Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Plugged toilet ... cause: RAGS

We recently moved offices to a MUCH older building, which is fine, don't get me wrong. However, in the two weeks that we have been here the women's toilet has plugged and overflowed on three occasions. Unfortunately when it plugs and overflows the inconvenience doesn't just affect the women, it also affects the parts guy downstairs ... the water drips into his area. Niiiice!

Three times the plumbers have attended to the problem. On the last occasion they pulled out a little something on the end of their roto rooter jobbie thing. Now of course being a male plumber he just dealt with the first man he could find. Men being men they oooohed and aaaahed over the finding. Then the plumber left.

The man he had dealt with told me that the roto rooter had pulled rags out.

Fast forward two days. An email arrives from my direct supervisor, apparently we women are NOT to flush our tampons anymore because that is what is plugging the toilet. Also, refrain from using the nice, soft paper towels as toilet paper... of course this was said tongue in cheek. I emailed her back and said that it would be interesting to know just WHO was flushing tampons cuz this past week I've been the only one using that bathroom and I know I haven't been blessed with Aunt Flo's presence. And as for the paper towel being used as toilet paper ... well I like it rough but I'll try to refrain from that pleasure whilst at work.

I was annoyed that men upon hearing "rags" as the cause immediately pinned the blame on female sanitary products. I spoke the the guy who dealt with the plumber and he said the rags the plumber pulled out were shop type hand wipes used by mechanic types ..... hmmmmmm seeing as how the men's washroom is up-pipe from the woman's bathroom would you not deduce that the men are flushing things they shouldn't be?? Of course not, it's much simpler to blame the women.

I don't usually cry sexist... but really ... c'mon.

Oh and for the record..this is not a new problem, was happening before we arrived on the scene!!

3 comments:

Rebecca Foster said...

I'm trying to figure out why anyone would flush a rag down the toilet on purpose. Weird!

Once my hair bow fell in and got flushed and my dad made me move my little box of hair bows from the back of the toilet. The plumber had to take the toilet all the way off it's base!

Debra said...

Oh Jenn, that is so frustrating! As woman, I think we are pretty used to knowing what we should and should not flush! It figures that the fault turned out to be because of men!

I just wanted you to know that your bracelet is now in transit! Someplace between CA and Canada! Let me know when you receive it. I am excited to share it with you.

Hugs,
Deb

Matt said...

Hmmm...nice shop towels (think fancy and expensive paper towels, and much stronger too) are softer then most office toilet paper I've used.