anyone else notice this disturbing trend?
Alright.
This is an open letter, mostly. Several times this week (at Karoke last night, at triva earlier in the week, at work, at Target)… I have walked into the ladies’ room to… well, you know, use the public restroom…
And walked into someone else’s phone conversation.
Typcially, I would save this rant… or maybe not even mention it — but four times in 5 days?
Is anyone else noticing the upswing in public restroom/mobile phone conversations?
My humble opinion:
Restrooms are built for a specific purpose.
And I’m relatively certain a private place for mobile phone conversations about dinner, dating drama, car repairs, and yes, phone interviews (I overheard all four of these conversations this week), were never meant to be the specific purpose of a Target restroom.
I know metro transit posts signs in their buses and trains asking riders to refrain from public phone conversations. My doctors and dentists offices post similar requests. Are we as a society so impolite/oblivious that someone in facilities management at my place of employment is going to need to order placards that say:
You are entering a public restroom. Please turn your mobile phone on vibrate and refrain from phone conversations while using these facilities.
It feels like common sense to me. I don’t want to talk with my boyfriend, my landlord, a prospective employer, my grandmother, or really anyone else, while sitting next to someone in a public restroom stall.
I dunno. I wonder how I lived without a mobile phone, now; I count on it as my only form of telecommunication. I’ll turn around and go back in the house in the morning if I have forgotten it - even though there’s a phone on my desk and I’ll never use my mobile on the bus. But still… I’m mostly just dumbfounded, and wonder whether restroom-conversation is just happening in the places I frequent, or if it’s more widespread… and if so, if there’s anyone out there with a nice, polite way to tell someone:
Hey, all I want to do is use the toilet and put on some lip gloss, in peace and quiet. Could you take the conversation about the origin of your friends’ rash somewhere else?
Related posts:
I don’t encourage people to stop using the phone in public restrooms. But my reasons are selfish and obvious.
You’re not alone, Sarah. It happens all the time in my office building. And those are the times I wish I could give myself really loud, explosive diarrhea on command.
And those are the times I wish I could give myself really loud, explosive diarrhea on command.
Bwahaha! Perhaps the only time that would be useful.
this is an annoying trend in pretty much any public space.
it is further exaggerated by people that insist on talking into their phones several volume levels above what they need to.
Bwahaha! Perhaps the only time that would be useful.
It could potentially be used as some sort of self-defense mechanism, too. Though, that could backfire. I’m still working out the intricacies of my theory.
Backfire. Hee!
*thud* Oy vey Erica! Hehe.