Alright, maybe this won’t be my most tasteful post, but there are lessons to be had everywhere…
I’ve been noticing that public men’s bathrooms tend to be disgusting. The floor in front of the urinal…it just grosses me out. Guys: C’mon. Can you really not aim from 6 inches away?! But that’s not what this post is about. I’m actually going to be even more tasteless. I’m here to talk about the contents of the urinal.
Still reading? Well, that says something about you 🙂
I was at a very upscale residential building a few days ago. To my horror, I saw that the urinal in the lobby bathroom had been used but not flushed. From the looks of it, there was more than one offender. It got me thinking about incentives and systems. What is the incentive for flushing a toilet in a public space? As a user, you are not likely to use that urinal again. Even if you do, you probably won’t be the next user. If you flush, you have to touch a handle the cleanliness of which you have reason to suspect. (Obviously the issue doesn’t exist for automatic flush urinals.) So why would you flush? Well it seems to me you would do so out of some sense of obligation to your fellow man and to secure for yourself a flushed urinal next time you show up. That is, you want to perpetuate a system of reciprocity.
Well that’s all well and good in a normal situation. But what happens if someone breaks the rule and doesn’t flush? The next person has to deal with an even more unpleasant situation in order to uphold the system of reciprocity. Flushing your own urine is one thing. Having to deal with someone else’s is quite another matter. And so, the system breaks down. That urinal starts to get really disgusting, really quickly. And all it took was one person to break the rule, to take the easy way out, to ignore the concerns of his fellow man.
The good news is that it only takes one person to set it right. If you encounter a urinal filled with the product of several apathetic men and you flush, the next guy will have no idea what happened prior to his arrival. All he will know is that the urinal was clean when he got there. He will be more likely to flush since it’s only his own and the cycle of reciprocity will have been renewed.
It only takes one person to piss off a beautiful system. But it only takes one to set it right.
Are you that person?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Funny you should mention this. In the office where I work I have been noticing a trend of exactly what you mention and have pondered this topic quite deeply. Why someone would not be considerate enough in a “closed loop system? (That is, the same people go to the same urinal on a regular basis.). I have no clue. But since we are on the subject of men’s restrooms, could you investigate why certain men insist on spitting a big hunkin’ loogey (logey?) before urinating? My hypothesis is that it’s the same ones that don’t flush…