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Wow! That was a faster response than ever before I think! You guys are great ❤️

So as I’m writing this, it looks like for question 1 - we have 4 A, 2 B, 1 C by HoldingPrinces who I’m assuming meant C for both, and 2 D. And for question 2 - we have 1 A, 0 B, 4 C, and 4 D. 

Any last minute votes for question 1?

And I need a tie breaker for the second question between C and D. 

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My name is Regina Thompson,” I introduced myself to the water company representative. “I’m the Chief Construction Officer of this building.” 

“Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking my hand. 

“Likewise. Now, if you’ll follow me,” I said, leading him to the pipe my engineer believed was the problem causing the building to lose all water on the first day it opened. 

I’d been involved in the construction of this building since the early design phases 3 years ago. Since then, I’d been here for the breaking of new ground, the iron work, the interior design... everything. And in that time, I’d learned a lot. This was my first real project from start to finish since I graduated. I’d also learned another, almost more important lesson - how to hold my bladder. 

How are the two connected, you ask? Well, this is a very male dominated industry. When I first started in the offices, you do anything to fit in and be useful. That includes skipping bathroom breaks to chit chat with the guys and to not draw attention to the fact that I was one of 3 employees at the time using the clean bathroom (AKA the women’s). 

After I got this opportunity, I suddenly became far too busy in near constant meetings and phone conferences to get many chances for relief during the design. Once the iron started to go up, it got even worse. I was frequently on site. When a building is being constructed, there’s obviously no facilities to use. There is however, several port o potties. You couldn’t pay me to use them. So I just held it. All day. Every day. Except the two days I couldn’t and had to rush off site to the main offices and make a sprint in. Embarrassing? So bad. But as time went, I got better and better at it. 

Today, however, was shaping up to be the worst. I’d been in the building since about 3 AM, making last minute changes and fixes and ensuring everything was set. Needless to say, I was such a mix of anxiety and excitement, I didn’t feel any need to go until the first employees started strolling in. I put it off, getting called here and there for various issues and things that needed tweaking. I expected this. However, as the hours ticked by, it came time to go. It was just before Amanda, the owner was expected to arrive and I wanted to be at my peak to show her to her office. That’s when I got the call. One of the secretaries was experiencing a toilet that wouldn’t flush. 

Okay. No big deal. I’ll take a look at it, call for one of my plumbers to come out, then use the next stall over. Easy. 

Until I arrived at the restroom. The poor secretary was apologizing profusely, clearly embarrassed there was now several individuals in the small restroom, entirely too close to a toilet containing her wee and TP. 

As my plumber looked, he realized it wasn’t the toilet. So he tried the next one over (the one I was in increasing need of) and found it also out of operation. We continued to check different toilets and different bathrooms until we traced it back to the main water pump. Sure enough, there was our issue. 

The water company representative arrived fairly quickly, probably by his bosses orders given how much our water bill was about to be. He had only bad news though. The more he talked, the heavier my chest felt. I also had another pressing problem. This morning’s coffee desired release. 

I finished my meeting with the representative who told me we were looking at several days without water. I gathered my team (some of whom appeared to be in a predicament of their own) and started to work on short term solutions.  

~ Some of the solutions included

A) Port o potties in the lobby

B) Utilizing the toilets only in emergencies, and obviously not flushing, otherwise, encourage holding

C) Trying to strike a deal with the building across the street to allow us to use their restrooms

D) Adult pull-ups (one of the interns’ suggestions)

E) Allow employees to find their own solutions

F) other (fill in the blank)

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Perhaps suggest A) to Amanda, but Amanda, not able to imagine herself ever using the smelly port o potties, and not wanting them stinking up her lobby, vetoes the idea.

Also we can't let employees  do B), it would smell REALLY bad before long (unfortunately this happened at my place of employment once in a building we had abandoned and shut the water off in while we tried to sell it), so Regina should be told to lock all the out of order bathroom's to prevent this.

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I am with the suggestion to offer Amanda solution (A) but have her refuse on the grounds of it stinks/no one will use it. [Then maybe she will reach a stage where she understands her mistake?]

Personally I would like to see (C) as the accepted solution. You would have to be pretty desperate to go over to the building opposite and ask to use their loos - especially if Amanda announces they are meant to be used only in case of an extreme emergency. And if the building opposite turns out to be a small family owned milk shake parlor with just one unisex toilet, with plenty of their own customers queuing up to use it, wellllllll, that would be fun!

Also, I think option (E) is always open - I mean everyone will always find their own solutions if they want to. But we can't not have an 'official' solution, can we?

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  • 7 months later...

Chapter 6 - Creativity

From in my office, door open about half way, legs firmly crossed, I could hear part of the call Alyssa, my new assistant, was on. 
“I’m sorry Mrs. Thompson, but I can’t have heard you correctly?”

Mrs. Thompson? If I recall correctly, she was one of the main project managers for the building. What could she be telling Alyssa that was so unbelievable?

”And that’s the solution your team settled on? That’s not actually a solution at all!” 

Her voice was becoming both louder and more high pitched as her rate of speech increased. I sensed a problem heading my way. 

”Amanda?” Alyssa asked as she knocked on my door and entered. “We have a problem. 

Before even waiting for any response, she plowed ahead. “I just got off the phone with a Regina Thompson who spoke with the water company and our plumbers. The original estimate of water being restored to the building by 11 AM was WAY off. We won’t have any for at least the rest of today, likely tomorrow as well.”

”What’s her recommendation for hw to handle this situation?” I asked. “I have a building filled with employees who are going to need water at some point today!”

“She and her team suggested the best option is to allow each employee to handle the situation as they see fit,” Alyssa said. 

”Thats a terrible idea,” I said, as Alyssa quickly agreed. 

”Cancel all my meetings for the rest of today and bring your laptop in here. We need to brainstorm and send a memo out in a timely manner. We have a lot of work to do.”

While Amanda was at her desk, I put my head in my hand and squeezed my legs together even tighter. If I had to go this bad, surely there was a number of employees who also had to go. Except they don’t have a private office to hold themselves, or the ability to just cancel meetings as needed. 

Lost in my head, I vaguely heard Alyssa call my name and come back into my office. 

And poor Alyssa. First day of a new job, working directly with the owner and having to go. Must be terrible. 

I heard Alyssa call my name again, but still couldn’t shake my thought process. 

What was I going to do? I told Alyssa we were in this together. Yet I just felt my bladder throb again. Probably another spurt just came out. I couldn’t do this all day.

”Amanda!” Alyssa called again, shaking me back to reality. I lifted my head and said, “Sorry. I just have to pee so bad.”

”It’s okay,” She replied. “I um. I really have to go as well. Like really badly.”

”Alright,” I started, standing up. I immediately felt my wet hair rub against the inside of my jeans. Yup, definitely lost another substantial spurt. “Let’s write this memo to the staff and then work out a plan for ourselves,” I continued. 

The ache in my lower belly must have really started to cloud my judgement because as I spoke, I absentmindedly grabbed a tissue and, like I had earlier, slid it into my jeans to wipe myself. 

I immediately stopped, remembering that I was alone last time I did that as a confused Alyssa stared at me.

”I uhh.. I didn’t have time to put on underwear this morning,” I started to admit. “And I leak a fair amount when I really have to use the bathroom. Gets my hair all wet. Really uncomfortable,” I finished, pulling my hand back out of my jeans, but leaving the tissue there. Alyssa didn’t need to see that. 

I had to make this less awkward somehow. “If you need to do similar...” I started and motioned towards the tissue box on my desk. “You’re welcome to do whatever you need.”

Alyssa thought to her own lady bits. Unlike her employers apparently were, hers where shaved cleanly. If she did lose a little bit, there was nothing to help minimize the spread. Not to mention the fact that she only had a thong on. Anything that came out, even just drops, had nothing to help absorb it.

Accordingly, she accepted Amanda’s offer, grabbed 3 tissues, turned around  facing away from Amanda and towards the great wall of glass, and slid them between her thong and herself. It wasn’t much, but something was better than nothing. 

Moving on to the memo, Alyssa started to type as Amanda spoke,

Dear Staff,

A) Please refrain from using any bathroom within the building today...

B) If you require a restroom break today, please...

C) As some of you have noticed, the restrooms are out of order today. Please...

D) I regret to inform you that the restrooms are out of service today. Please...

E) Other start to the memo

With the letter sent, for better or worse on the wording, Amanda looked right at Alyssa  “Now about our own bladders,” She started.

A) Let’s just use my trash can in here, we can shut the door. No one will know.

B) Let’s go to my house. It’s only a few doors down. We can use the bathroom there and I can hunt down my underwear.

C) How much longer do you think you can realistically hold it?

D) Do you have any suggestions?

E) Other

 

 

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For the Memo, D. For our own bladders, B. We should definitely look for underwear while there.

While we are out, perhaps we can stop by a store and find something that might help everyone else; a bucket perhaps? Diapers? (for emergencies of course!)

Additionally, water bottles. Gotta stay hydrated, also doubles as urinary collection device so don't throw them away.

Edited by wetfan3 (see edit history)
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For the memo, I agree with wetfan3 on going with option D and would like to suggest the following text:

I regret to inform you that the restrooms are out of service today. Please use the restrooms before or after any appointments you have outside our office today and make refraining from using the bathrooms in the office as comfortable for yourselves as possible. I can ensure you we are working to have this problem resolved as soon as possible and appologize for the inconvenience.

For the moment, no drinking water is available, but I will make sure that water bottles are distributed throughout the building as soon as possible.

For Amanda and Alyssa I suggest asking question C first. See if we can go get water bottles and distribute them first. We may even get lucky and find a bathroom in the store. If the answer doesn't allow this or they don't find a working bathroom while getting the water, go with option B. Hopefully the water company didn't find it necessary to shut down water for the whole block (including Amanda's house) to restore the water supply to the new office 😉

Also, I would like them not to buy diapers as wetfan3 suggested. That would make things too easy in my opinion.

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