Thursday, February 2, 2012

Unspoken Rules

In life, there are many guidelines that we live by that no one ever really talks about. I have been noticing these silent rituals a lot lately and thinking about the groups that create them. For example, when you use an elevator, women typically get on and off first. Everyone faces the door and tries their hardest to make room for as many people as possible while managing not to touch each other. Pretty standard, right?

What's most fascinating to me is how this manifests in much smaller sub-cultures, like a group of 20 women who work on the same floor of an office building.The one thing we all share in common is the ladies' room. The majority of people do things like wipe down the counter after washing their hands due to faucets that more closely resemble high-powered sprinklers than anything else. And there is the more widely recognized etiquette of not using the handicap accessible stall unless you require the space or all of the others are full. Well, in our work environment, there are very specific procedures. And it is all thanks to one tile.

To all of my design and architect friends out there: please don't put polished granite tiles on restroom floors. Not even one. There is a pattern including about half a dozen said tiles in the 2nd floor women's restroom of my office building. One of them happens to be between two stalls. Let me tell you - it may take a while, but eventually you will realize that polished granite is a reflective surface. A little awkward for a restroom floor. Many decisions revolve around this tile and avoiding being stuck next to someone on the other side of it. Once in a while, someone will break these sacred rules which throws a wrench in the whole process. But someone has figured out a solution, even if only temporary. Once a week or so I visit the loo to find a piece of toilet paper or a paper towel neatly placed on top of the mirror tile, blocking it's unnerving reflective powers. It's not the ideal solution (not having mirror-like restroom floors), but it will do in a pinch.

It's been very entertaining to pay closer attention to the rules that nobody knows they're following... or breaking. I sincerely suggest standing any direction other than forward on an elevator and watching people watch you. It's pretty fun.

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