I never expected my coworker to see *that*...

[desh]

OK, help settle a ridiculously overanalyzed debate at work.

Assume you wish to enter a restroom you know to be a single-person restroom not restricted to any particular gender. The door is closed and you can't easily ascertain whether the light's on, and therefore whether someone's in it, or whether the door was just accidentally closed. Assuming the following additional information, do do you test the handle to see if it's locked (and open the door if it's not), or do you knock first (and then test the handle if you don't hear an answer)?

[Poll #1511654]

Comments

[arie]

I *always* knock in any situation where it's not obvious whether or not the restroom is occupied. Someone else can do whatever they want when they're the person who wants to go to the bathroom, but *I'm* going to knock before I accidentally walk in on someone on the can because I tried the knob instead of knocking.

[janinedog]

I said knock, but what I actually do is a combo of the two if I'm in a situation where I don't think my knock will be heard and/or I won't be able to hear a reply:

1. Try knob slowly; if locked, stop.
2. If unlocked, open the door a crack and knock at the same time, so that the person will hear me and I will hear them.
3. If no reply, open door slowly until I'm sure no one's there. ;)

[desh]

Yeah. What I actually do at work is:

1. Check to see if there's a light on by looking under the door (an option I eliminated for purposes of this poll)
2. If no light, knock
3. If no answer, try knob slowly
4. If unlocked, open slowly and listen for someone screaming

[(Anonymous)]

If the light is on do you just stand and wait? What if someone forgot to shut off the light?

[desh]

Eventually I'll knock, yeah. Usually another option will have presented itself by then.

[atthe-algonquin.livejournal.com]

I believe my technique was to check for a light, test the knob, wait a second while holding the handle down (to allow for screaming), think horrible thoughts about whoever closed the door, then open.

Also, apparently I have issues with knocking. The More You Know...

[desh]

Some coworkers who shall remain nameless also have knocking issues (or, rather, would much rather not be societally encouraged to communicate with someone outside the door while they're on the can)...and they suspect it might be a gender thing. Women hate knocking. Dunno.

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

See, this is the thing - I'd far rather not communicate, in a perfect world, too. However, I don't see the difference between hearing someone try the doorknob and having someone knock. Either way, I feel like it's best/polite to inform the other party that the facility is in use, and at least, in the latter case, there's not the tension of "boy, hope the lock works" or "Damnit, you can't unlock this door once it's locked, why does no one remember and how do I blockade the door?"

I mean, I'm antisocial to a terrible degree, but this is one situation where I think volunteering conversation serves the greatest good.

[atthe-algonquin.livejournal.com]

eh...I'm okay being the knock-ee, so to speak, I just *really really* hate being the one who knocks.

I also spent a couple years of my teens being genuinely terrified of opening doors, so make of that what you will. Maybe it is a gender thing?

(Women are also pretty much trained, practically from birth, to check stalls by looking for shoes, as opposed to knocking or pushing at the door or whatever. Maybe that's part of it?)

[metalphoenix.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess I'm not a typical woman when things like this are usually counted, but I knock everywhere. It's almost habit; even if I know no one is in there, I knock first. *shrug*

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

KNOCK!

SHARED FACILITIES = ALWAYS KNOCK!

Anyone who fails to knock before entering a lavatory whose occupancy wave function has not collapsed should be forced to do their business in the open air of a city street.

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

Anyone who fails to lock the door before going to the bathroom should be forced to have every one of their coworkers watch them do their business ;-p

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

Spoken like someone who's never used a toilet with a broken lock.

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

i generally try to avoid using toilets with broken locks, yes. i am a very modest person about my body and i wouldn't risk it except in a dire situation.

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

I try, as well. But when there's only one toilet available at an event/your host's home/your workplace, the "choice" is pretty minimal. I wouldn't think taking a second or two to knock would be an onerous burden.

[desh]

We're gonna keep this civil, right? I mean, as civil as toilet discussions get?

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

Point taken. Even my initial response might seem somewhat... exuberant.

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

This is where I sing.

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

You sing when using a toilet with a broken lock? Is it an automatic reaction? ;)

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

No, self-preservation. :)

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

Does it work when you're not aware that the lock is broken? Or do you just test locks religiously? ;)

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

It's people's responsibility to lock the door. if they don't, it's not my fault that I opened it up on them.

[desh]

Does the term "redundant failsafe" mean anything to you or those who agree with you (and there are more of you than I expected)?

[twostepsfwd.livejournal.com]

what does that mean?

[desh]

It means, have a way such that if something goes wrong (i.e. the bathroom is occupied), then the end result is the least bad of the possibilities, and if something ELSE goes wrong too (i.e. the lock is broken or was forgotten), then the end result is STILL the least bad of the possibilities.

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

Does the term "redundant failsafe" mean anything to you

You can tell engineers are debating this topic.

[peneli.livejournal.com]

People who don't knock piss me off. But then, I generally believe in knocking in closed doors. Toilets just have extra incentive.

[msschein.livejournal.com]

I am amazed at how passionate this discussion is.

I don't think I've ever seen a concert venue, etc. with single user bathrooms. In my head I just assumed restaurants, which are very public but often have single user bathrooms.

It didn't occur to me until reading other people's responses, but I do, in fact, hate having to respond to a knock while on the toilet. I often don't respond to knocking, if I know the door is locked, assuming the knocker will figure it out when they try the knob.

That being said, I don't fail to knock in public places because I'm polite; just 'cause I'm impatient and I assume people use locks. I'm also female, which means the toilet is blocking most of what I don't want seen, anyway.

[evr1bugsme.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

Just to add some more TMI to this discussion. We have single gender bathrooms with two stalls in them, and a door for the overall room, which you have to close. When I go in, I usually keep the overall door ajar (because, wtf, I'm already in a stall, do I really need that much more privacy?) so people feel more comfortable using the other stall. I sometimes wonder if this is actually making people uncomfortable because OMG you may be able to see the stall door!

That said, if the overall door is closed or the light is on and the door is open I usually will avoid the bathroom and come back later because I don't know what the person in there thinks about all these doors. But then I run into the problem of sometimes needing to make two or three trips to check out the bathroom availability and look like a crazy person in the process.

Ok, end random story.

[tobeginagain.livejournal.com]

I don't knock if the bathroom is in public. I try the handle. That's what the locks are there for. Who doesn't lock a bathroom door?!

[platypuses.livejournal.com]

At work, I used to test the lock because I thought there was only one key to the bathroom... then I found out that all the employees on the hall had separate keys. The door is too large to see light underneath, so now I ALWAYS knock first.

[goob712.livejournal.com]

I hate being the one IN the bathroom when someone knocks. I can never quite think what to say, and it's one of those situations where you HAVE to say something quickly, so often I let out a garbled yelp that has half a sentence or something meaningless.

[sleepsong.livejournal.com]

It bothers the hell out of me whenever I'm at Coffee Tree and some jagoff comes and starts shaking the knob. I'm always afraid the lock will fail, and it just seems really, really rude to me. I always knock, even if I'm certain nobody's in there, both to keep up the habit and to protect anybody in there who might not have the ability to close the door all the way (or who might have been in a really big rush and forgot).

[mantisbot.livejournal.com]

1) When the door is shut you knock.

2) Count to three while awaiting a response.

3) Try door.

4A) Apologize profusely when someone screams in surprise.

4B) Use the facilities after closing and locking the door.

Addendum to 4B) In the event the door is not lockable, whistle while you work.

[msschein.livejournal.com]

You have 35 comments to a post about using the toilet. That's kinda awesome.

[desh]

Yeah, I learned long ago that stupid polls have the potential to generate a LOT of traffic. It's ridiculous.

Shabbat shalom!

[groovyjew.livejournal.com]

Well, I have to tell you, this is a much more impassioned debate than I'd imagined it would be.

Also, didn't anyone else have younger sibs? I always knock, probably because growing up there was always at least one sib too young to lock. Also, because I wanted them to knock for me, so it was all part of the training procedure.

[intangiblehugs.livejournal.com]

you didn't mention above that there *is* (or is not) a lock... lots of people seem to be assuming...

[desh]

Ha. I (along with probably most of my poll participants) would avoid most of these kinds of bathrooms if at all possible if they didn't have locks.