What is it about women’s bathrooms that seem to be so problematic to employers? I have heard companies claim that to hire women, whey would have to build women’s facilities, and that it would be too expensive.
That was when I first started working in industry. In workplaces where there were only men, there would only be men’s toilets. This has been used in the past as a reason to not hire female workers.
What a way to discriminate against women!
On my first job, the construction workers had a commercial toilet trailer. It was separated in two sections, one side for men and the other for women. However, since the men weren’t used to women on jobsites, they used both sides. Usually they used the men’s side to urinate – I assume it had urinals to encourage this – and the other side if they wanted to sit for a while.
I was young then, and I found that if I didn’t drink, I could last a shift without having to go to the bathroom. I couldn’t do that now. Besides, it’s unhealthy.
I found out soon enough that all the large workplaces did have female workers – in the offices. Usually I was able to use their facilities, and I was always careful not to leave a mess behind. Or at least, not too much of a mess. I get much dirtier than your average office lady when I work.
Now whenever I work at a new site, the first thing I do after getting my tools to the site is to scope out the bathrooms.
The people who work permanently in some of the places I have been to can get quite proprietary about their bathrooms. Some of the sites would not allow construction workers to use their bathrooms at all, and the contractors would have to bring in trailers or those nasty portable chemical toilets. One mill I worked at allowed the men to use their facilities, but the women’s toilets were always locked. It took me a while, but after talking to the supervisor there I managed to get access.
The temporary workers like me got to know the various policies in the places we would be sent to often, and worked around these idiosyncrasies.
People can be strange when it comes to their bathrooms.
The toilet issue has gotten much better over the years. There are regulations on how many toilets a workplace needs. Most places also have toilets for handicapped people as well as separate men’s and women’s toilets now. Having more women working in industry has improved the situation tremendously.
The women I have met who have worked in the trades for many years usually have similar toilet stories.
If anyone else has has had these experiences, please feel free to share.
On one of the sites I worked on the foreman went to the horrible chemical commode onsite. Yes, for home construction the chemical toilet is oddly enough the best case scenario. His job was of the sit down type and the cell phone popped out of his back pocket and into the chemical soup below. Well he fished it out, that brick sized device cost a full weeks wages back then, and hosed it down. He let it dry out for a day and the next day was back at work with his phone. Funnier stories occur on smaller sites that do not have a budget for toilet facilities and are a large distance from local gas stations. On one of these sites the plumber could not find "clean" access to the building for his drainage pipes as the circumference was laid with bagged suprises. Sure a grocery bag comes in handy but the sickest story I have is of the crew that was too lazy to go to the loo and decided the bathtub would serve them better instead. It was an ugly site to watch the tub being removed from its fourth story bathroom... a smelly affair at best.
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a story. I guess installing the bathtub after the toilet is in would be wise?
ReplyDelete