Borders Zone - 5

#5 Bathroom Etiquette

Unless, it's a family member in the stall next to me I don't like to talk to people while I'm using a public restroom. There are a few exceptions. The horrible, "Can you hand me some toilet paper?" and the awkward, "Ma'am, I'd appreciate it if your son could stay in your stall." Basically, conversations originating from within the bathroom stall should be saved for emergency situations.

But sometimes when I'm using the bathroom at work I hear this clank, clank noise coming from the sink area. It is the noise of someone trying to figure out how to dry their hands. You see we don't have paper towels at Borders. We have an automatic hand dryer. You just hold your hands under the dryer and it pops on. It is a fancy hand dryer; there is a rotating metal part where the air comes out which you can tilt upwards in case you need to dry your hair or face. But this fancy hand dryer confuses some customers. They want to push an "on" button and they bang on the tilting metal part thinking it might turn the dryer on.

Here is where my quandary comes in. These customers who can't figure out how to use the hand dryer usually leave the bathroom angry and sometimes want to complain to a manager. They leave with a negative opinion of our store. Just today as I was using the bathroom I heard a lady banging on the dryer and then cursing Borders. Should my duty to the company's reputation outweigh my reluctance to talk while conducting my personal business? And would the customer be more freaked out by my ghostly voice rising from the stall and echoing off the bathroom tiles than having to leave the bathroom with wet hands?

p.s. The dryer has a label right on top that says, "This is an automatic hand dryer"