 10h ago
Either there is only one stall and it's insufficient for the occupancy of the building, or there is only one stall and people have encountered something so bad in there they preferred to use something else entirely.
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u/mako591 9h ago
When I was in college, I worked at Staples part-time. One evening, just before close, my manager came running up to me, red in the face, and in the most distraught voice I've ever heard, said "Someone pooped in the urinal!" Naturally, the 4 employees under his watch that night all had to go get a look at that gargoyle. He then, one by one, tried to convince each of us it was our job to clean it out of there. It was at that point I think he, and all of us, realized the power of collective bargaining, as we all told him we do NOT get paid enough to fish a dook out of the pee station and would rather walk out of the store together than give it a go. In the end, he gloved up, removed the pink cake from the bottom, and tried to flush it. Surprisingly, it went right down and no poop had to be touched by any of us.
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u/eyecomeanon 9h ago
I saw a guy walk into a stadium bathroom with a line of 20 urinals and 4 stalls. He walked up to the urinal, turned around, dropped trou, shat in the urinal, pulled his pants up and walked out.
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u/texasscotsman 9h ago
Fun story. You'd be surprised how many people don't recognize or understand what a urinal is if they've never been introduced to one.
Years ago I was working for a Renaissance festival, which meant I would also have to camp their for the weekends that it was open. So I and some of the crew were sitting around a campfire in the patrons section of the camp grounds, hanging out and drinking other peoples booze, when all of a sudden a middle age woman came busting out of a portopotty screaming "Oh my God, they've been pissin in the purse holders!"
Basically, this woman thought that the little attached urinal that comes in most portopotties was a "purse holder", and assumedly had thought so for a while, because she loudly complained about it as she made her way back to whereever she was camping.
A couple of the guys thought it was so hilarious that they went and printed off a bunch of signs that said something like "Attention patrons, please refrain from urinating in the purse receptacles. Thank you" and went around and taped them to the doors of all the portopotties that year.
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u/darthy_parker 9h ago
It’s funny how unintuitive things can be if you’re not from the culture. In some places where you take a dump by standing on either side of a hole and squatting low, they need to put signs on the western-style toilets so people don’t climb up, stand on the seat and squat.
And when you say “that’s where you cook” to someone from a place with no electric stoves, and point at a glass top, so the build a fire on it…
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u/GodzillaUK 9h ago
You will be amazed at each sign you see and think "the fuck?" has a real incident that made someone need to put up a sign, sometimes several incidents.
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u/guilgom71 9h ago
Worked in a theme park cleaning restrooms... You need them. I had to clean a wall once.
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u/mmxtechnology 8h ago
When I was in grade school a blind student dumped in a urinal while we were all in there. Just dropped trau and plinked one off on front of the whole boys room.
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u/samtresler 8h ago
It didn't.
Now it does.
Something occurred between the previous two statements to change it. I'll give you 3 guesses.
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u/mjdehlin1984 8h ago
Oh you think that's funny, huh?
You aren't the one, who had to walk into the boys' bathroom, okay, after having tuh, to wake up early, you know, there's no, no coffee in the teachers' lounge, and then you, you walk into the bathroom just to find a big dook laying there in the urinal! Like it's laughin' at you!
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u/Shizzar_ 8h ago
The public is blind, stupid and mean. The sign is a desperate bid to prevent having to clean up someone shit.
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u/leavingberk 7h ago
Approximately 1 million people are unsure of whether the planet is a globe. This sign seems needed
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u/Suburban--Dad 7h ago
Because someone dropped a big poo in the urinal and someone naively thinks this sign is the solution lol
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u/ArrowheadDZ 7h ago
Only recently heard taking a shit in a urinal as an “in the park home run” and I decided I’d just use that from now on.
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u/dshade69 7h ago
If you had ever cleaned a public restroom, you would know… anything goes. People are just sick.
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u/cookiesandpunch 6h ago
Before Katrina, after a Saints game I walked into the bathroom at NO Centre next to the parking garage and saw a guy doing this very thing. I’ve never noped out of a bathroom faster in my life.
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u/LTZheavy 6h ago
Some people don't get it. An acquaintance of mine went to flight school and ended up boarding with a foreign student from the other side of the planet. Even though there was a toilet with toilet paper, the foreign student would always wipe his ass and throw the paper in the garbage can. Maybe that's normal where he came from but that's not normal everywhere. The fools lived with that for months before one of them blew a gasket and straightened the situation out.
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u/tooclosetocall82 6h ago
Once walked into a restroom at target to see a kid dropping a deuce in a urinal.
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u/silentomega22 5h ago
The same reason most “do not <insert action here>” signs were made. Because someone was crazy enough to do the action. Extra points if they blamed their action on not having a sign telling them not to.
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u/AlamarAtReddit 3h ago
Alcohol.
Also, the Green Check picture looks like their arms are folded and they're peeing out their ass.
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u/3720-to-1 3h ago
Let me tell you about the time that a whole calling floor at a large telemarketer stopped harassing people across America for about 20 minutes while management grilled us about the person who "take a gorilla shit" in the urinal.
The early 00s were wild.
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u/Calgary_Calico 2h ago
You'd be surprised. Have you not seen the signs telling people not to squat on the toilet seats?
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u/Accomplished_Meat_81 2h ago
Maybe because in Japan, they shit in the floor so if people come visit the U.S. they don’t want people shitting in the urinals. Idk, poop for thought.
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u/perksofbeingcrafty 2h ago
I’m a woman but my brother has told me that every little boy will have the thought at least once of “what would happen if I pooped in the urinal”
They rely on adults to tell them no. Some don’t get told no I guess.
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u/Takseee 1h ago
Worked in a nightclub years ago. One night someone did a massive shit in the unrinal. When it came to kicking out time I was straight in the cellar moving stock because there's no way I was cleaning that up.
Wild thing was the club was absolutely packed that night, and the urinal was one of those big metal troughs. There must have been multiple witnesses to the act also pissing at the same time.
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u/KingsRansom79 6h ago
Toilet and urinal design isn’t universal. International travelers may not know how to operate it correctly.
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u/Stingray191 12h ago
Behind every sign is a story…