A two-square problem

There is usually one, but sometimes there are two.

Lying there on the floor.

Unused but discarded.

Left there for somebody else to clean up.

Two squares, not more not less.

Why are they there? Who is doing this?

I don’t want to cast aspersions on my work colleagues, but someone keeps dropping two squares of toilet paper on the floor.

Like I said, they are not used, they are clean. Someone has pulled two clean squares and dropped them on the floor.

If you pulled the paper for its intended purpose (I won’t go into details) but found you had more paper than you needed for the job at hand, wouldn’t you just drop it in the bowl? You wouldn’t tear off those two clean squares and drop them on the floor, would you?

I’ll tell you what I think is happening here.

There are people who have a phobia of germs. In many cases this is fully justified. People are gross. You never know where there hands have been.

Or not been.

Some people I work with do not wash their hands properly.

When I say properly, I mean “at all”.

I’ve seen people leave the cubicle and walk out, not going anywhere near the hand wash basins.

If you are someone who values cleanliness and hygiene, using a public convenience must cause you stress. I think the ones at work are pretty clean in principle. Certainly I see the cleaning lady in there most times I go. She is always wiping something, restocking something, mopping or sweeping.

The problem lies with those non hand washing users, not with the cleaner.

I see people take a paper hand towel to open the doors to leave the toilet area, so their hand doesn’t have to touch a potentially unclean surface.

My guess is that Ms Two Squares does the same within the cubicle. She doesn’t want to touch the door lock so she uses two squares of paper to protect her hand. When she locks herself in, she drops the two squares in the bowl, but on the way out? She drops it on the floor.

This tells me a lot about her.

Tell me, am I being judgy if I assume she has a sense of entitlement, that she maybe grew up somewhere with a cleaner so has never had to think about how places are cleaned?

Am I being hyper critical to think she is selfish, littering several times a day, not caring about the next user seeing litter on the floor or the cleaner who has to sweep up those two squares?

Should I be more lenient, be positive that she cares about her health and potential contamination by other unclean people to such an extent?

No.

No, she is a selfish litterer.