Friday, March 16, 2012

Big stall v. Little stall

This post is random, so bear with me.

The ladies restroom in my place of employment has two stalls, a large one and a small one. After four months of working here, I realized that I never use the big stall if the small one is open. As I think about any public restroom, I don’t believe I ever use the big stall if a small one is available. I can attribute my actions to two possible reasons:

1. I’m lazy and don’t want to walk the extra three steps to the big stall—this very well could be. I have nothing else to say about this reason.

2. I am somehow guilted into using the small one in the off-chance that a handicapped person will need the bigger stall. This is incredibly irrational but true nonetheless. It’s irrational because our building never gets patients or visitors, and we have no handicapped employees currently. But what if a handicapped person happened upon our tiny building and needed to use the restroom? What then? I wouldn’t want to be the heartless person occupying the big stall so they would have to wait.

After thinking long and hard about the psychology involved with choosing a stall, I asked my office mate her opinion. “I always use the big stall,” she responded. “Not only does it give you more room, it has the seat covers.”

So. Now I’m neurotic.

I took this situation to a few other coworkers. Interestingly enough, they habitually chose the large stall over the small. I don't believe any of them are heartless...I believe I am just special.

Not like this matters at all, but I found it interesting.