When I was fourteen, I in no way dressed feminine; I wore baggy 2000s sports clothes (always black if possible) and a crappy cap. Yeah, I was very cool.

I had been to the toilet in the mall and was whistling a tune to myself while washing my hands. An older cleaning lady in the room turned toward me with a scowl and said, in the nastiest tone only grumpy old ladies can produce:

Old Lady: “Girls don’t whistle!”

And then, she left with her cleaning trolley, while I just stood there looking dumbfounded at the encounter. It still baffles me to this day how much low whistling apparently could offend someone… and that whistling is gendered.

This takes place early on in the global health crisis, around mid- to late 2020, during a bathroom break on one of my shifts. My boss is using the urinal while my coworker is in the stall. My coworker finishes up and walks out of the stall, but my boss stops him.

Boss: “Flush that toilet, [Coworker], or you’re fired. And remember to wash your hands. We’re in a [health crisis], you know.”

My coworker grumbled, flushed the toilet, and then stormed over to the sink to wash his hands. I then went into the now-vacated stall and closed the door. My boss finished using the urinal at that moment and left the men’s room… without flushing or washing his hands.

I should probably mention at this point that we work in a food distribution warehouse, handling all manner of food products that later get distributed to grocery stores to be sold to consumers.

I work in retail. I am talking with a male coworker after coming back from a week of vacation.

Coworker: “The ladies’ room ran out of toilet paper yesterday. I was the only one available to restock it at the time.”

Me: “Okay, sounds fair.”

Coworker: “I knocked on the door and nobody answered, so I went in. But I saw that someone was in one of the stalls moaning about having no paper, so I placed the toilet roll down on the floor next to the stall so the lady would be able to reach it and I walked out. After she came out, the lady flipped out! She was complaining about a man coming into the lady’s room without knocking.”

Later that day, I see a woman complaining to the manager.

Customer: “…and there was a man in the ladies’ room!”

Manager: “Do you know which employee it was?”

She looks at me, and then describes me!

Customer: “It was the big guy with the beard!”

I was the only employee that matched that description. She didn’t realize, though, that I was on vacation. I hadn’t even been in the store for days. She just wanted to get somebody in trouble, no matter who it was.

Content Warning: Gross

I work in an office supply store. Before my shift one day, an older lady went rushing into the store.

Lady: “Where’s your restroom?”

The front-end cashier directed the customer to the restrooms and continued working. The lady rushed out of the store about ten minutes later.

Lady: “Sorry about the mess.”

The cashier checked the restroom and came back to the general manager.

Cashier: “That older lady who was just here had explosive diarrhea all over the accessible stall.”

General Manager: “Go clean it up, then.”

When I came in later, the cashier told me about the mess and everything and then went home without having cleaned the restroom.

I had a slow night in my department, so I took three pairs of gloves and the strongest cleaning supplies we had. I ended up spending half my shift cleaning the restroom because, by the time I got in there, it was already crusty.

This was one time I had no problem dropping the dime on a coworker’s negligence.

My fast food job is right by a beach that hosts festivals all the time. One day, after some problems with homeless people abusing the bathroom, we are instructed to only let customers who bought something use it. (I don’t always enforce it for kids, pregnant women, etc.)

One day, the biggest festival of the year is happening, and we are all scrambling to get ready for the rush when the festival ends. (The line out the door often lasts until 2:00 am.) At around 9:00 pm, a man who looks surprisingly like Elton John comes in and asks to use the restroom.

Me: “Of course, although you do need to purchase something first.”

I recommend our cheapest item (under a dollar). He gets super pissed but does eventually buy it.

Probably fifteen minutes later, the man walks up and slaps a $100 dollar bill onto the counter.

Man: “This is for the rest of the customers tonight to use the bathroom. You’re a bad person and should feel bad.”

Then, he walked out the door.

My manager told me that I could take the money as a tip, but I decided to split it with the rest of the crew. We did end up letting most people use the bathroom without paying simply because of how busy that night was.