No Room For Rest

I work in what can be nicely considered a converted house. I say nicely because for the most part, the conversion consists of moving some desks into the house and wiring it for multiple broadband connections. I am quite literally in the basement. I would add “converted” basement to modify that noun, but then I would be lying. The only conversion that has been done is to add to walls to create my office, throw some desks around, and we have a refrigerator and a photographer’s basin that we use as a sink.

In the middle of the floor still sits the furnace, the floor is hard, cracked concrete, and most of the wall are cinder block. As it is the maintenance department, tools hang everywhere. There are also no windows, so I feel like I am in a dungeon, or a cave.

The only bathroom is upstairs, which is where the billing department is located. Every single time I go up, the ladies up there give me the oddest looks like they don’t know who I am, or what I’m doing there, or they do know and they don’t like it.

The bathroom, also, doesn’t have a lock. It’s a single toilet (like you’d find in your house) but after doing a thorough search, there isn’t a single way to actually lock the thing.

My first two weeks on the job, I thought we had a system worked out – the bathroom door would be left slightly ajar when not occupied thus everyone could easily tell when it was available for use. But this week, being my third, that system has been thrown off. The last several times I have gone upstairs to use the facilities, the door has been closed. After waiting several minutes, I have gone back downstairs and held it. The thing is, I don’t think anyone was actually in there. There didn’t seem to be a light on (but it is hard to tell because there is a big window in there) and while waiting I heard no signs of use.

But I just can’t tell, and without the lock I am afraid to walk in on someone. I’m now too scared to even go up. Yesterday, I actually used my break to run to a convenience store and bought a Coke and peanuts just so I could use their restroom.

This is nuts. But I don’t know what to do. This place is so crazily PC and weird that walking in on someone on the toilet would not only be awkward, but potentially job dangerous.